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Problems migrating Win2003 PDC to new hardware

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by martyr

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I am migrating Win2003 from old hardware to new. The server is the PDC and DNS server for the network. I have the new hardware up and transferred the DNS and all FMSO rolls and have made the new hardware a Global Catalog. Everything appears ok. But when I remove the GC from the old hardware the exchange server fails. I have restarted all involved hardware and also waited for replication.. but the exchange server continues to look for the old hardware.

14 replies

by cg it

This doesn't sound like moving an existing instance to new hardware, rather adding an additional server and then retiring the old server.

Which is it.

by martyr

Adding new hardware and retiring the old.

by cg it

to the domain? Then dcpromo promote the server to a domain controller. Then allowed replication between the two domain controllers to take place before you transfered all roles to the new server?

Exchange will look for a domain controller, if you didn't configure exchange to now use the new domain controller, you'll get errors.

by martyr

Yes I added the new hardware to the domain, then using dcpromo added it as a domain controller. I then transferred the FSMO rolls to the new hardware. I made the new system a Global Catalog. It?s at the spot when I tried to remove the GC from the old hardware when the problem shows itself.

by cg it

you add the GC role to the new server.

And then you have to tell the other servers and workstations in the AD domain to use the new server. That's done in DNS.
'
note: don't forget the sysvol and netlogon share...

by mohammad oweis

unfortunately, i know nothing about exchange.
But maybe there is something in the exchange server configuration that force it to use the IP address or the computer name of the old PDC server.

by martyr

I am editing a previous post as the forum wont allow me to post new. I checked the dns per the technet article and it all checked ok. As far as making an entry. The only thing I did per the KB i followed was install DNS server on the new hardware and then join the Domain and promote the server. After that the DNS info replicated and I didn't make any changes.

by cg it

If your exchange server still does not pickup the new Global Catalog server after following the MS KB articles, then the DC your trying to add the role to isn't setup right.

Note: for Active Directory to function, DNS must be running. If you have your DNS servers also running on your domain controllers, you have to install and second DNS server that also provides zone data for the domain.

by churdoo

There are a couple of places in ESM that you have to touch/verify when replacing a DC/GC.

Bring up ESM
First, dig down to your exchange server under your Administrative Group and check Properties / Directory Access tab. Verify that this has updated properly (assuming "Automatically discover servers" is checked).

Second, under Recipients / Recipient Update Services, you will have to MANUALLY update RUS to your new DC and rebuild the enterprise and domain RUS.

I think that's all you have to touch in ESM to replace a DC/GC.

by martyr

Directory access is set to auto and it still is pointing to the old hardware. I did not have the RUS set correctly and have fixed this but when I removed the GC from the old server EXchange craps out. This is one of the many errors "A fatal error occurred reading a value from the directory. No MTA name was found...."

by martyr

I am tempted to demote the old hardware and see if I can force the exchange server to look at the new, but my feeling is this wont work, I will have everyone offline, and it will be hell. I am unsure the best way to troubleshoot this.

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