Windows SBS 2003 has to be the first server?

[akshatp]

Someone told me that Windows Small Business Server 2003 has to be the first server in a domain... Is this true?

I have an existing Windows 2000 Server as a Terminal Server, and an existing Windows 2000 Server running Exchange, and would like to retire the latter replacing it with the new SBS server.

Can i do this without changing anything on the TS?????

 

[Brazen]

I'm not really familiar with SBS, but how about if you create a new domain with SBS and then attach the TS to that new domain?

Alternatively, you could just try connecting the SBS server to the existing domain and then promoting it to a domain controller. I could see how that wouldn't work though, because SBS uses simple wizards for everything, and those wizards might not accomodate for this situation. This would serve the dual purpose of keeping the wizards simple for newbies and also enticing people to pay for the more expensive Windows Server 2003 Standard and Exchange 2003 Standard and CALs (CALs for both, how does your butt feel after that?!)

 

[RebateMonger]

There are a couple of published ways to add an SBS 2003 Server to an existing Domain. Microsoft has published its ADMT, and there's the popular Swing Migration technique, which is a lot simpler and more predictable. The end goal of either method is to replicate the existing Active Directory to the SBS Server and to eventually move all the FSMO roles to SBS.

If you don't mind creating a new domain, you can, of course, simply set up new accounts on the SBS Server, migrate the existing Exchange mailboxes to the new SBS Exchange Server, remove the TS from the old Domain and add it to the new SBS Domain.