Hi Folks, I am doing some preliminary research for an upcoming POP3 to Exchange migration and have a few general question that I hope you could answer. A basic overview of our company: 13 locations, aprox 150 users, all of which have a basic Windows 2003 DC/File server. All users have roaming profiles. POP3 is currently being provided by an outside source. All workstations are XP SP3 with Office 2003. Main office has a 10Mbps line while the branch office all have 2Mbps lines. Questions: 1) Should we be looking at Exchange 2007 or 2010? I have experience with Exchange 2000/2003 but very little with 2007/2010. If we do go to 2007 or 2010 I will have an opportunity to study up on them. Is it recommended to upgrade to server 2008 before using exchange 2007/2010? 2) Would exmerge be the best solutions for bringing all the .pst files into exchange? 3) What is the best solution for configuring outlook on the clients once the server is ready to go live? Branch offices are fairly spread out geographically. 4) What would be the best design for the network? ie One centralized exchange server or having each branch run their own their with a central server? Any other issues I may be missing? Thanks Curtis

1) I would always look at the latest versions of both the application and the operating system. Doing so puts off your next upgrade longer. 2) I think you're looking at Import-Mailbox, not Exmerge. Don't rule out having the users do it themselves. They'll likely bring in a lot less content than you would with your one-size-fits-all approach, so there would be less garbage in your databases on day one. 3) If you're running Outlook 2007 or later, it should pretty much figure everything out on its own. For Office 2003, how about you just give everyone instructions and help those who have trouble? 4) If people are getting their e-mail from the cloud now, then there's no reason to distribute the application now. For 150 users, one server should be plenty. Cached mode Outlook should make the user experience better in remote offices. -- Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems." . "Skribbles" wrote in message news:f8dafdfe-e7e1-4c6c-91dc-55ee9a9bdd3d... Hi Folks, I am doing some preliminary research for an upcoming POP3 to Exchange migration and have a few general question that I hope you could answer. A basic overview of our company: 13 locations, aprox 150 users, all of which have a basic Windows 2003 DC/File server. All users have roaming profiles. POP3 is currently being provided by an outside source. All workstations are XP SP3 with Office 2003. Main office has a 10Mbps line while the branch office all have 2Mbps lines. Questions: 1) Should we be looking at Exchange 2007 or 2010? I have experience with Exchange 2000/2003 but very little with 2007/2010. If we do go to 2007 or 2010 I will have an opportunity to study up on them. Is it recommended to upgrade to server 2008 before using exchange 2007/2010? 2) Would exmerge be the best solutions for bringing all the .pst files into exchange? 3) What is the best solution for configuring outlook on the clients once the server is ready to go live? Branch offices are fairly spread out geographically. 4) What would be the best design for the network? ie One centralized exchange server or having each branch run their own their with a central server? Any other issues I may be missing? