How to Upgrade an Exchange 2000 Cluster to Exchange Server 2003

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Upgrading an Exchange 2000 cluster to Exchange 2003 requires that you upgrade each of the cluster nodes and Exchange Virtual Servers to Exchange 2003.

Before You Begin

Before you perform the procedures in this topic, be aware of the following:

  • After you upgrade to Exchange Server 2003, the cluster service account no longer needs any Exchange-specific permissions. To follow the common security practice known as least privilege, you should remove the Exchange-specific permissions you assigned during the upgrade after the last Exchange 2000 cluster has been upgraded or migrated to Exchange Server 2003.

  • You need to perform this procedure only once per cluster.

Procedure

To perform a rolling upgrade of an Exchange 2000 cluster to Exchange Server 2003

  1. Upgrade each node in the cluster to Exchange Server 2003. For detailed steps, see How to Perform a Rolling Upgrade of an Exchange 2000 Cluster to Exchange Server 2003.

  2. Remove the Exchange permissions for the cluster service account. For detailed steps, see How to Remove Cluster Service Account Exchange Permissions After Upgrading from Exchange 2000 to Exchange Server 2003.

To perform a clean upgrade of an Exchange 2000 cluster to Exchange Server 2003

  1. Evict each node, one at a time, and build the evicted nodes as new clusters. For detailed steps, see How to Perform a Clean Upgrade of an Exchange 2000 Cluster to Exchange Server 2003.

  2. Remove the Exchange permissions for the cluster service account. For detailed steps, see How to Remove Cluster Service Account Exchange Permissions After Upgrading from Exchange 2000 to Exchange Server 2003.