Remove Exchange 2000 Server

At some point in the lifetime of a Windows domain, you may find the need to remove Exchange 2000 Server. This will obviously occur only in domains that are a bit outdated and may come to take advantage of the more recent updates in Windows Server technology, which may include an update to the Exchange platform.

With the added benefits, along with stability of the newer platform it's obvious that most would want to make use of that to increase productivity and reliance on the computerized system. Alternatively, you may just want to remove last Exchange 2000 Server entirely from your domain and choose some other platform which has some simple steps to take and that part shall be covered first.

Granted, how to remove Exchange 2000 Server is no different than uninstalling most other programs. You just have to log in into the server with the Exchange 2000 Server, go to the Control Panel to the Install/Uninstall program options, search for Exchange 2000 and order the uninstalling. A simple wizard program will guide you through the rest of the uncomplicated procedure and once this is done, it will be concluded.

If you want to upgrade from Exchange 2000 Server to Exchange 2007 Server however, things become more complicated. You won't have to manually remove Exchange 2000 Server, but everything will have to be accomodated to the transtion. First step will be setting Exchange's organization to Native, since the newer Exchange Servers won't coop with the compatibility to much older versions.

Ensuing that, Active Directory has to be prepared with the switches to allow Exchange 2007 installation. The switches won't be detailed in accuracy since small alterations may be required for each specific domain, but the general idea is: Preparing the legacy Exchange permissions, arrange a Schema, setup A.D. and finally setup the prepareDomain and prepareAllDomains switches.

Finally, you'll be up to the task of installing Exchange 2007 Server, for which you'll need to have setup .NET framework 2.0, MMC, and PowerShell. Some Windows components that will be required are the Mailbox server, Client Access Server and the Hub server. Beyond this point, the final configurations will be slightly easier and the installation wizard will hint you in how to proceed with most other steps, the included help giving any boost that may be needed.