I've been looking into renaming our domain. The domain has 2 win 2k8 r2 servers (one is a dc) and one is win2k3 with Exchange 2003. It used to be a dc but has recently been demoted. My domain is small. About 40 users/mailboxes. Forest and domain level is 2003 Our domain needs to change as part of recent acquisition. I have been researching the idea of renaming the domain or, given that the domain is small, just an entire rebuild from scratch, then just migrating the mailboxes. I've read that while the renaming is tedious, its not too complicated, though the exchange server makes me nervous. I have the tools to update exchange and things like that. I know that exchange isn't supposed to be on a dc but what if it was on a server that used to be both exchange and a dc and no longer is? I have a spare server that I can use to either move exchange or start the domain rebuild. I just wanted to get everyone's opinion as to the best course of action. Thanks for the help!

Hi,Why do you want to change the domain name? For Exchange e-mail or other?Exchange do not support to work with the newly changed domain name.From my opinion, if you do not want to have a new domain name,then please try to setup the new domain environement and then setup exchange Server. After that, we need to transition the exchange server 2003 to the newly created forest.How to Transition from Single Forest to Cross-Foresthttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996926(EXCHG.80).aspxRegards,Xiu

Let me see if I understand you correctly, I should create a new domain in the current forrest and transition over to the new forrest?

Yes, you are right.Regards,Xiu

Alright, one more question. If I Exmerge all of the mailboxes to PST files, and then uninstall exchange and then remove the exchange server from the domain, could I do a domain rename as if exchange wasn't installed? Or is there I would then just install exchange again and import all the pst files.

Hi,Base on deep research, we can try to run the Windows Server 2008 domain rename operation, but you must also use Exchange 2003 tool called xdr-fixup Tool to update Exchange attributes. The document that accompanies this tool describes when and how to perform Exchange-related tasks. To perform a domain rename operation, Exchange must not be installed on any domain controllers. If a domain controller is running Exchange, then we need to install Exchange Server in the same forest and then move the Exchange data to the newly installed exchange server and then uninstall Exchange.How Domain Rename Workshttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738208(WS.10).aspxExchange and Domain Rename Operations http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2004/08/30/222719.aspx Regards, Xiu

Thank you so much for all your help. I have read both the Domain Rename documentation and the exchange update documentation. You cleared up the part that was fuzzy for me. The documentation said that if it was on a dc that the data needed to be moved off and exchange uninstalled. What it was not clear on was if I had to setup another exchange server and move the data before the domain rename or if I could uninstall exchange and then perform a rename as if exchange didn't exist. I have also read that when exchange is installed, it makes changes to the Schema which cannot be undone so I now know the latter is not possible. I was also unsure if exchange needed to be freshly installed on a member server before the rename. So to recap, I have to create a new exchange server on a member server and then move the data. Once that is done, remove exchange from the old server that was once a dc. (I was actually going to remove it from the domain completely). Once the data is moved to the new exchange server I can then perform the rename as outlined in the documentation with the added steps for exchange server enviornments. Thanks so much again for all the help!