Hello, I have a client that has Exchange 2003 sitting on top of a Windows 2003 Domain Controller. They also have another DC in the environment. Everything is working fine however when we shutdown the Exchange/DC system it can take 20 minutes. After looking around this is common when Exchange sites on a DC. My question: I can easily create another DC in the environment to have 2 DC's total. However, are there or will there be any problems to Exchange if I demote the DC portion from the server? It seems that Exchange is "binded" or has an affinity for its own DC and i don't want to create any downtime when I demote it. I just want our Exchange server to be only for Exchange. Thanks for any tips and suggestions!

It is unsupported to promote or demote a server running Exchange Server, and it will likely break your server. To separate the DC from Exchange, you'll have to build a new Exchange server and move the mailboxes, public folders, connectors and everything else to it. Maybe that presents you a great opportunity to upgrade. -- Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems." . "venom66" wrote in message news:5f2cf734-9665-4b0b-b3e3-9b4af499c37b... Hello, I have a client that has Exchange 2003 sitting on top of a Windows 2003 Domain Controller. They also have another DC in the environment. Everything is working fine however when we shutdown the Exchange/DC system it can take 20 minutes. After looking around this is common when Exchange sites on a DC. My question: I can easily create another DC in the environment to have 2 DC's total. However, are there or will there be any problems to Exchange if I demote the DC portion from the server? It seems that Exchange is "binded" or has an affinity for its own DC and i don't want to create any downtime when I demote it. I just want our Exchange server to be only for Exchange. Thanks for any tips and suggestions! Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

Hello i would recommend you before demoting check the global catelog server in the active directory sites and services. Install another Domain controller.Test the replication and also you determine which domain controller is connected to Exchange System Manager. Please refer to this article http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Exchange-System-Manager-Domain-Controller-Selection.html Thanks Mhussain

Thanks so much, both of you, for the advice. I remember a long time ago I did this and I believe the Exchange server had some problems due to it having an affinity to one DC (itself) over another. Ultimately I was able to do it, but I believe the Exchange Web interface was destroyed. Ultimately I believe it would be best, as suggested above, to make a new Exchange, move the users over to that, create a new DC, ensure replication, then demote and terminate the current Exchange/DC system. One thing: I also recall having to move Exchange to a new Exchange in the same environment. However after the move everything worked fine until I shut down the original Exchange. Once that happened, Exchange mails ceased to reach the new Exchange server and no user could reach Exchange any longer. I do not recall the outcome (This was over 5 years ago!). Any thoughts on that scenario? PS - I also have a Blackberry Enterprise server which will get hosed so this is a reluctant big job for me. I hate to break things that are already working but I am a nut for getting things just right and proper. Thanks again for any suggestions!

If you do the move correctly the problem you describe should not happen. You must ensure that your inbound mail routes to the new server, of course. -- Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems." . "venom66" wrote in message news:b8147277-06d4-423a-8f67-74f8c6106fac... Thanks so much, both of you, for the advice. I remember a long time ago I did this and I believe the Exchange server had some problems due to it having an affinity to one DC (itself) over another. Ultimately I was able to do it, but I believe the Exchange Web interface was destroyed. Ultimately I believe it would be best, as suggested above, to make a new Exchange, move the users over to that, create a new DC, ensure replication, then demote and terminate the current Exchange/DC system. One thing: I also recall having to move Exchange to a new Exchange in the same environment. However after the move everything worked fine until I shut down the original Exchange. Once that happened, Exchange mails ceased to reach the new Exchange server and no user could reach Exchange any longer. I do not recall the outcome (This was over 5 years ago!). Any thoughts on that scenario? PS - I also have a Blackberry Enterprise server which will get hosed so this is a reluctant big job for me. I hate to break things that are already working but I am a nut for getting things just right and proper. Thanks again for any suggestions! Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

I agree with Ed. Please try to transfer Exchange to another server. Regards, Xiu

If the main issue is shutting down time, I would look at stopping the Exchange services first (and therefore commiting all transactions). The other thing I have seen in the past is backup software delaying shutdowns so it may be worth stopping their services as well if there are any on the DC You could then always drop in a simple script to run pior to a shutdown / reboot to stop all relevant services if this improves the shutdown / reboot time. Just a thought.