Windows Server 2003 Domain Renaming with Exchange Server 2003

Microsoft has long been criticized for administrative inflexibility in some of its core products. You can't rename a Windows 2000 Server domain, and you certainly can't rename an Exchange 2000 Server organization after you've deployed servers. If you get things wrong, the only solution is to start over again—not an attractive proposition if you've deployed more than a few servers. However, with Windows Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Microsoft has provided two tools that allow you to rename a Windows 2003 domain and then make the necessary changes to Active Directory (AD) to support Exchange 2003 after the domain rename. These tools aren't for the fainthearted and they're certainly not wizard-like in terms of usability and administrative friendliness. The tools require planning and testing before you can approach a rename operation with confidence, especially in a production environment. I'll provide an overview about how the tools work and point you to some additional resources to help you prepare for the extensive testing that you'll need to perform before you can rename a Windows domain that includes some Exchange 2003 servers. . . .