Well, I’m on day three of this Exchange 2003 garbage. Although I did get my old mail server up and running this installation of 2003 is getting ludicrous. I’m starting to think that Exchange 5.5 to 2003 migration is only possible in the land of faeries and pixies and can’t actually be accomplished in the real world.

I’ve actually abandoned all hope of such a foolish little fantasy and have tried installing ES2K3 as the first Exchange Server in the site. All ES2K3 installations begin with the ForestPrep tool which should be titled ForestFucker because that is exactly what it does to your Active Directory. I’m not sure exactly what it is doing in the Active Directory but I think it is the equivalent of having a drunk surgeon performing surgery on your brain in the jungles of southeast Asia with a corkscrew. The log file that it generates, while written in English, requires a PHD to actually unravel and understand.

I have even tried to make another domain controller just in case my first one was fucked-up-beyond-all-recognition. I transferred all of the roles over from the old domain controller to the new one essentially making it The Grand Poobah of domain controllers. However, for some godforsaken reason, all of the servers in my domain are still enamored with the old domain controller and refuse to talk to the new one.

Every time that I think that I am close to a solution, the setup throws up all over itself like a new born baby and proceeds to make my life a living hell. I have a feeling that in order to correct the situation I have to format and reinstall both of my domain controllers with the hope that ForestFucker doesn’t come by and gang-rape it all over again.