Upgrading SBS 2000 to SBS 2003 and Exchange 2000 to 2003
I recently did a job to upgrade Windows Small Business Server 2000 to Windows Small Business Server 2003. This server was running on a network of around 30 PCs (XP and 98), 30 users, with numerous different types of printers. The server ran Pervasive and SQL databases and Exchange 2000.
We did a huge amount of research for this upgrade. Microsoft Pre-sales Technical Support offered two routes for doing the upgrade:
“If you have an existing server in your network, you can upgrade it to Windows Small Business Server 2003. There are two options for completing an upgrade:
• Upgrade the existing server to Windows Small Business Server 2003
• Install Windows Small Business Server 2003 on a new server and then migrate the existing server’s data and settings”
We decided to do the inplace upgrade, as the customer had an existing installation and was not likely to buy a new server box. We tested the upgrade in a test lab, mirroring the same environment as near as possible. The test upgrade went through without any problems. In fact, the documentation we found regarding this upgrade all pointed to be a straight forward upgrade, with no significant problems. Exchange included.
However, this was not a straight forward upgrade. When dealing with SBS, you have to be careful not to annoy it, because it starts stamping its foot and wanting to be in-charge. The main draw back with SBS is that the SBS server needs to be the root Domain Controller in the forest. You can’t have more than one SBS server in a forest at any one time. Disobey these rules at your peril.
Needless to say, the upgrade didn’t go as planned. Half an hour before the end of the upgrade, we got major registry errors and the installation could not continue.
Having been through this, I would now only offer ONE route for an SBS upgrade. The SBS should be decommissioned from the existing domain, be clean installed and then promoted back into the domain. Again this sounds easy, but do not forget that SBS is a control freak and wants to be in-charge of the whole forest. So asking it to take a back seat needs slow and carefull attention. Plus if you throw exchange into the mix, this makes for quite a complex operation. Do not experiment on a live system. The slightest error and you loose the whole domain. In fact, when we did this, we ran a test lab alongside the live system so we could completley test all steps beofre working on the live sysem.
Microsoft don’t really have documentaion covering this complete process. We kida figured this out for ourselvs and worked backwards on a couple of the tutorials.
The basic process to remove an SBS server from a domain while keepng all Exchange and domain settings is:
1. Join a Windows Server 2003 Stardard to the domain as a member server.
2. Install DNS on the new server
3. DC promo the 2003 Standard server.
4. Make the 2003 Standard Server a Global Catalog server. Reboot and wait for event 1119 or 1869 showing the new DC is now a GC - This very important. Remember no Global Catalog means no one can log on!
5. Change the IP address of the new DC to point to itself. Change the IP address of the SBS to point to the new DC.
6. Transfer the FSMO roles to the new DC
7. Wait for replication to happen. Give it a good 15 minutes, depending upon the size of your network.
8. Install Exchange onto the new DC. Accept defaults.
9. Transfer mailboxes and public folders from SBS to the new DC Follow KB822931 to remove the SBS exchange server from your organisation.
10. Uninstall exchange from SBS. Dcpromo SBS out of the domain.
After all these seps, you are now ready to clean install SBS 2003 and then do the reverse to get it back in the domain.
Follow KB884453 to install the new SBS 2003 back into the domain. This gives you all the steps required to join your new SBS server into the existing domain, including the exchange steps. Good luck.
Stay alert till the last moment. Don’t start smoking cigars until everything has been transferred over and the 2003 Standard Server has had exchange uninstallaed and it has been dcpromo out of the domain.
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Essential documents to do the upgrade
KB822931 How to remove the first Exchange Server 2003 computer from the administrative group
KB884453 How to install Small Business Server 2003 in an existing Active Directory domain
Resources for doing an inplace upgrade (not recommended without a safety net)
From Small Business Server 2000 to Small Business Server 2003
For information about completing an upgrade, see Chapter 3Bof the Getting Started guide.
For step-by-step instructions to complete a server migration, see Migrating from Small Business Server 2000 or Windows 2000 Server to Windows Small Business Server 2003.
Note To complete an upgrade, you must be running Small Business Server 2000 Service Pack 1. If you are not running Service Pack 1, see Knowledge Base article 326924 on the Microsoft Support site for information about downloading the service pack.
Steve Bryant Says:
July 17th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Chris,
I am looking at actually removing SBS2000 as we no longer need Exchange or SQL and I now have about 90 user accounts and the current PDC is old and dying. If I want to get an existing Win2003 server which is acting as a print server promoted to take over completely, would I follow your steps up to and including Step 7 then simply decomission the old PDC ?
In Step 5, you talk about point new DC to itself - is this DNS you are talking about?
TIA
Steve
Tanya Says:
September 25th, 2006 at 1:23 am
Steve,
I am also looking at removing SBS completely. Did your removal work following the above steps as you indicated?
chris Says:
September 25th, 2006 at 8:57 am
this will work if you follow the setps in the article above.
Beau Says:
September 30th, 2006 at 12:45 am
Thank you for posting this!!! I have a very bad situation that is really similar to the one you have documented so well. I was hoping you could answer a few quesions about my particular scinario.
Recently I was involved in a 2000 DC upgrade to 2003. The project manager didn’t know that Exchange 2000 would not work on a 2003 machine. This threw a big wrench into the project and as a last minute decision the project manager decided to install SBS 03 w/ Exchange into the mix to solve the incompatability with 2000 & 2003. This of course violated the EULA and now the server is shutting down every 60 minutes. The project manager has since left the company leaving me with this mess.
The SBS machine has dual nic’s and one is set for DMZ while the other has been disabled (the idea was that SBS wouldn’t be able to detect the other domain… ???) and Exchange has never worked throughout the “upgrade” though it was installed and linked to the PDC.
Now the real question is, will this work to remove SBS for me?
Beau Says:
September 30th, 2006 at 12:50 am
Oh, and before I forget. The network is presently configured as such:
1 2003 DC (which was in place prior to adding SBS into the mix)
1 2003 TS
1 2003 FS
1 2003 SBS w/ Exchange (which needs to be removed)
Beau Says:
September 30th, 2006 at 1:12 am
Oh, and lastly the present plan is to go back to 2000 Server with Exchange 2000… if that is possible. If not, let me know so I can purchase Exchange 2003.
chris Says:
October 3rd, 2006 at 10:45 am
From the brief information you have given me, I would suggest that the network will be OK, so long as you join the SBS server to the exisiting domain. DCPROMOthe SBS server and then transfer the FSMO roles to the SBS server. So long as the SBS server is the Domain Controller at the root of the forest in the domain, you will be OK. You can have other Domain Controllers in the domain too. But the SBS needs to be GOD.
Following this article will allow you to do it. By the way, if you want us to help you with the process then leave and comment with your contact details and I’ll get in touch.
Chris
Abe Says:
October 31st, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Hi Chris,
I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you for this post, which brings together all the information that microsoft offer, with a dash of your obvious experience in this area.
I have just successfully completed a migration from an old sbs 2000 box to a new box with sbs 2003 (including exchange) by carefully following your instructions and following through the KB articles you linked to.
Once again, many thanks.
Regards,
Abe
chris Says:
November 1st, 2006 at 6:25 pm
Thanks for the comment. Great to hear this stuff works for other people too.
Chris
Vu Says:
November 16th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Hi Chris,
I’m currently using SBS 2003 as a DC with Exchange running. Now, I want to
set up a brand new separate Exchange Server Box for my domain. The questions
that I need help with are:
Is it safe to uninstall or can I just unintall the current Exchange from my SBS
2003? and then Setup a brand new Exchange on another Window Sever 2003
Standard? and then reconnect to SBS 2003 DC?
At the end I should have an SBS server for DC only and an Exchange 2003 server.
