ForestPrep & DomainPrep Exch2k3 Quest.

I was wondering is their anyway when running forestprep and domain prep from the exchange server 2003 setup c.d on another server say domain controller that has the schema master role, however you do not wish to install exchange on this box, but how come the install directory still points to C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr when your only running setup with these 2 switches and it seems to be grayed out so you cannot change it?

Thanks in advance,

win2k8

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blargoe

It shouldn't install anything (other than the AD schema upgrade) when you do forestprep or domainprep. I don't think you'd actually see any exchange files in the Program Files directory on the DC when you do it that way. Never done it that way myself though so that answer isn't from personal experience.

Why do you need to do it on the DC?

win2k8

Thanks for the clarification. I tried it on my lab and it did not install the full exchange server on the DC. It just has the follow structure on the DC: C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\bin\exchsetupmsg.dll and thats it. Also when I ran the /domainprep and /forestprep switches I got some message pop up saying something like, "Exchange Server 2003 has a known compatibility issue with this version of Windows" but it still let me continue and the switches completed successfully. The DC is running Server 2003 Enterprise Edition SP2. I figured out it had something to do with this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555285
Said its just some kind of warning message,

I'm setting up my lab like this:

TestLab.com domain

1 DC which is the first DC for the new forest and domain created.
1 Member Server part of the testlab.com domain which will host exchange 2003
1 Member Server part of the testlab.com domain which will host exchange 2003

1 XP client with Outlook 2003.

I had to run forestprep and domainprep on the domain controller since I thought I have to run in on which ever server in the forest has the schema master role which I thought the first domain controller in the forest has? Unless DomainPrep and ForestPrep can be run on a member server in the same forest/domain where the domain controller with the schema master role lives?

win2k8

blargoe

As long as you have schema admin rights, you can run forestprep on any member server (and domain admin rights for domainprep).

That warning message about compatibility is to warn you that the release version of Exchange 2003 isn't supported on that OS... but as soon as you update Exchange to SP2 you'll be supported. And it means nothing if you're just doing the AD prep... the setup program will always throw that warning.

b

win2k8

Thanks for the clarification about the warning message and where I can run forestprep/domainprep on.

win2k8

Essendon

I think blargoe has answered your question. He wrote : "As long as you have schema admin rights, you can run forestprep on any member server (and domain admin rights for domainprep)." It's usually run on the machine that possesses the schema master role. Domainprep's on the Infrastructure Master role in the domain.

Just a word of advice from my experience, if you use the command line to run forestprep, make sure you use the correct syntax. Because if you dont, it will still go about installing Echange without running forestprep.

HTH.