Moving MS Exchange 5.5 mailboxes and public folders to 2003

[tknodav1]

Okay, here's the situation. We currently have Exchange 5.5 running on an NT4.0 server. Our new server running Server 2003 SBS w/ Exchange arrived, and we are going to get rid of the NT4.0 server. I am going to create a completely new domain (unless there's a better solution, let me know) and I need to move the mailboxes and public folders to the new Exchange 2003 server. What's the best way to do this?

Thanks in advance!
Dave

 

[zodder]

That's such a hard question. There are so many factors to consider. Is this a large domain? Wouldn't you rather upgrade the NT SAM to AD so you don't have to recreate all the accounts again? domainprep and forestprep do an excellent job of converting NT 4.0 domins to active directory. During install you will have the opportunity to rename the doamin as well. MS has great whitepapers on the things to consider and best practices for moving to 2003 server. I did this last March at my agency and having those to read was invaluable. I was able to convert my single domain agency in a very long Saturday.

 

[tknodav1]

Re-creating the accounts will not be a problem. The domain is not very big. There are probably about 15 accounts and about that many workstations. I guess the 'brute-force' approach would be to export each users account to a PST, make new accounts on the new server, then import the PST files back. Still looking for a better way if there is one. The old servers are going to be re-formatted and deployed as workstations, so that is why we are making a new domain.

 

[tknodav1]

Bump for a reply

Thanks again!