H
Herb Martin
Jetze Mellema (MS MVP) said:We have a customer who wants to merge 2 parts of his organisation.
DomainA:
Windows 2003 domain, only domain in forest
Domain functional level: Windows 2000 Mixed
Exchange 2003 server
DomainB:
Windows 2000 domain, only domain in forest
Domain functional level: Native mode
Windows clients
Eventually the 2 domains wil be merged but in fase 1 the users in DomainB
want to connect their Outlook to the Exchange server in DomainA.
I understand that I have to create a forest trust, but is it necessary to
upgrade the Windows 2000 domain controller first?
Yes, for a "forest trust", but you can also use External Trusts which
work with Win2000 (and any mode/level of Win2003.)
At this point I can't see the forest for the trees and I could definitly
use some guidance.
Ignore trees they are practically unimportant except in very limited
naming issues.
To make things even more complex both domains have the same NETBIOS name.
You are likely hosed. External trusts generally use NetBIOS.
If you can get one of the domains/forests to Win2003 Server Native mode and
Win2003 Forest Functional Level it can be renamed.
You will also have trouble with the migration in such cases.
You might do a two-step migration to some other domain name and then
migrate or trust the other domain.