In the lifespan of an organisation its messaging environment
be transitioned to a newer version several times. Whilst this is not a
complicated thing to do it does require some level of planning and thought.
I’ll be addressing the transitioning from Exchange 2007 to 2010 from a fairly
simple view here. Since the general outlines of the process are the same for
nearly every situation there is no need for different detailed documents on
this.
We’ll be working with the following infrastructure in this
guide:
·
2 windows 2008 R2 domain controllers
(forest/domain level 2003 native).
·
1 Exchange 2007 SP3 server (all Exchange 2007
servers need to be SP2 minimum. Preferably SP3).
·
1 Exchange 2010 SP2 server.
The infrastructure used is the same as the servers that were
used for the “Transition from 2003 to 2007” and the “Exchange 2007 CCR” guides.
Preparation
As always we first need to be sure our AD is in a healthy
state and no replication errors are occurring. Secondly the Exchange needs to
be in a healthy state, yet if you only have one Exchange server in the
environment this will be likely the case.
Note that if you are planning to set
up a DAG and/or CAS array you will
need the enterprise license for windows!
Once you have your base OS (windows 2008 R2) for the Exchange
2010 server set up and configured install the active directory tools on it from
the features menu:
1.
Open servermanager
2.
Add features
3.
Expand down to Remote server administration
tools, Role administration tools, ADDS and AD LDS Tools
4.
Select AD DS Tools and confirm the pre
requisites pop up box.
5.
Next, Install, Finish.
6.
Reboot.
Now go download the office 2010 filter packs so setup won’t
nag you about it (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17062).
They do add in some functionality but I’m not going into depth on that subject
here.
Now that you have the AD DS tools & filterpacks
installed you are ready to prepare your forest and domain for Exchange 2010.
You could run the following commands on a domain controller but I tend to run
them from the Exchange server with AD DS installed, personal preference but it
does minimize hopping from server to server J.
The really, really wonderful thing about the Exchange 2010
setup process is that it will handle all installation of prerequisites and even
the preparation of the forest and domain! If you want to do each step manually
that is still possible using the setup.com in the setup folder.
Installation
Go ahead and launch setup and start the installation. Read
through the introduction and accept the EULA. Once again we are faced with the
error reporting option, up to you whether you want to help out Microsoft or
not.
Now, as you can see on the following screen there is a
checkbox at the bottom you can use to have setup automatically install whatever
it needs for the installation. Check this, change the install directory if
desired and select the Typical Exchange server installation. Click next.
New screen! Setup comes and asks you if the CAS server will
be internet facing, basically if clients will connect to it from over the
internet (outlook anywhere, owa,…) so check the box and give the domain name
that will be used for external clients.
Our next screen is the Customer experience improvement
program. Just like error reporting, signing up for this is up to you! Once you
click the next button setup will prepare and configure the prerequisites for
Exchange.
Once every prerequisite has been configured the install
button will be available, take the leap and install Exchange 2010. It will take
quite some time so site back, relax and have a coffee.
Once the setup has been completed you will be asked to
reboot before placing the server in production. So go ahead and do that right
now.
At this point you’d want to perform the following actions:
1.
Enter your product key
2.
Configure the receive connector
a.
Open the EMC
b.
Drill down to Server Configuration, Hub
Transport.
c.
Right click “Default Servername” and select
properties
d.
Open the permission groups tab
e.
Check anonymous users
f.
Click ok
3.
Enable outlook anywhere
a.
Open the EMC
b.
Drill down to server configuration, client
access
c.
In the right actions pane choose “Enable outlook
anywhere”.
d.
Select your authentication mechanism
i.
Basic will make your users enter a password each
time the open outlook
ii.
NTLM will use windows integrated authentication
(username and password)
e.
Enter your external host name
f.
Click the enable button
4.
Modify your firewall rules so that all external
traffic is sent to the 2010 server.
5.
Replicate public folders if necessary
6.
Move over users in batches if required
a.
Open EMC
b.
Drill down to Recipient configuration, Mailbox
c.
Select the users you want to move
d.
Right click and select “new local move request”
e.
Use the browse button to select the target
mailbox database
f.
Next, next, new, finish
Note here that this only creates a request to move the
mailbox and the actually moving will be done in the background! To view the
status of the move requests go to the Move request section under recipient
configuration. You have to manually remove the completed requests by right
clicking them and selecting “clear move request”
7.
Change the generation server for the OAB
a.
Open the EMC
b.
Drill down to organization configuration,
mailbox.
c.
Open the offline address book tab
d.
Right click the default OAB and select move
e.
Use the browse button to select the 2010 server
f.
Click move, finish.
8.
Remove the Exchange 2007 servers.
Theoretically this is all you should have to do to migrate a
pure environment without funnies. There might be additional services on the
network that require configuring but this should have been identified before
you start the migration. Hopefully…