Hello, I'm able to have the mail server down for a day or two so I want to try a more simple upgrade to 2010. Say I uninstall Exchange 2007 but I keep the .edb file. If I install then Exchange 2010 would it be possible to create the mail boxes and restore mailbox data in the new setup just by using the .edb comming from Exchange 2007? Thanks in advance. John 3D

No, it wont work, and its not proper way to migrate ex 2007 mailboxes to Ex 2010. Better option is, you install Ex 2010 in the AD of ex 2007, so that both exists in same Exchange organization, then you will move mailboxes to Ex 2010 one by one, either using EMC or using EMS. Plz have a look into this link: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchange2010/thread/d3b0b57a-234a-48ed-864d-a2ae311f79d6 Regards,Laeeq Qazi|Team Lead(Exchange + Sharepoint + BES + DynamicsCRM) www.HostingController.com

Thank you, however afaik I need another machine to install Ex2010 right? That's what I don't want to do :s

Thank you, however afaik I need another machine to install Ex2010 right? That's what I don't want to do :s You must prepare another machine for Ex 2010. Its a requirement bcoz as I said inplace upgrade is not supported. Another route is there, but its not a recommended route. Just export ur all mailboxes into PSTs, and then remove ur exchange07 from this machine, and then reload windows 2008 and install ex 2010 on this same machine and import mailboxes from PST files. In this option u will loose all other data like GAL + OABs, your send receive connectors etc and u will have to start from scratch on 2010. It may also cause longer downtime for your ex 2007 users. I suggest u to visit the link provided in my last post, and read the articles mentioned in that post. Regards, Laeeq Qazi|Team Lead(Exchange + Sharepoint + BES + DynamicsCRM) www.HostingController.com

Thank you for you quick answers. Is there any microsoft site where they officially say that no in-place upgrade is possible and no migration only from ex07 edb files is possible either? This is so hard to believe, I need an official site to prove it.

From the link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124350.aspx You can't perform an in-place upgrade from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010. However, you can install an Exchange 2010 server into the existing Exchange organization and then move resources, such as mailboxes, public folders, and connectors to Exchange 2010. After you perform this procedure, your organization will be running in a coexistence mode. You can maintain this mode for an indefinite period of time, or you can immediately complete the upgrade to Exchange 2010 by moving all resources from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010 and then decommissioning the Exchange 2007 servers.Tim Harrington - Catapult Systems - http://HowDoUC.blogspot.com

Database portability between Exchange versions is not possible. supposedly third party products can do it (I have no experience with these): http://www.goexchange.com/product/digiscope.asp http://www.ontrackpowercontrols.com/solutions/exchange-overview/ From link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123954(EXCHG.80).aspx Mailbox databases from previous versions of Microsoft Exchange cannot be moved to a mailbox server running Exchange 2007. Database portability is for Exchange 2007 mailbox databases only. From link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876873.aspx Database portability is for Exchange 2010 mailbox databases only. Public folder databases aren't portable. This is because replication between public folder databases is controlled by each database being linked to and accessed through a specific server. The preferred way to move public folder data between servers is to use public folder replication to replicate it to a different server. If you instead simply copy a public folder database to a different server, it will no longer replicate with other databases. Tim Harrington - Catapult Systems - http://HowDoUC.blogspot.com

John, the information that Laeeq and Tim provided you is correct, i.e. there is no in place upgrade from 2007 to 2010 and while Lucid8's DigiScope http://www.lucid8.com/product/digiscope.asp will most certainly allow you to crack open the 2007 EDB and inject it into the 2010 production environment, I would not purposefully take down the old 2007 server and upgrade over the server with the Exchange 2010 server unless you know all the potential ramifications of doing so. I would also plan for allot more time than you think, since Murphy likes to strike at times like these and something invariable goes wrong right as you are 99.99% done. Should you determine that this is a desired course of action then I would suggest that you check out the DigiScope product and the Project Based licensing that is meant for jobs like this. Troy Werelius Lucid8

Hello, I had to go in the microsoft way in the end. It's incredible how smooth the transition is when doing it according to microsoft way. Thanks