Upgrade from Standard to Enterprise 1

[teckystuff]

I have been looking for info on the web to upgrade one of my Exchange 5.5 boxes from Standard to Enterprise but have had little joy. Can anyone tell me or link me to how this is done and what issues I need to look out for. Licensing is not an issue here.

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[zbnet]

Backup your server (and check the backup log to ensure success).

Remove any Exchange hotfixes you've installed.

Stop all the Exchange services, and simply install Enterprise over the top of Standard.

Reapply Exchange SP4.

Reapply Exchange post-SP4 hotfix-rollup.

Reapply latest Exchange hotfixes.

Start all the services (if not already running.

Test!

(not sure where you're getting the media from for this...)

 

[teckystuff]

Thanks ZB - I had the media all along just havent ever upgraded but now we are pushing the 16Gb limit and I need to upgrade. I was hoping to pro-long it until our much long awaited AD/Exchange 2003 roll-out but between the politics and budgets it might still take forever.
Will it make any difference if I upgrade the primary server or one of the many "secondary" exchange servers?
Will my Webmail be affected in any way?
What is my roll-back plan if any?
Is restore from backup the only way back incase of problems.

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[zbnet]

>Will it make any difference if I upgrade the primary server or one of the many "secondary" exchange servers?

I don't know of any issues with a mixed environment of Exterprise and Standard servers. I'd start with the smallest, least impact easiest to restore server.

>Will my Webmail be affected in any way?

Not sure - I've never run any OWA on 5.5. I don't why it should be.

>What is my roll-back plan if any?
>Is restore from backup the only way back incase of problems.

Yes.


If you're wanting to prolong the existing network, and you have a spare server, add another mailbox server to the exising site, and move some mailboxes to it - this effectively gives you another 16GB of headroom (or 16TB if the new server you add is Enterprise!). If you're just about to implement an Exchange 2003 environment you're all licenced up for that already (or buy the license now), this will cover the additional - temporary - server.

 

[teckystuff]

Thanks again ZB. I had thought about the additional server and in fact I have already done that in the past...3 times Now I am out of spare servers and was thinking about the enterprise upgrade. One of my additional exchange servers is even running in a virtual environment.

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[zbnet]

Ouch. Sounds like you've been running this thing on a shoestring for a while. Someone needs to bang some heads together in management and get you some decent funding - methinks they take all your hard work for granted.

 

[teckystuff]

More than you know
The only thing keeping me sane is the carrot dangling in my face in the form of the huge AD/Exchange upgrade to the tune of just over 6 million bucks. Total hardware/software refresh. A range of HP DL380s, DL580s and ML350s and a nice big HP EVA4000 SAN with critical servers clustered with Virtual VMs using VMWare.
It should have happened last year November but it just keeps dragging. I just need that order number and I am smiling.

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