These four words say it all, Active Directory Connection Agreements. The job
of the ADC is to create agreements which control the transfer of account information from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003. In
addition, the ADC wizard will guide you through making agreements for
migrating public folders and routing groups.
In terms of tactics, you could use ADMT or ADC agreement to migrate your
mailboxes, however ADC agreements have the advantage of maintaining the
user's mailboxes Exchange 5.5 which gives you insurance in case the
migration fails.
ExDeploy is wonderful. Imagine that your beastly boss told you to
provide a comprehensive document to explain how you were going to migrate to
Exchange 2003. As a techie you probably dislike writing such
documents, well ExDeploy will do it all for you. Not only will
ExDeploy provide project management grade documentation, but it will also
supply hyperlinks to the wizards which will actually perform the individual
migration tasks.
Here are two ways to get started with ExDeploy, take your pick
Load your Exchange Server 2003 CD, double-click Setup.exe, and then
click Exchange Deployment Tools under Deployment.
Navigate to the Support\ExDeploy folder on the Exchange Server 2003
CD, double-click ExDeploy.hta.
To prepare for the 'Agreement', first create two way trusts between
the NT 4.0 domain and Windows Server 2003 domain.
Once you have verified the trust, add the Domain Admins from the Windows
Server 2003 domain, to the local Administrator's group in the NT 4.0 domain.
Navigate to the Active Directory Domains and Trusts snap-in, then select the
properties of your domain, now the Trust tab should be visible.
Next, click on 'New Trust' and enter the name of the NT 4.0 domain. To
complete the other side of the trust, use NT 4.0's USRMGR and configure the
Trusting and Trusted domain to be the Windows Server 2003 domain.
Guy Recommends: SolarWinds LANSurveyor
LANSurveyor will produce a neat diagram of your network topology. But that's
just the start;
LANSurveyor can
create an inventory of the hardware and software
of your machines and network devices. Other neat features include dynamic
update for when you add new devices to your network. I also love the ability to export
the diagrams
to Microsoft Visio.
Finally, Guy bets that if you take a free trial of LANSurveyor then you will
find a device on your network that you had forgotten about, or someone else
installed without you realizing!
The best way to install ADC is by using the ExDeploy tool.
The wizard has the knack of guiding you through the steps while minimizing
the possibility of making a mistake or overlooking a setting. Always use the Exchange 2003 ADC rather than the Windows version
of ADC.
Technically the ADC is installed as a
service.
Wizards are getting more helpful and less annoying. The ADC wizard
guides you through each step of the transfer process. The emphasis is on the word agreement,
the Wizard will transfer the settings in Exchange 5.5 to Active Directory.
As a bonus, ADC agreements keep Active Directory and the NT 4.0 domain in
synchrony. (ADMT is a one-time copy, and does not update if data
changes.)
If you wish, the ADC wizard will create new accounts for the owners of the mailboxes.
However, there is a trap, if you use the ADC to create new accounts, then users can
no longer connect to their mailboxes through their NT 4.0 accounts. If
this is likely to be a problem then consider using ADMT instead.
For a complex or multi-organization migration, Microsoft provide a
meta-directory service (MMS).
With recipient agreements the key word is synchronize. Think of ADC
agreements as two parallel pipes with information about user
properties flowing from Active Directory and Exchange 5.5 in one pipe, and
from Exchange to Active Directory in the other pipe.
The ADC is more flexible than ADMT in that you can also create agreements
for public folders and even routing connectors. The sites and connectors of Exchange
5.5 become Routing Groups in Exchange 2003.
Agreement is a well chosen word. When you call for the ADC wizard,
you will be prompted to decide precisely how objects are synchronized
between the source and destination domains.
You can define multiple
agreements to move users directly into a particular OU rather than having
all the accounts created in the default Users container.
Note: If you are migrating between different organizations, then you can,
I repeat you can, use ADC agreements to transfer user and mailbox
information between different
Exchange
organizations. This would not be possible with ADMT.
While Exchange 5.5 did an adequate job of delivering mail in the 1990s,
in retrospect there were deficiencies in its design. One such anomaly is that
Exchange 5.5 allows one user to own multiple mailboxes. In Exchange
2003 the mailbox
becomes a property of the user in Active Directory. As a result you cannot have a
user with more than mailbox any more than you could have a user with two heads or
three mouths.
For the situation where NT 4.0 allows one user account to own several
mailboxes, Microsoft have made a work-around and provide Exchange 5.5
with a custom
attribute called NTDSNoMatch. The idea is to set this custom attribute on
the user's secondary or resource mailbox. Once you set the 'Custom
Attribute 10' to be the precise value = NTDSNoMatch, then that mailbox can be successfully transferred
to Active Directory and assigned to a new user. But remember that in
Active Directory, one user
can only have one mailbox.
Microsoft have supplied a utility of the same name -
NTDSNoMatch to help you resolve problems where one Exchange 5.5 user has two
or more mailboxes. (This utility also has a command line version called NTDSATTRIB.)
Guy Recommends:
The SolarWinds Exchange Monitor
Here is a
free tool to monitor your Exchange Server. Download and
install the utility, then inspect your mail queues, monitor the Exchange
server's memory, confirm there is enough disk space and check the CPU
utilization. This is the real deal - there is no catch. SolarWinds
provides this fully-functioning product for free, as part of their commitment to
supporting the network management community.
For a true migration you will need 'Agreements' which translate how it
was in Exchange 5.5 with NT 4.0, to how it will be in Exchange 2003 with
Active Directory. Use the Exchange 2003 version of ADC to create these
'Agreements', to populate Active Directory with those NT 4.0
users. Once you have transferred the user accounts, apply what you
learnt to migrate public folders.
The
extra features you get in your eBook include: 20 checklists to
plan your migration. Detailed instructions and advice on the best
strategy for your organization.
Lots of tips, recommendations and troubleshooting advice. Problem
solving section. Active Directory explained. Printer friendly
pages.
You can define multiple
agreements to move users directly into a particular OU rather than having
all the accounts created in the default Users container.
The
extra features you get in your eBook include: 20 checklists to
plan your migration. Detailed instructions and advice on the best
strategy for your organization.
