How to move your exchange store from a windows 2003 Small Business Server to Windows 2000 Exchange

In this Article, I will discuss how to move your Microsoft exchange store off that ugly windows 2003 small business server onto the more robust windows 2000 server / exchange 2000 server. This article assumes that you have already installed windows 2000 server, applied all the updates, have a copy of the old 2003 small business server data handy with all the files intact or in a backup some where. This is a real life scenario as I’m writing this as I’m doing it. I have a company that had a small business 2003 server with exchange and I’m _upgrading_ to windows 2000 server with a separate exchange server 2000 box. This is done to spit up the tasks the server must perform. The first server becomes the file server and the second becomes the exchange server. This has the added benefit of having a backup DNS server and a backup Domain controller should anything happen. Also, if anything were to go wrong with one of their servers, the other one will be unaffected. The users would only lose access to 50% of their functionality instead of 100% loss when your one small business server goes down. Yes I know I could have gone with the 2003 server and 2003 exchange server but I already know this works and have had some quirky problems with the 2003 setup. As of the writing of this article, I don’t consider 2003 server to be stable enough to warrant its use. But then again maybe I’m just being stubborn. Anyway this was written for anyone that wants to accomplish what I’m about to do now. That is to take a small business 2003 server and break it up into two windows 2000 servers, one being the file server and the other being the exchange server. Ok now here we go...

Steps in order of how I’m doing them:

1) Insert Windows 2000 server CD-ROM. This is necessary to add on the DNS and DHCP services that will allow the server to control what’s going on. Go to the add/remove programs and install DNS and DHCP. Just look through the list its there. While your at it, install SMTP, NNTP and Terminal services as your going to need it later. Me being the forgetful type don't have the windows 2000 server CD-ROM with me so I’m downloading it from my FTP software server (handy isn’t it to have your own software server incase you forget something)

2) Next we must promote the server to be a domain controller. This is done by going to {start->run->dcpromo->press enter}
Its hard to describe exactly how to navigate this wizard but you should have done this a few times before now and needless to say you just need to set up the domain. If you don't know how, then your really not ready for this next part and you should get someone that does know how over there! I will write a separate how to for that just in case you need to know, just look under the section labeled windows 2000 server help->promoting a server to a domain controller. Also be sure to read SETTING UP A DNS SERVER as this is also CRITICAL before you continue to do this correctly.

Now while we are sitting here waiting for this CD-ROM to copy, I would like to ask you, is your server currently down and not receiving mail? That’s what’s happening over here. That’s why I’m using a mail relay service. (http://www.zray.net) They have a hosted server that will accept the mail, clean it from viruses and spam and if necessary hold the mail for 3 days before relaying it back to our server. Basically if my server goes offline, its a great backup solution and also acts as a barrier for those nasty viruses and spam that are always trying to invade your server.

3) Now we copy the exchange data back to the server and we need to check it out. First of all in reinstall the database and actually have it work we need to know the SITE NAME and the ORGANIZATION NAME. If you don't know it you need to look it up. The easiest way to do this is to use the find command from a cmd prompt.


start->run->cmd->press enter

---------- PRIV1.EDB
/o=First Organization/ou=first administrative group/cn=Recipients/cn=admin


This will let you know what you site name and organization name is. Make sure you note this for when you reinstall exchange 2000 server its going to ask you this.

4) Install Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. If you need a step by step on how to do this, refer to the article on how to install exchange 2000 server. But if you have done this a few times, just accept all the defaults, hit install and watch it crank away for a while.