Merging two businesses and domains

Hi Guys,

I have a business that is merging with another business. Eventually everyone
is going to be on a new domain, but for the time being I have to do
something to bridge the gap. Both customers are running Windows 2003 with
Exchange servers. They are buying a new domain for email, and I was going to
link both domains using a trust over a vpn. I've never done this with two
exchanges in an organization before.

Questions

1) Can two different exchanges co exist in the domain together?
2) Can all the users share email address across the two domains? IE:

Customer A has


Customer B has



They want to create


Thoughts on how this can be achieved would be welcomed.

Hello Gorge,

As long no domain is built with SBS version from Windows you can create a
trust between them.

For multiple SMTP domains see:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/268838

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/MF010.html

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.
** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups
** HELP us help YOU!!! http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm


> Hi Guys,
>
> I have a business that is merging with another business. Eventually
> everyone is going to be on a new domain, but for the time being I have
> to do something to bridge the gap. Both customers are running Windows
> 2003 with Exchange servers. They are buying a new domain for email,
> and I was going to link both domains using a trust over a vpn. I've
> never done this with two exchanges in an organization before.
>
> Questions
>
> 1) Can two different exchanges co exist in the domain together? 2) Can
> all the users share email address across the two domains? IE:
>
> Customer A has
>
> Customer B has
>
>
>
> They want to create
>
> Thoughts on how this can be achieved would be welcomed.
>

Mail Domains have nothing to do with Windows AD Domians

Two Exchanges cannot be in the same domain together unless they are part of
the same Exchange Organization (which your are not)

There is no such thing as sharing email addresses,...but the email address
has nothing to do with the Windows AD Domains. The AD Domain could be
"mycompany.org" and the email domain could be "@chickensoup.net". You can
add multiple address to a user, but the Exchange has to be adjusted to
accept email for the particular domain if the domain part of the address is
different. But that does not make the mail come to the Exchange, it only
means Exchange will accept it if it does arrive. Exchange can accept mail
for multiple Mail Domains

Creating a Trust will let the Domains interact (but only to a point).
Meinolf's post covers that, no need for me to repeat what he said.


--
Phillip Windell

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------


"Gorge" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi Guys,
>
> I have a business that is merging with another business. Eventually
> everyone is going to be on a new domain, but for the time being I have to
> do something to bridge the gap. Both customers are running Windows 2003
> with Exchange servers. They are buying a new domain for email, and I was
> going to link both domains using a trust over a vpn. I've never done this
> with two exchanges in an organization before.
>
> Questions
>
> 1) Can two different exchanges co exist in the domain together?
> 2) Can all the users share email address across the two domains? IE:
>
> Customer A has
>
>
> Customer B has
>
>
>
> They want to create
>
>
> Thoughts on how this can be achieved would be welcomed.

The best thing you can do here is to "do nothing".

Leave the Exchanges alone
Leave the mail domains alone
Leave the email addresses alone

Create the Trusts between the Domains so that permissions can be granted
back & forth between the domains,...for the most part that is going to be
nothing but file sharing,...has nothing to do with, and has no real benefit
concerning email. This is also a temporary thing.

Then build the New Forest/Domain
Migrate your AD Objects (users and machines) to the New Forest/Domain with
ADMT
Let the other company do the same with their AD Objects.
When completed start using the New Forest/Domain,...the old will cease to
exist.

The New Exchange in the New Exchange Oganization within the New
Forest/Domain can be configured to accept mail from any of the old mail
domains plus the new mail domain if you are going to use a new one. The DNS
Hosting Provider just needs to point the MX records for all the mail domain
names to the same place after you configure Exchange to accept all of them.

To save old mail export it to PST files while the old system is up,...import
the PSTs into the new mail boxes on the new Exchange. The PSTs do not
*have* to be imported,...they can be left as local PSTs and just open them
with Outlook.

There is no "Exchange migration",...you just stop using the old and start
using the new.

--
Phillip Windell

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------

No problem.

I understand the difference between a mail domain and an ad domain.

My issue is, both companies need to receive email from the same domain in
about two weeks time. If a trust is established, that will not solve this
issue correct? Unless I move all the mailboxes to the other Exchange domain,
that's all I can think of. Either that, or leave the domains as is and
create contacts on the original domain that forward the email to the company
that is merging.

Does that make sense?

"Phillip Windell" <> wrote in message
news:...
> The best thing you can do here is to "do nothing".
>
> Leave the Exchanges alone
> Leave the mail domains alone
> Leave the email addresses alone
>
> Create the Trusts between the Domains so that permissions can be granted
> back & forth between the domains,...for the most part that is going to be
> nothing but file sharing,...has nothing to do with, and has no real
> benefit concerning email. This is also a temporary thing.
>
> Then build the New Forest/Domain
> Migrate your AD Objects (users and machines) to the New Forest/Domain with
> ADMT
> Let the other company do the same with their AD Objects.
> When completed start using the New Forest/Domain,...the old will cease to
> exist.
>
> The New Exchange in the New Exchange Oganization within the New
> Forest/Domain can be configured to accept mail from any of the old mail
> domains plus the new mail domain if you are going to use a new one. The
> DNS Hosting Provider just needs to point the MX records for all the mail
> domain names to the same place after you configure Exchange to accept all
> of them.
>
> To save old mail export it to PST files while the old system is
> up,...import the PSTs into the new mail boxes on the new Exchange. The
> PSTs do not *have* to be imported,...they can be left as local PSTs and
> just open them with Outlook.
>
> There is no "Exchange migration",...you just stop using the old and start
> using the new.
>
> --
> Phillip Windell
>
> The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or
> Microsoft,
> or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
> -----------------------------------------------------
>
>

"Gorge" <> wrote in message
news:%234$...
> My issue is, both companies need to receive email from the same domain in
> about two weeks time. If a trust is established, that will not solve this
> issue correct?

It would if the users alter their Outlook Clients to use the new server with
the new domain. Their old mail can be moved into PSTs first so they are
still availalbe in Outlook after it is pointed at the new Exchange. They
cannot use two Exchange Servers at once.

They might be prompted for credentials when Outlook opens (but unsure),..at
least until everything is finshed.

> Unless I move all the mailboxes to the other Exchange domain, that's all I
> can think of. Either that, or leave the domains as is and create contacts
> on the original domain that forward the email to the company that is
> merging.

That would work and would be one way that they can use "both" at the same
time for a while.


--
Phillip Windell

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------