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New Exchange Server on new PDC

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by techgirl75

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Hello. I have recently built a new server to replace our existing server. I built it as a PDC not a BDC. I planned on transferring over what I need from old server taking it down (over a weekend of course) and putting on new server. They are named different however. My existing server is one name and the new server is another, both PDC. I connected my new server to the network through DHCP and network sees it as a workstation, however when it connects to the network my Proxy Server says "cannot find primary domain controller"..then it can obviously because I can see it from my PDC, see it from my new server, and I can see out from the proxy server. Am I going to have problems with this setup..with the new server having a new name? Ihave Exchange 5.5 and NT4. I have joined my new server to the existing server through exchange and want to move the mailboxes this weekend with the "move mailboxes" command. When all is said and done though I want this server to know it is the PDC.. Should I reinstall NT4 and Exchange and choose BDC instead so that I can promote it while keeping the existing server online and demoting it to BDC? Thanks for any help you can give me.

5 replies

by cnaes

You cannot have 2 PDC's on one network at the same time and have them function correctly. So, I would suggest rebuilding the server as a BDC and promote to PDC as you mentioned OR if you have another BDC on the network already, promote it to the PDC for the time being, until you get the new server up and running. Also, if what you are saying is that you have exchange on your PDC, and are moving it to your new machine, you will have several steps to consider. Article Q155216 on microsoft's website helped me with this same issue. It recommends making the new machine the same name as the old. I hope this helps.

by gigelul

Hi,
How can you built the new server as PDC? The only way is using a different domain name! In this case you will lose all user and computer accounts. I don't think that is what you want.
There is a single way to maintain accounts: built the new server as BDC in the existing domain, install all application as you wish (test them), demote actual PDC to BDC and promote the new server as PDC. Finaly you can remove one BDC or live it in network.

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