Upgrading to Exchange Server 2010

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As RTM date approaches, people are starting to ask "how can I migrate to Exchange Server 2010 ?"

This post will walk you along the migration path on a high level perspective, not going into 0's and 1's detail, but this will sure help you out.

First let's go ahead and cover the pre-requisites needed for deploying Exchange Server 2010.

On the Active Directory side :

 - Global Catalog running Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 on EACH Exchange AD Site

 - Windows Server 2003 Forest Functional Level

 - Schema Additions ( Installed with the Setup itself )

 - There is no HARD REQUIREMENT for 2008 Active Directory

On the Exchange Server side :

 - Mixing Exchange Server versions is supported

 - Existing Exchange Servers, 2003 or 2007, MUST have the Service Pack 2

There are other pre-requisites that needs to be installed and you can find them here :

 - Servers that will contain the Exchange Server roles must be Windows Server 2008 64-bit Edition ( Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter )

 - Windows PowerShell 2.0

 - .NET Framework 3.5

 - Windows Remote Management 2.0

 - Internet Information Services ( IIS )

We will have to install/ activate som server features as explained here :

How to Install Exchange 2007 SP1 and SP2 Prerequisites on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb691354.aspx

Migration Steps :

1 -  Upgrading path is from the Internet-facing Sites to the Internal sites.

2 - Install Exchange Server 2010 on the following order :

  • CAS - Client Access Server Role

  • HUB - HUB/ Transport Server Role

  • UM - Unified Messaging Server Role

  • MBX - Mailbox Server Role

  • This order should be ignored in case of a single server is deployed to host all the roles.

 

3 - Move the internet hostnames in order to point the Exchange 2010 CAS Server. This will also move the Autodiscover..

4 - Move the UM phone number for OVA ( Outlook Voice Access ) to point the Exchange 2010 UM Server.

5 - Start moving the Mailboxes.

As it was said before this is a straight forward migration.