Upgrading to 2000 Active Directory from NT4.0

I have a 25-user NT4.0 domain right now and I am upgrading to 2000 Active Directory. I would also like to upgrade my Exchange 5.5 server to 2003. Do I need to have a 2003 Active Directory Domain controller in place to run Exchange 2003?

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Exchange 2003 will run fine in a Windows 2000 environment. You do not need to have Active Directory running on a Windows Server 2003 computer, but you will raise the schema level of Active Directory by running ForestPrep as part of the installation. You might want to check out this "Exchange Compatibility with Windows Server Operating Systems" whitepaper, http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/tiwinnet.asp. Please note that Exchange 2003 can run on either a Windows 2000 or a Windows Server 2003 computer, and that either can be a Member Server in the Windows 2000 Active Directory Domain.

This was first published in February 2004

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