Folks - we are wanting to go from Exchange 2003 SBS to Exchange 2010. An effort was made by a partner to do the migration however it failed badly and it took a Microsoft Engineer a couple hours to get the current Exchange 2003 server functioning again. There were all kinds of FSMO problems, etc. Rather than try to unravel all of that, I was thinking of creating a whole new Active Directory with a clean Exchange 2010 installation and migrating from their old Active Directory / Exchange 2003 setup to the new tree. I was hoping I could get some advice with the high level steps / process. Would I: Step 1. Setup new Win Server 2008 R2 with a new AD tree. Step 2. Migrate in user / computer accounts. Step 3. Install Exchange 2010. Step 4. Exmerge on the current 2003 server Step 5. Import PST's into Exchange 2010 OR Would I: Step 1. Setup new Windows Server 2008 R2 with new AD tree. Step 2. Install Exchange 2010. Step 3. Migrate in user / computer accounts. Step 4. Exmerge on the current 2003 server. Step 5. Import PST's into Exchange 2010. I believe starting with a new AD would be my best bet since I cannot trust my current AD with all that has happened with the failed migration so I just figured it would avoid a lot of downtime and problems starting with a new tree and bringing in my current users / computer accounts. I would love to hear your thoughts about the best way to approach this. Thanks in advance! -- Brian

On Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:01:39 +0000, Milehijones wrote: > > >Folks - we are wanting to go from Exchange 2003 SBS to Exchange 2010. An effort was made by a partner to do the migration however it failed badly and it took a Microsoft Engineer a couple hours to get the current Exchange 2003 server functioning again. There were all kinds of FSMO problems, etc. Rather than try to unravel all of that, I was thinking of creating a whole new Active Directory with a clean Exchange 2010 installation and migrating from their old Active Directory / Exchange 2003 setup to the new tree. I was hoping I could get some advice with the high level steps / process. > >Would I: Step 1. Setup new Win Server 2008 R2 with a new AD tree. Step 2. Migrate in user / computer accounts. Step 3. Install Exchange 2010. Step 4. Exmerge on the current 2003 server Step 5. Import PST's into Exchange 2010 > >OR > >Would I: Step 1. Setup new Windows Server 2008 R2 with new AD tree. Step 2. Install Exchange 2010. Step 3. Migrate in user / computer accounts. Step 4. Exmerge on the current 2003 server. Step 5. Import PST's into Exchange 2010. The only difference is the order of steps 2 and 3. Take your choice, but I'd move the users before installing Exchange if you're going to use Exmerge. That's just my preference, though. >I believe starting with a new AD would be my best bet since I cannot trust my current AD with all that has happened with the failed migration so I just figured it would avoid a lot of downtime and problems starting with a new tree and bringing in my current users / computer accounts. I would love to hear your thoughts about the best way to approach this. Thanks in advance! -- Brian Depending on your experience and the number of AD objects you have, you could use just the tools Microsoft offers to do this. Or you could use a product that offers lots of help with the migration. Keeping distribution groups and public folders in sync, leaving behind mail-enabled contacts in the old Exchange organization, preserving legacyExchangeDN addresses, folder permissions, delegates, etc. is always a PITA. Exchange is the least of your problems, though. Moving to another AD means moving all the user desktops and the customizations they've done on them. They can be very possessive of the environment in which they work. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Rich - thanks so much for your response - it's much appreciated! In lieu of starting with a fresh AD, what are my options for having an SBS 2003 Exchange Server in the same AD with a 2010 Exchange server? Can they coexist or will installing Exchange 2010 on a server that is a member of the current AD cause problems? Here is a bit of background, with this site, that I am finding out as I dig in more: Apparently there was a failed Exchange 2007 installation that occurred a couple years back. I have no details as to why it failed - just notes from a previous reseller. Then there was the recent failed Exchange 2010 installation / migration that required a microsoft engineer to unravel and get Exchange SBS 2003 to work again. I am seeing all kinds of inconsistencies with SystemMailbox objects in their current AD - in general, it appears to be a big mess. Yes everything is working currently but I do not know what I do not know - if that makes sense. So that is kinda what was driving me to starting fresh with a new AD / new Exchange 2010 installation. A side question I have is if exmerge is failing because of a missing LegacyDN attribute on a disabled SystemMailbox object (dunno why it is disabled - I am guessing that was done by Microsoft Tech Support to try to get things working again) - would setting the LegacyDN attribute affect anything if I left the object disabled? Does exmerge need that user object to be active to read that attribute? ugh..just a big mess :-) Anyway, given 2 failed Exchange installations is what is making me just want to put this AD tree aside, migrate or import into a new AD what I can, and start fresh - what do you think, Rich?

On Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:25:44 +0000, Milehijones wrote: >Rich - thanks so much for your response - it's much appreciated! > >In lieu of starting with a fresh AD, what are my options for having an SBS 2003 Exchange Server in the same AD with a 2010 Exchange server? Can they coexist or will installing Exchange 2010 on a server that is a member of the current AD cause problems? If this was just an Exchange question I'd tell you that there's no problem installing Exchange 2010 in the same organization as E2K3. But SBS comes with its own set of problems and limitations. You'd get a better anser to this question in a SBS forum. >Here is a bit of background, with this site, that I am finding out as I dig in more: > >Apparently there was a failed Exchange 2007 installation that occurred a couple years back. I have no details as to why it failed - just notes from a previous reseller. Then there was the recent failed Exchange 2010 installation / migration that required a microsoft engineer to unravel and get Exchange SBS 2003 to work again. I am seeing all kinds of inconsistencies with SystemMailbox objects in their current AD - in general, it appears to be a big mess. Yes everything is working currently but I do not know what I do not know - if that makes sense. Is this Donald Rumsfeld? :-) >So that is kinda what was driving me to starting fresh with a new AD / new Exchange 2010 installation. > >A side question I have is if exmerge is failing because of a missing LegacyDN attribute on a disabled SystemMailbox object (dunno why it is disabled - I am guessing that was done by Microsoft Tech Support to try to get things working again) - would setting the LegacyDN attribute affect anything if I left the object disabled? Does exmerge need that user object to be active to read that attribute? There should be a "SystemMailbox{GUID}" for each mailbox database. The "GUID" should match the value in the database's objectGUID property. The legacyExchangeDN on the SystemMailbox{GUID} should be "/o=<ORG>/ou=<ADMINGROUP>/cn=Recipients/cn=SystemMailbox{GUID}" or o=<ORG>/ou=<ADMINGROUP>/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=<SERVER>/cn=<DATABASE> If this were not SBS and E2K3 I'd say to move everything to a new database and then nuke the one that's hosed. Before Exchange 2007 the system mailboxes were of the objectClass "User". Exchange 2007 changed that to msExchSystemMailbox. The Exchange 2003 system mailbox users were disabled (they had no need to be used for anything except mailboxes). >ugh..just a big mess :-) > >Anyway, given 2 failed Exchange installations is what is making me just want to put this AD tree aside, migrate or import into a new AD what I can, and start fresh - what do you think, Rich? SBS being different, I don't know how they could have tried to upgrade an E2K3 server to E2K7. An in-place upgrade isn't possible. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP