Thanks Kim, We created a test lab environment to try out many different scenarios. One thing we really couldn't judge was how long forest prep would take because during some of our tests, the time ranged from 30 minutes to 2 hours for no apparent reason. So I was afraid that it could take all weekend on the production servers.
Also if anyone knows... I am going to create a native mode child domain so the delegations, distribution lists, etc will come across properly during the in place upgrade. Does this sound like a valid method? We tested out so many different ways to minimize the impact on the end user and we finally had to break down and do the following method: 1. Offline backup of current Exchange 5.5 (currently it's a NT4 BDC Cluster) 2. Dump Public Folder permission dump with PFADMIN. 3. Shut down current Exchange 5.5 (fall back if everything fails) 4. Restore database onto a new Win2k (non DC), Exch 5.5 staging server and bring it up 5. Create Native Mode child domain (so DL's and delegations can have a place to be stored. TechNet says that these will be lost if there isn't a native mode domain available) 6. Do an in place upgrade of 5.5 to Exch 2000 (this is what everyone is nervous about) 7. Cross our fingers and toes and bring up the server 8. If everything works, we will build a Win2k, Exch 2k cluster server on the SAN and join it to the current Exchange Site. 9. Migrate users to the new Cluster server and shut down the staging server. 10. Move Public Folders and import the PFADMIN dump of permissions. 11. If things fail during any of these steps, we will just plug the old NT4 Cluster back in and users will get their email access back. Since the site will remain the same, we won't have to visit the users desktops, which is a big advantage. Anyone have any recommendations on this plan? Maybe something I'm missing or some steps I can skip? Thanks a lot for your help and hope everyone is having a good Friday. Wilson Varghese NT Systems Manager KMV, LLC Office: (415)229-0726 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Kim Cameron [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, November 09, 2001 12:16 PM To: Exchange Discussions Subject: RE: Forest and domain prep Wilson, as i recall, we first did the schema modifications by running setup.exe with the /schemaonly switch. this "stretched" the schema and lessened the work to be done by forestprep. it took about a half-hour in our forest. forestprep also took about a half hour from the time we completed the wizard. domainprep took even less time. i do recommend that you try all of these in a test lab - even a single DC off your network somewhere. there are a number of places where you can run into issues - primarily permissions problems - that could cost you hours to figure out. you probably don't want that to happen during a scheduled outage window on your production domain. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Varghese, Wilson Sent: Friday, November 09, 2001 1:53 PM To: Exchange Discussions Subject: Forest and domain prep Does anyone know if there is a formula to calculate the amount of time it will take to do a forest prep and domain prep for a Exchange 2000 migration? Or can someone give me some numbers on how long it took you to do it when you did the migration? I am just trying to see what kind of an outage window I should prepare for, but don't see any documentation on this. Thanks for any info you can provide. Wilson Varghese NT Systems Manager KMV, LLC Office: (415)229-0726 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
