migrating Unity to Active Directory/Exchange 2003

[jshapura]

I have a Unity 4.0(4)SR1 cluster currently using Exchange 5.5 as the mail store. The Unity servers are currently on an NT 4.0 domain. We wish to begin migrating users from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003. I'm fairly clear on the migration steps needed for this after talking to TAC and reviewing the Unity Reconfiguration and Upgrade Guide.

However, the one question I still have is: Can I migrate my Unity servers from NT 4.0 domains to Active Directory using the Microsoft AD migration tools, or do I need to do a total reinstall of Unity (including WIN OS) in AD? I have gotten conflicting information from several different TAC engineers on this. We've migrated many servers via AD migration tools with no problems. Let me know your experiences..thanks!

[jshapura]

Anyone?

[lindborg]

Well, TAC is the final word on what they support but I can tell you the BU hasn't spent any time testing this recently - the documented way to go about this is a full reinstall - you can use DiRt to preserve your data.

Not saying the AD migration tools wont work - but I can't verify for you with personal experience or that of our QA staff that you wont run into any problems. If it were me, I'd go with what's been tested and documented.

[jshapura]

Thanks for your answer. The reason I posted here is that I got conflicting information from TAC; one tech said it could be done, the other said a full reinstall would be required.

Speaking of the 'documented way' - is there a specific document or manual that discusses migrating Unity from NT 4.0 domains to AD?

[lindborg]

The migration and reconfiguration guide has the details on how to replace a Unity server, which is essentially what you're doing here:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps2237/products_upgrade_guides_book09186a0080222fdf.html

the help file on DiRt also has a few additional details such as how to map mail aliases between systems if they've changed or the like - you can find the latest on its home page here:

http://www.ciscounitytools.com/App_DisasterRecoveryTools.htm

[jshapura]

So it appears I will need to:

1) Do a full reinstall (OS, Unity, 3rd party software) on both of my Unity cluster machines, and ensure they are installed into Active Directory during the OS install. Once the full reinstall is done and I have a clean Unity cluster, restore the old database via DiRT.

2) Perform the tasks listed in the Reconfiguration and Upgrade guide for 'Upgrading Exchange 5.5 with AD to Exchange 2003/2000 for Cisco Unity 4.0 with failover configured'.

Based on this, two more questions:

a) If I've read correctly, it appears I might be able to combine steps 1 and 2 as it appears DiRT has the ability to be restored to a Unity pointing to Exchange 2003 from a backup of a Unity system using Exchange 5.5 as the message store. True? Or would it be more prudent/cleaner to complete the reinstall of the Unity cluster into AD while still pointing to Exchange 5.5 as the message store, and then running the Exchange message store reconfiguration after the full reinstall/DiRT restore is up and tested?

b) What would be the approach to take for the least amount of voicemail downtime with these steps? Or must all cluster systems be down from the very beginning with the full reinstall steps?

Thanks again in advance for your help!