Exmerge- Moving mailboxes from 5.5 to exchange 2003

[MusicManJoe]

Hello All,

Thanks for reading this...

I am trying to move(copy) mailboxes from our old Exchange 5.5 server, to an Exchange 2003 server, which resides in a different domain from the 5.5 box. The issue is, I belive, I am having an authentication problem. Has anyone successfully done this?

Thanks again, Joe

 

[MusicManJoe]

Hello All,

Some more details:

The first errror I see in the exmerge.log file is as follows:

Error getting property 'configurationNamingContext' from the Directory (CADRoutines::GetNamingContextData)

The next error is:

Error 80005000 opening an LDAP connection. ('LDAP://<servername>:389') (CADRoutines::GetExchange5xServerNameInfo)

I did not build the Exchange 5.5 machine, but I do believe that 389 is the correct LDAP port, as if I try another port I receive a different error, and I am able, sort of, to access the LDAP directory via an LDAP browser.

Thanks all...
Joe

 

[AlexIT]

Try taking all the MB to .pst running Exmerge on 5.5. Then taking back from .pst to MB running Exmerge on 2003. If they are in different domains you may need two-way trust to connect, this will work around your error.

Alex

 

[MusicManJoe]

Hello Alex,

Thanks for your reply. I am using Microsoft's Small Business Server version of Exchange, and it does NOT allow Domain trusts.

Perhaps I have chosen the wrong version? I can't believe Microsoft hasn't made previsions for this...

Thanks, Joe

 

[AlexIT]

They did it deliberately, SBS users aren't supposed to grow past one server...

Ok, back to my first post - take all the MB to .pst by running Exmerge on Exchange 5.5. Copy these .pst to somewhere on new server (using tape/CDR.) Take back from .pst to MB running Exmerge on Exchange 2003. There is no domain reference in the .pst so you can move MB this way.

Alex

 

[MusicManJoe]

Alex,

Thanks for your quick response, I will try your suggestion, but according to the documentation I received with ExMerge, it only runs on Windows Server 2003, I am using Windows NT to host my old Exchange Server version 5.5.

The docs say ExMerge will run AGAINST 5.5, but not ON 5.5. I have thought of building up a 2003 server and adding to to my old domain, then moving it to the new one, but was hoping for a less labor intensive method. Is there an older version of ExMerge which will run directly on my Exchange 5.5 server?

Thanks again, Joe

 

[AlexIT]

Joe,

The version I used was part of Exchange 2000 res kit and it ran fine on NTsp6/Ex5.5 (I did exactly what I am suggesting a couple times at clients...) Try running the version you have, it should work.

Alex

 

[MusicManJoe]

Thanks Alex,

I will try that and let you know...

Joe

 

[brc666]

Hi joe

Did this work for you? I am NT4SBS and ex5.5 and trying to go to w2003 server and ex2003. How did you get your users from NT to 2003 so that you could associate the mailboxes exported by exmerge with them?

Ben

 

[MusicManJoe]

Hello Ben,

I was not able to simply copy the exmerge.exe and .ini files to the exch\bin directory and run it, as when I tried it complained of missing files. The email server at this site has degraded to the point of not being backed up for a long time, so I am working out a plan to get that done before "tweaking" things and trying this again....

The user base is very small here, I simply recreated the users in the AD structure manually...

Sorry I can't be of more help, I will post the solution once I arrive at one, but I do want a good backup before progressing further on this...

Joe

 

[AlexIT]

I typically recreate users, but if lots of them I used ADMT to migrate users into AD.

Alex

 

[jgriffin]

THe administrator password must be the same between the two boxes. I have done several sbs 4.5 to sbs2003 upgades and have seen this problem several times. Even if you connect to the old server with the correct credential via IPC etc, exmerge will try to use the logged on user credentials for the LDAP lookup.

Set the same username / password on both servers for the migration and it should all be good.