Is this the correct way to do this or I have to use another Window Server 2003 standard for DC, and decommission the SBS 2003 at the end?
Thanks,
Vu
chris Says:
November 17th, 2006 at 4:01 am
You can keep the SBS server in the domain, so ong as you keep it as the first DC in the domain and forest.
You should DCPromo the new sever into the domain. Then install exchange n the new server. Move the mailboxes and public folders from SBS to the new server. Then uninstall exchange off the SBS box.
Vu Says:
November 17th, 2006 at 9:27 am
Hi Chris,
Thank you very much for your reply.
Vu
Michael Says:
March 15th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Hi,
We want to add an additional windows 2003 server with exchange to our netwok (SBS 2003). Can you use two exchange servers? we want to use the second one for a differnet email domain to take the load of the SBS. Can this be done or do we need two win 2003 servers with two domains?
Thanks
chris Says:
March 15th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
There is no prblem adding another server and exchange server to an SBS domain. Just mak sure all the FSMO roles stay on the SBS box. You can then simply put the mailboxes for the required domain name on the new server.
dqueue Says:
April 26th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Thanks for describing your experience. I’m hopeful of following the steps, in part, in order to: introduce W2k3 Server with Exchange 2007 into my domain, while ripping SBS2k out of my domain. Is this a possible transition? Any gotchas to expect?
Thanks again.
chris Says:
April 27th, 2007 at 10:39 am
introducing W2k3 Server with Exchange 2007 into a domain, while ripping SBS2k out of the domain is possible. I have recently written an article on msexchange.org covering this.
dqueue Says:
April 27th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I’ve read over your two-part article about introducing W2k3 Server with Exchange 2007. If I’m starting with SBS2k, do I need to first upgrade to SBS2k3? Microsoft documentation indicates Exchange 2000 -> Exchange 2007 is a supported upgrade. I know I require having a W2k3 Server heading my domain before Exchange 2007 may be installed, but I prefer to handle the transition without upgrading to SBS2k3.
Many thanks for the reply. It’s much appreciated.
Adam Says:
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:35 am
Hi Chris,
Can you please elaborate on;
5. Change the IP address of the new DC to point to itself. Change the IP address of the SBS to point to the new DC.
Thanks.
Chris Dalby Says:
May 3rd, 2007 at 3:27 pm
When you join the new DC to the domain and following the DCPROMO and changing the GC. You must set the new DC’s DNS server setting on the etwork card to poin to the ipaddress oif the new DC. This is because the SBS is being removed from the domain and will no longer be running DNS forthe network. Hope that helps.
Adam Says:
May 3rd, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Thanks Chris, wasnt sure what the changing of ip address was in relation to, thanks for clearing that up
will be trying this out shortly.
Lachlan Martin Says:
June 19th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
Chris
We are in the process of decommissioning an SBS2003 Prem box and replacing with Server 2003 Standard with Exchange on a new box.
I believe that the above process you have described will work ok.
In point 4 you say;
“4. Make the 2003 Standard Server a Global Catalog server. Reboot and wait for event 1119 or 1869 showing the new DC is now a GC - This very important. Remember no Global Catalog means no one can log on!”
Might sound silly, but how do I make the new server the GC?
Regards
Lachlan
Mike Nielsen Says:
December 20th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
I am about to upgrade a domain from SBS2000 to server standard 2003 with exchange 2007.
I have decided that won’t try to upgrade from exchange2k to exchange07, I’ll just export the mailboxes to PSTs and import. Only twenty or so mailboxes all less than 100meg. No biggie.
What I do want to avoid is having to rejoin the workstations to the domain as some are scattered around the city using VPNs, nor do I want to lose the user accounts.
In the above article you use a temporary 2003 standard server as a way-point on the way to sbs2003, so I assume if I don’t want to move to sbs2003 I can leave the way-point server as the new DC and retire the old SBS2000 server?