5.5 to 2007 thoughts. 1

[zenophryk]

So I have a Win2k AD network. 2 cities. Exch 5.5 (on win2k servers) in both.
I know there's no direct migration path to 2007. but here's my plan and the reasoning behind it. Let me know if I'm smoking crack or I'm missing anything.

I'm going to upgrade the domain to 2003 AD first, by building new 2003 servers and promoting them into the domain. Reasign roles and decom the win2k boxes.

Then I'm going to install Exchange 2007 and create a new mail org. nice and fresh

then I'll route all incoming mail to the 2007 box, and have it forward any addresses not found to the old 5.5 box.

then I will slowly migrate users over by creating there mailbox on the 2007 server (so all new mail will arrive there) and export - pst - import the mail from 5.5 to 2007.

I have a total of 200 users (100 at each office)
I know the export/import process will be time consuming, but I can do a couple mailboxes at a time, and I should be able to skip the 2000/2003 middle step this way.


Everything I read says 2007 can't exist with 5.5, but if 2007 is in a new org, and there's no AD connector on the 5.5 server, why would they care?


any thoughts?

 

[NJForensics]

Zeno-

I would strongly suggest doing the stepped upgrade, for a couple reasons.

1. PST export / import is going to take a while. In Exchange 2007 / 2010 you don't have the benefit of exmerge, and would need a second server with appropriate 2007 /2010 management tools to do any kind of Import-Mailbox cmdlets. The other option being to sit at each machine, open Outlook attached to the new Exchange mailbox profile, and import from there. At 200 users, you would spend so much more time doing that then spinning up a quick 2003 Exchange server for the transition.
2. If you have 5.5 and an existing AD topology, then there is likely going to be legacy Exchange attributes tied to the user accounts for the old 5.5 org. If I am reading you correctly, you want to create a brand new org in 2007, create user mailboxes for existing user accounts and drop the PST's in.

Bite the bullet, spin up a 2003 box... you will save time and unexpected results.

Chris Clancy, EnCE CCE

MCITP: Enterprise Messaging
MCITP: Server Administrator

http://www.milestechnologies.com

" ... when you can't figure out what the problem is, find out what it isn't.... "

 

[58sniper]

First question I have is why are you going from one outdated legacy version to another outdated legacy version?

BTW - there is a flaw in your plan. You're not going to be able to install 2007 while you have 5.5 installed.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[NJForensics]

Lol Pat, good point. Either way, would you agree that regardless of platform....a stepped transition as opposed to PST import migration is probably the way to go?

Chris Clancy, EnCE CCE

MCITP: Enterprise Messaging
MCITP: Server Administrator

" ... when you can't figure out what the problem is, find out what it isn't.... "

 

[58sniper]

Absolutely agree. I'd spin up 2003, migrate to it. Kill off 5.5. Then build 2010 (not 2007), and migrate to it.

You can't do a stepped migration, because you'd have to export everything to .pst files, then remove Exchange, then build Exchange 2010, then import stuff back. That leaves the question of what happens to mailflow during that time.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[zenophryk]

NJ,
#1) I know a pst export/import will take a while. some of the mailboxes are almost 2gb but.
with the 2003 method, I would need to perform the migration to 2003 in 2 cities, then I can get rid of 5.5. then I have to install 2007 in 2 cities and migrate. that's a lot of travel and will get tiresome.

#2 I have 5.5 with AD 2000, there's no active directory connector installed, so there are no mail attributes in AD (as far as I'm aware)
I know I can't install 2007 in a mail org with 5.5 present, so that's why I want to start the new org. which should be ok, since 5.5 dosn't advertise itself in AD (since I don't have a connector) so 2007 shouldn't even know 5.5 is there.

 

[zenophryk]

Pat, I'm going to 2007 because of cost. I have the 2007 licenses and cals from some deal the owner made.

the plan of where mail goes during the migration, is all mail would route through the 2007 boxes, then boxes that weren't created there yet would be forwarded to the 5.5 box

if I use the pst method I can get help from the IT manager in the other city. he can handle pst exporting and importing, which cuts the job in half. there's no way he could do the stepped migration

so yea I know it's a lot more work, but is it possible?

 

[58sniper]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719(EXCHG.80).aspx[/URL]]You cannot have any Exchange Server 5.5 servers in your Exchange organization, and your Exchange organization must be running in native mode.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124008(EXCHG.80).aspx[/URL]]You cannot upgrade an existing Exchange Server version 5.5 organization to Exchange 2007. You must first migrate from the Exchange Server 5.5 organization to either an Exchange 2003 organization or an Exchange 2000 organization, and then you can transition the Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2000 organization to Exchange 2007.

Either way, I'd look at consolidating the users into one Exchange server (one location). And I've done several migrations without ever having leaving my office. Other than putting an OS on a box, everything can be done remotely.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[GrimR]

Pat, I would just like to add that a few years ago when Exch 2007 came out I was on 5.5, I upgraded all W2K servers to 2003 and installed Exch 2007 on the network. the only thing I had to do was remove all users in exch 2007 and add them back as it pulled all the users from 5.5. [so even though MS say you cant have them both running I did]
At that time importing of pst was not available so all my users had nice clean mailboxes with a separate pst file which to this day I have not imported.

MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP

 

[zenophryk]

Pat, those quotes don't apply, that's my whole point. the plan I stated twice was to built the 2007 servers in a NEW org. not the one that has the 5.5 servers.

the bandwidth between offices is not sufficient to run all the mail from one location.

Grim, when it pulled the users from 5.5 did it pull their mail as well? I have not seen this as a possibility anywhere.

 

[GrimR]

No, they had clean mailboxes. I just exmerged the 5.5 box to pst and added it to there outlooks.

MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP

 

[zenophryk]

so you added the pst's to the users oulook as a "before migration archive" so to speak? which was never imported into their mailbox? that certainly cuts down on the import time, but I think half my users would hate me if they had to look in 2 places for something.

I would love to hear more. were there any "gotcha's"

 

[GrimR]

Being only 100 users it was easy enough to reconnect them to the new server. I suppose if it was a larger org I would have done it as every one suggests and do the upgrade path. But I wanted to start with a clean mail server, as users just collect mail, so I told them it was not possible to import. All my users including managing partners still use psts, and I have included M$'s pst backup

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...3a-b7d0-4b16-b8af-5a6322f4fd01&displaylang=en

for them to backup their psts to a folder on the network.

"gotcha's" cant remember other than having to remove all the names that exch 2007 pulled over from the 5.5 server. Then just added everyone back. At least there are powershell scripts to do all this now.

MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP