Advice On Deploying Exchange 2003 1

[SCLDTony]

First off, thanks to all who have already assisted me. I really appreciate the help of the folks on this board.

We are ready to deploy Exchange 2003. Currently we are running a POP3 mail server (Gordano product). This mail server's mx record is pluto.scld.org.

We want to add our Exchange 2003 server to our 2003 AD domain and test before we "go live" with all of the users. We are considering the following options:

1. The Exchange 2003 server is currently set up on an internal test domain, seperate from our live domain. We own the domain name scld.net and are thinking of adding a mx and DNS record for exhange.scld.net and testing the server on the test network. This way we can test transparent to our live users.

2. Add the Exchange server to our live domain and add a second mx record for scld.org. Seems harder to test this way as pluto.scld.org (the pop3 server) will handle all initial mail requests from the internet and if its down mail will get delivered to exchange.scld.org (the new mx record for scld.org) and that could result in a loss of email.

3. Go for broke. Turn off the pop3 server and install the new Exchange server to our live AD network and give it the same name and IP address as the old pop3 server. That way its already resolved on the internet, clients are already set to receive mail from the server name. BUT there really is no testing. It may work. It may not. Scary to take that chance. Has anyone else?

Any advice on how to deploy in our environment (10 sites, around 200 users, Windows Server 2003/AD) would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Tony LaSoya
Spokane County Library District

 

[darren97]

If you are popping mail I assume you haven't got any static ip addresses at your disposal? If this is the case and you want to test your new exchange box, get the isp who holds scld.net to set up a pop3 catchall account and use a pop connector to pull the mail down for distribution by the exchange server.

http://www.cornerhouse.ca/en/products.html

provide a free pop collecting utility. Atleast you'll be able to test mail flow. If you do have static ip's available to you, ask the isp hosting scld.net to point the mx record to one of your static ip's and then NAT to the new exchange server.

 

[SCLDTony]

darren97,

Thank you for the reply. We do have static's available. So I need to contact our isp and have a dns and mx record created for scld.net and then nat from the external address to the internal address of the server? That makes sense. I can then create email addresses for test users at scld.net and then remove the dns and mx records once I move the server over to scld.org? Also, does it make sense to use our current mx record and external ip addres for scld.org when I install the exchange server to our live network? Thanks so much for your advice!

Tony

 

[darren97]

Yes, you can get your isp to point both mx records to your static ip address, and configure the new exchange box to receive mail for both domains if you wish

 

[jcurtiss]

pop3 to exchange migration for the timid:

1. set up the exchange server on your live domain. set it to receive mail for .org. none of this will affect your mail flow until you configure the clients to actually *use* the exchange server. you can, of course, have an internal domain name of scld.local and have the server receive mail for scld.org. as the case may be.

2. set up a couple of outlook clients to use the exchange server and send mail back and forth between them. send test mail from each of them to an external account (hotmail, yahoo, etc.) or you can use

http://exchange.yourdomain.local/exchange

for web access instead of outlook 2003.

3. in AD users/computers, set up exchange accounts for all your users. or maybe exchange setup does this? i don't know. either way, when you right-click a user name in active directory, "Exchange Tasks" needs to be an option. (this will be done on the exchange server, but you will have to add the exchange management tools to the domain controller or other machines that can view users/computers) add exchange accounts to everybody's outlook; change the default delivery folder to the exchange mailbox, not personal folders. and set the exchange account as the default account. move all the current personal folders inbox/sent/contacts/etc to the exchange mailbox. if there's a lot, the easiest way is to export all the personal folders to a pst, then import them to Mailbox.

4. so basically, you have both servers running now. pop account and exchange account. outside mail comes in with from the pop server and then the outlook client actually puts it onto the exchange server in Inbox. but all this is transparent to the end user. new mail, internal and external, is sent with the exchange account. replies are sent with the pop account.

5. when you are comfortable that everything is working, change the NAT on your firewall or router or whatever so the IP address of your pluto.scld.org is mapped to the internal address of the exchange server. this way mail sent to that same name is now routed to the exchange server instead of the pop server. but you don't have to use a 2nd ip address or get your isp to add a dns record.

unless you're using outlook express or something like that, using the exchange as a pop3 or imap server. then it's different.