I have a customer that currently has separate Unity Unified Messaging servers installed into the root of a Windows 2000 domain and into a sub-domain. See existing domain structure below.
The customer wants to upgrade from Windows 2000 AD to Windows 2003 AD and upgrade from Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2003 at the same time. As part of the upgrade, they want to collapse their multiple domains into a single domain. I am pretty sure that Unity will have issues with the domain change (i.e. the Unity server in DomainX.CompanyABC.com cannot be moved to CompanyABC.com). Is this correct? So, I am trying to come up with a migration strategy to accomplish this move.
The existing domain structure and the proposed domain structure are outlined below as well as my migration plan.
Existing Domain Structure:
CompanyABC.com (Win2k Domain – AKA Location A)
Windows 2000 DC
Unity 3.16
Exchange 2000
DomainX.CompanyABC.com (Location B)
Windows 2000 DC
Unity
Exchange 2000
Proposed Structure:
CompanyABC.com (Win2k Domain)
Windows 2003 DC (Location A)
Unity 4.04 (Location A)
Exchange 2003 (Location A)
Windows 2003 DC (Location B)
Unity 4.04 (Location B)
Exchange 2003 (Location B)
My Plan:
-Upgrade the all existing Unity servers from Unity 3.16 to Unity 4.04.
-Backup the Unity 4.04 server at Location B using the latest DIRT tool.
-Build a new Unity server in the root Windows 2003 domain (the Location B Unity server).
-Attach the new Unity server to the new Exchange 2003 server at Location B.
-Have the customer move the user mailboxes from the old Exchange 2000 server (Location B) to the new Exchange 2003 server (Location B).
-Uninstall the old Unity server.
-Restore Unity mailboxes, call handlers, and system settings using the DIRT restore tool on the new Unity server (Location B).
I don’t think anything needs to be done to the Unity server residing at Location A other than the Unity upgrade.
Please let me know if this plan will work and if it has been attempted before with any success. I am open to any suggestions or short cuts that might save me some time and/or heartache.
