Hi all,We are in the process of building a new lab environment. Current setup for production is:1. 2-5 Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise DC's with namespace of, say ABC.local2. 2 Exchange 2003 Enterprise- SP2 running on same OS as aboveAD team wants to take a copy of current DC and put in the lab. i.e. - make a new DC to get all AD info, move to lab and then remove new DC object from production.The question we have is:- How can we get rid of the current Exchange information in the lab. i.e. - the new DC that would be moved to the lab would have the prod Exchange information...how do we clean this up or would creating a new org be best?

i.e. - Exchange servers in lab will be named differently...say production is PROD_EX1...we would call the lab DEV_EX1 but AD would have all entries of PROD

What is the purpose of this lab is the first question? If you just want to try new stuff out, just build a new domain and org. If you want all the same user data in there (Same account names), you could always do a restore of AD to a new box that's isolated. It really depends on the labs need.Mark Morowczynski|MCSE 2003:Messaging, Security|MCITP:ES, SA|MCTS:Windows Mobile Admin|Security+|http://almostdailytech.com

Proof of concept lab. For testing patches, ESM changes etc...Reason I ask is that it is a shared lab with the AD team and theyare planning toclone a DC from Production to put in the lab. As a result the AD will have reference to the prod Exchange Org...we want to have a distinguished name from Prod for the Exchange piece.I think the best approach may be to run Exchange setup with the /removeorg switch to get rid of the Exchange objects in the lab AD altogetherand then, somewhat like you mentioned, just build a new Exchange Org.What are your thoughts on this approach?

That will probably be your best bet if you want to remove Exchange, though Exchange being in there should be part of your lab if they want to test stuff since they are both so tied together.Mark Morowczynski|MCSE 2003:Messaging, Security|MCITP:ES, SA|MCTS:Windows Mobile Admin|Security+|http://almostdailytech.com

We tried to convince them to build the AD in thelab from scratchbut understandably it is much less configuration to clone the DC. Wechoose to rebuild Exchange in the labso we can validate our build books and processes.

Yes, RemoveOrg switch can be used to remove the exchange data from AD The REMOVEORG option in Exchange Server 2003 How to completely remove Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 from Active Directory

Sounds good, you should be all set. Mark Morowczynski|MCSE 2003:Messaging, Security|MCITP:ES, SA|MCTS:Windows Mobile Admin|Security+|http://almostdailytech.com

Thanks all,Scott