Howdy All,
Currently I have an Exchange 2003 Standard Edition install (which is also on a DC, I know, bad idea --- I inherited this from a consultant). We've really outgrown this box and its out of warranty in four weeks (Yay!!)
SO
I have my brand new 64bit dual processor quad core xeon machien with 8gb RAM sitting in my office waiting to do something! I also have my new licenses, media, backup agents and all the fun stuff.
I've been doing a bunch of reading on Exchange 2007 about installing, upgrade paths, problems, things to consider and its all starting to run together. Has anybody found a good (or written one) step by step road map to upgrading? The new Exchange server will NOT be a DC in the end and once it is up and going, the Exchange 2003 machine will be decommissioned (the entire box).
A few things about my environment in hopes I can get some pointers and/or things I may not have considered:
- I currently have three domain controllers, I will have two after I decommission the current exchange box. All three are currently Global Catalogs. They are Win 2k3 SP2 32 bit, one is an R2 with the Schema extended for the R2 objects. The Domain and Forest Functional level is 2003. one of the articles I read said that ideally I should have a 64bit Global Catalog server but right now I can't afford to do it and I have about 120 user objects in AD so I don't think I'm going to have a big GC overhead issue with Ex 2007.
- I want to setup Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 (both standard edition). I have the media for both; my Exchange 2007 media is SP1 (just arrived this morning).
- I will have ONE Exchange 2007 Server -- I am not going to be using unified messaging. My mail is filtered through a 3rd party provider and my firewalls allow only that 3rd party to connect to me on port 25. Therefore I don't think that I need the Edge Transport server role (and I don't think I can install it on the same machine as the mailbox role?).
- I have users who use Outlook 2002 and Outlook 2003; I also have some public folders and need to keep those and migrate those to the EX 2007 (all of my public folders are calendars if that makes any difference). I'm hoping to migrate the users away from these eventually but even if I didn't have any in active use, I would need to keep these around since I have "legacy" clients.
- Exchange Best Practices Analyzer is giving me the all clear, I've cleared up the SRS issues I had remaining from when the company migrated to ex 2003 prior to me starting. I'm also running Exchange 2003 in Native Mode at this time.
So the actual install questions:
- What are the gotchas or things I need to watch for during the actual install of the Exchange System (or the OS)
- I have the pre-reqs list of things to install to Win 2008 from the TechNet article with the title "How to install Ex 2007 SP1 Pre Reqs on Win 2k8 or Win Vista" - seems clear enough
- In the reading I've done I'm missing what I consider a critical link -- when I install Exchange 2007 and say setup a test mailbox there HOW does mail move between Ex 2007 and Ex 2003? As I move actual users there how do I ensure mail flows well?
- At what point does it become appropriate to direct my firewall to start delivering incoming mail to the Ex 2007 server vs the Ex 2003 server. My public MX records go to my 3rd party filtering provider who then delivers mail to my server through static NAT firewall ACL's on ports.
- Am I understanding the Client Access Server role properly in that as I start moving user mailboxes to the Ex 2007 role if a user whose mailbox still lives on Ex 2003 they will get the Ex 2003 web interface "automatically"
- As I begin moving users mailboxes from Ex 2003 to Ex 2007, how does the client get configured? Somewhere I thought I saw something that the client picks up that the mailbox location moved to a new server.
So what big glaring things am I missing? And any good checklist to use as a guide as all my reading is starting to turn into mush...and I'd really like to end up with a clean environment when everything is done with.
Sorry for the length
Mark L / TNGPicard
Currently I have an Exchange 2003 Standard Edition install (which is also on a DC, I know, bad idea --- I inherited this from a consultant). We've really outgrown this box and its out of warranty in four weeks (Yay!!)
SO
I have my brand new 64bit dual processor quad core xeon machien with 8gb RAM sitting in my office waiting to do something! I also have my new licenses, media, backup agents and all the fun stuff.
I've been doing a bunch of reading on Exchange 2007 about installing, upgrade paths, problems, things to consider and its all starting to run together. Has anybody found a good (or written one) step by step road map to upgrading? The new Exchange server will NOT be a DC in the end and once it is up and going, the Exchange 2003 machine will be decommissioned (the entire box).
A few things about my environment in hopes I can get some pointers and/or things I may not have considered:
- I currently have three domain controllers, I will have two after I decommission the current exchange box. All three are currently Global Catalogs. They are Win 2k3 SP2 32 bit, one is an R2 with the Schema extended for the R2 objects. The Domain and Forest Functional level is 2003. one of the articles I read said that ideally I should have a 64bit Global Catalog server but right now I can't afford to do it and I have about 120 user objects in AD so I don't think I'm going to have a big GC overhead issue with Ex 2007.
- I want to setup Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 (both standard edition). I have the media for both; my Exchange 2007 media is SP1 (just arrived this morning).
- I will have ONE Exchange 2007 Server -- I am not going to be using unified messaging. My mail is filtered through a 3rd party provider and my firewalls allow only that 3rd party to connect to me on port 25. Therefore I don't think that I need the Edge Transport server role (and I don't think I can install it on the same machine as the mailbox role?).
- I have users who use Outlook 2002 and Outlook 2003; I also have some public folders and need to keep those and migrate those to the EX 2007 (all of my public folders are calendars if that makes any difference). I'm hoping to migrate the users away from these eventually but even if I didn't have any in active use, I would need to keep these around since I have "legacy" clients.
- Exchange Best Practices Analyzer is giving me the all clear, I've cleared up the SRS issues I had remaining from when the company migrated to ex 2003 prior to me starting. I'm also running Exchange 2003 in Native Mode at this time.
So the actual install questions:
- What are the gotchas or things I need to watch for during the actual install of the Exchange System (or the OS)
- I have the pre-reqs list of things to install to Win 2008 from the TechNet article with the title "How to install Ex 2007 SP1 Pre Reqs on Win 2k8 or Win Vista" - seems clear enough
- In the reading I've done I'm missing what I consider a critical link -- when I install Exchange 2007 and say setup a test mailbox there HOW does mail move between Ex 2007 and Ex 2003? As I move actual users there how do I ensure mail flows well?
- At what point does it become appropriate to direct my firewall to start delivering incoming mail to the Ex 2007 server vs the Ex 2003 server. My public MX records go to my 3rd party filtering provider who then delivers mail to my server through static NAT firewall ACL's on ports.
- Am I understanding the Client Access Server role properly in that as I start moving user mailboxes to the Ex 2007 role if a user whose mailbox still lives on Ex 2003 they will get the Ex 2003 web interface "automatically"
- As I begin moving users mailboxes from Ex 2003 to Ex 2007, how does the client get configured? Somewhere I thought I saw something that the client picks up that the mailbox location moved to a new server.
So what big glaring things am I missing? And any good checklist to use as a guide as all my reading is starting to turn into mush...and I'd really like to end up with a clean environment when everything is done with.
Sorry for the length
Mark L / TNGPicard
