Hello, Here is the situation : At this moment, I have a windows 2003 with sp2 server (name is "Pegase", hosting Exchange 2003 for the whole company. By the way, this server is a domain controler on the test.corp domain. My question is about to try implementing the same Exchange environment, on a virtual machine, without bringing any impact on the current situation and for users. The reason of this request is that my director wants to ensure that the whole exchange databases can be restored properly in case of crash. The exchange DBs are backed up every day with ARCserve. Thus, I already created the VM, installed Windows 2003 with SP2 and that's it. I would like to have your advices about the steps to follow, in order to reach the goal, and without any impact on the production environment. Other important thing : the exchange backups are stored on DLT tapes, on a site, and the VM is on the Cloud. At this moment, the VM (on the cloud) is on the network 192.168.90.0, and the exchange server and backup server are on the 192.168.5.0 There is a VPN tunnel between each parts. I may suggest you to use your free MSDN support incidents to follow this issue. Can I promote the new vm server as a domain controler for the supporter.corp domain, and then install Exchange 2003 without impacting the production ? Thanks a lot for your help to deal with this operation.

Hi Any update on this thread? Did you try the above solution? Also you could refer to the Worksheet: Disaster Recovery Preparation for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc164310(EXCHG.65).aspx Cheers Zi FengZi Feng TechNet Community Support

Hello, Just read both answers, thanks guys. I am having a look at these options but maybe the problem will be during the Exchange DBs restore operation. How to restore DBs from ARCserve to a test environment if the production and test environment are separated as you advise me ? :/ Thanks for your help

Hi You could refer to the steps on Exchange 2003 Backup and Restore with NTBACKUP http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/exchange-2003-backup-restore-ntbackup.html Hope that helps Cheers Zi FengZi Feng TechNet Community Support