About to move from Exchange 2000 to 2003 this weekend 1

[AndyNZ]

O.K
Just thought i'd put my plan on the site to see if there are any issues I have not thought of.

I have 1 Exchange 2000 SP3 server still running in mixed mode.
I have a new server (win2003) on which I am going to install Exchange 2003 on.
I want to join the Ex2000 Org and move the mailboxes etc off and temporarily leave the Exchange 2000 server as the Internet Mail Bridgehead.

Step1.
Change Exchange 2000 to Native mode after removing SRS and old ADC connector.

Step2.
Install Exchange 2003 into the organization

Step3.
Install Exchange 2003 SP1

Step4.
Move mailboxes from Ex2000 server to E2k3 server using the move mailbox feature.

Step5.
Somehow replicate the public folders to the new server

Will Exchange 2003 automatically send receive mail through the E2k bridgehead server?
Do I need to manually set up an SMTP connector to deliver mail and receive mail from the E2k server?
Or will it just flow through the old Exchange 2000 server to the E2k3 server automatically?
Both servers are in the same location, subnet etc.

 

[wdoellefeld]

That's a solid plan and is how I did it. The public folder replication and transfer can take a bit to complete.

A couple things I can think of are Exchange 2000 can't act as a formal front end for Exchange 2003. I can't image a simple SMTP connector (which you will need if you don't want to the 2003 machine to send directly) would not work though. Receipt of mail should be fine as long as its in the same organization, which it sounds like it is.

FRCP

http://www.frcp.net

 

[AndyNZ]

Thanks!

Yes just one organization.

No Front end servers with OWA or anything like that.
Just a basic Back End E2k server.
I have quite a few in house apps that relay through Exchange as well, so i'll need to visit each one of these and point to the new server, and add then allow relay for the appropriate IP's i think.

The new server has a lot more grunt, so should I make it the routing group master? Even though it does not house the internet mail connector.
Yet.
I will be decomissioning the E2k server after I have moved the relays and sorted the external namespace to deliver to the new server IP address.
Im hoping to get a performance boost for the clients who are running Outlook 2003 as well.
Currently I have our CFO with a large 800mb mailbox taking 20 secs to receive internal e-mail to his inbox.
I've read a bit about Outlook 2003's Cached mode and am hoping this doesn't delay anything when the user is connected to the domain. I.e polling times to the server reduce, so does this mean the user will have to wait 5 - 10 seconds for mail delivery between polls regardless of the server grunt?

'Scuse the large post, i've got a lot going through my mind at the mo