Exmerge - Exch5.5 to Exch2003

[SpideySMJ]

We recently aquired a company that is using Exchange 5.5 for their email. We are currently on Exchange 2003, and of course in a seperate organziation. After doing some research it seems like the only way (best way)is to use Exmerge to migrate the mailboxes. However, I have a few questions I'm not quite clear on yet.

1. Do I use the old exmerge program for 5.5 or can I use the new Exmerge for Exchange 2003?

2. There seemed to be some disclaimers in the exmerge software that suggested I couldn't migrate them unless they would be in the same "container" as when they were exported. I don't see how this is possible if I'm going from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003. Am I just reading this information wrong? Should it work properly?

3. Do I need to have their user accounts in AD created beforehand or will Exmerge create them for me?

Has anyone used Exmerge to migrate from Exch 5.5 to 2003 across different organizations? How did it go? What should I watch out for? Any information is appreciated.

"I reject your reality and substitute one of my own.

 

[volleyman]

Exmerge would not be the suggested method for this type of migration IF you are also migrating the user accounts into the same domain, which it sounds like you are doing.

The cleanest method would be this:

1. Create a 2-way trust between the domains

2. migrate user accounts into the domain using ADMT w/ the SID history option turned on.

3. migrate mailboxes using the exchange migration wizard. This is NOT the exmerge tool, this is a specialized migration tool.

4. manually move public folders (there is no clean, automated way of doing this).

Here is a very helpful link:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/downloads/exchsrvr.mspx

hope this helps...



Zane D.
Systems Admin

 

[netometer]

Hi!
I’ve used both approaches and here is what I can add.
First, I must say that the method which Volleyman is digesting is the easier method considering administrative efforts. Actually this is the method which Microsoft recommends. I’ve had problems with that method (due to my ignorance) because the customer in the child domain was using fax software which had extended the AD schema with specific attributes.
The other approach using Exmerge is a safer one in case you are willing to spend the administrative efforts to export/import manually the user mailboxes. I’ve done this for child domains with 100 – 300 users successfully and to tell you the truth I would prefer this method.
It is a good idea to set the Active Directory structure before you proceed to reconfiguring the Messaging infrastructure. If you have currently Active Directory in place in the acquired company than using ADMT (Active Directory Migration Tool) is the best approach. After that use the Exchange Migration Wizard. As a matter of fact it uses the ExMerge utility in its two step migration form. It just helps you in the automatically matching of the mailboxes for the users.
If the acquired company is NT 4.0 domain, than it is going to be easier to upgrade the domain to Windows 2003 Active Directory as a child domain or a join the existing domain. Than export the mailboxes to pst files, create mailboxes for the new users and import them in their mailboxes

NetoMeter

http://www.netometer.net

 

[SpideySMJ]

Thanks both of you for the suggestions. I'm having a few issues with both methods in my initial tests.

Mailbox Migration Wizard:
This looks like it would work perfect for me. However, when trying to login to the Exchange 5.5 server from within the wizard an error box pops up and tells me it cannot logon to the exchange server. It asks me to verify the port, servername, username and password. All of that information is correct. I can ping the exchange server, connect to the shares on that server, have verified the username and password are correct, and verified their permissions in that org. Anything else I should be checking for? What else may be preventing this from going through.

Exmerge:
I was able to export a test mailbox but am unable to import it back in to the new exchange organization. The error reads: Error opening message store (MSEMS). Verify that the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service is running and that you have the correct permissions to log on.

Obviously this is a permissions issue, and I am able to log on as myself, give myself permissions to the new mailbox, and import the data. But I can't import the data if I am logged on as the Exchange Admin account. Why?

"I reject your reality and substitute one of my own.