server upgrade check list

[selina]

hi,
i'm wondering if there is something (preferrably freeware) to check if everything is running properly after upgrading the servers from win2k to win2k3.

currently,
we have 2 sql servers which are running sql 2k on win2k. we are still gonna use the sql2k but upgrade the win to 2k3.
and we have exchanger 2k3 running on win2k. we are upgrading this win to 2k3 as well.
fsmo is already upgraded to 2k3 but the servers in branch offices are still on win 2k and they are not being upraded this time.

the reason i'm seaching for this is that when we upraded the fsmo to 2k3 from 2k, we had some problems wih dns service and it caused many other problems.

if i'm not specific enough, please let me know.

 

[Osiris]

Thats a good question, a tool would be nice, but I always rely on the Event Viewer as almost all problems will be reported to this. Are you having any issues at the moment?

 

[selina]

for the moment, the major problem is replication issue.
my users in branc offices are experiencing 'outlook is retrieving data' pop-up box in their outlook 2003. and after researching, (and still going on) it seems to be the communication issue between GC servers in the branch office and the 2 GC servers in the same segment as e2k3 server. (1 of them being the e2k3 server) i came to this conclusion when i found out that the only office who uses a server that does not have a GC list, the users are not expriencing the pop-up.
now, i know we can judge if outlook is requesting data to a GC server or an exchange server by reading the pop-up message. but it seems to be random; at some branch office, it's netbios format, others are in fqdn format. so i figured it's both alternatively. since each branch servers (with pop-up) have GC list as well as exchange server. and GC relies on DNS replication to communicate. so if DNS serivce is not running properly, i guess GC list wouldn't be replicated at they should.

am i sidetracked?