migrating exchange 03 to new server

[Dizturbed]

a bit of advice needed really, or a point in the right direction.

Ive been asked to research the process for migrating our exchange 03 server to a new machine, its a hardened exchange install, migration will be to a new machine with a different name as it is currently running on our domain controller ( yes i am just throwing in what buzz words i know ).

another problem with the current install is it does not allow for accessing e-mails from company mobiles, possibly due to the hardening install. The company i work for has done these installs a number of business and it always worked fine.

it won't be myself doing the migration as i havent done much with servers before (feel free to call me a Noob) just researching this as a work project and i want to learn more about it.

thanks for any help.

[neilcritc]

yeah you can migrate exchange. Last time i did it it was a bit of a headache (backed all email accounts into a pst file) then created a new box, created new email accounts and imported pst files into email... Company of 50 users took about a day....

Have a look on microsoft site they have whitepapers on how to......

[Dizturbed]

will take a look see, id imagine whatever i come up with will be highly scrutinized and largely ignored.

cheers anywho.

[Mr.James]

It's pretty easy to be honest (under normal configuration). Just set up the new server in parallel to the old server. Then migrate the mailboxes from one server to the other. As long as the old exchange server is still online user's profiles will automatically update themselves.

One big no, no is to install Exchange on a Domain Controller so I wouldn't advise configuring the new server the same. It's for 2 reasons really, first is because of the standard microsoft 'performance' issues.

The second is more important. A Domain Controller may well have a service running on it called the 'Global Catalog' (Definitely if it is the first or only DC). Installing Exchange on a GC server will mean it only references the GC services on itself. If it the GC breaks Exchange can't fail over to a second DC server running a backup GC server and users will not be able to log in.

If you plan to decomission the old exchange box and it was the first exchange server to be installed in your environment you will need to follow these procedures to move important roles to your new server. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822931/

You will also need to configure the new exchange box to be your 'primary' box i.e. the one that routes all email in and out, applies email address policies, change your MX record in DNS etc.

Also if your exchange server is the only one in your environment and has 'hardened' security then chances are that it will have had unencrypted data exchange between the mobile devices disabled and forms based authentication enabled (harder to attack). It is possible to enable encrypted communication on exchange but it will require a bit more configuration if you exchange server a single server. If not you will need to configure 2 servers in a front-end/back-end configuration, front-end hosting the website back-end hosting the mailboxes. Look at the "Create a secondary virtual directory for Exchange server" section in this document for more info on how to set it up on a single server.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817379

[TotallyRandom]

you sound a little unsure on how to do this
Make sure the server is baked up before you do anything.
and if you have never done it get some one in to do it as this can screw up big time if not done correctly

there is few step by step guides out there that you need to follow to the letter.

Good luck

[Mr.James]

Take a look at this too...

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...EXCHG.65).aspx

[Mr.James]

This may help too...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/821829/en-us

[Dizturbed]

thanks lads, it wont be myself going at it, aiming to be involved. just been asked to look into it,

just wanted to get tips from anyone who would have done this before.

Karma + 1 for the responses.