The customer currently has Unity 3.1(5) UM with Exchange 5.5 in NT 4.0 domain. They will be migrating to AD 2000 during phase 1 of the project, which will be followed by Unity upgrade to 4.0(4) a few weeks afterwards.
During the phase 1, Exchange 2003 will be introduced, but the mailboxes will remain in Exchange 5.5 until phase 2.
Here is the migration path proposed by the customer for the phase 1.
1. Current DNS will be isolated to a W2K server with the new domain defined in the DNS. All servers will point to this DNS server as their primary.
2. A BDC will be setup and then removed from our network.
3. Our PDC will be upgraded to Windows 2000 server. AD will be setup with a new domain of XXX.PRV
4. Service packs will be applied to the server.
5. The AD connector will be installed for Exchange 5.5
6. An additional W2K server will be brought online as a DC and additional global catalog.
I do realize that domain name change is not supported for Unity, but would this have any impact on Unity? Basically, the PDC that will be upgraded to W2K DC will retain old domain name (XXX_NT) as the NetBios name whereas the new DNS domain name will be XXX.PRV.
Since Unity does not need to talk to AD or Exchange 2003 at all until the phase 2, I’m thinking this would be okay, but wanted to get some expert opinions on it. Also, the customer has tested some legacy servers in the lab, and they were able to authenticate against the XXX_NT domain name in the new XXX.PRV AD environment.
Phase 2 will consist of the following tasks.
1. Run DB Walker.
2. Back up using DiRT.
3. Extend AD schema.
4. Upgrade Unity to 4.0(4).
5. Disconnect Unity from Exchange 5.5.
6. Upgrade Exchange System Manager on Unity.
7. Re-establish Exchange partner relationship using Exchange 2003.
8. Run DB Walker.
9. Move Exchange 5.5 mailboxes to Exchange 2003.
Thank you bunch!
Han
