consolidation of different exchange servers

[RMGBELGIUM]

Hi Exchange guru's,

I have an exchange related question :

One of our customers wants to consolidate his small exchange servers that are located around europe, into 1 big exchange server (2003).Now each exchange has its storage groups, but I would like to know if there is a way to import these foreign storage groups in the new exchange environment ? This way we would copy all storage groups over to the new SAN, and import them into the new exchange, or is this simply not possible? If not, which procedure is advised for doing a consolidation ?

Many thanks in advance,

Kind rgds,

R.

 

[zbnet]

Hmm - rather than moving whole storage groups, you can move mailboxes - across administrative groups with SP2 installed, if necessary.

 

[58sniper]

Yep - that's what I would do. Outlook will then automatically update itself with the new location if you leave the old server running for a few extra days.

You also end up with a new, clean database with little whitespace.

Pat Richard MVP

 

[xmsre]

Move mailbox if you have the bandwidth and time. It's the cleanest way with native tools.


If the issue is bandwidth, Ship the last backup tape. Once you verify the contents of the backup by restoring to RSG, set up a mailbox policy to dump everything prior to the backup on the source. Movemailbox the small difference, then backfill the content. Third party tools like powercontrols can simply the process, for a price. The cadillac of migration tools, Quest, does it all seamlessly in the background; again for a price.

 

[RMGBELGIUM]

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys ! I talked with the customer, move mailbox seems the way to go, as he has the bandwidth !

kind rgds,

R.