Migrating to 2010... twice?

[stevenriz]

Hi we are going to migrate Exchange 2007 to 2010 using a second server but we ultimately want Exchange to reside on the server 2007 is currently running on. The initial thoughts are to install 2010 on a second temp server and migrate the mailboxes and remove 2007 altogether. Then install 2010 on the original box and migrate the mailboxes back to finally decommission the temp server. Is this overkill? Is this something we might be able to do on the same box to save some time? Any other thoughts on this?

 

[58sniper]

I've seen orgs do that. The advantage in 2010 is that you can do online moves of mailboxes, so there is no downtime for the users if you move them from 2010 to 2010 during the business day.

What's VITALLY important is the you properly decommission the 2007 environment.

I'm also making the assumption that your hardware where 2010 will ultimately reside is sufficient to support 2010.

But one thing you might to consider is that if the temp 2010 box and the current 2007 box are identical, then going from 2007 to the temp box would be a perfect time to use the current 2007 box as a second server to create a Database Availability Group for HA. There is some planning involved there.

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

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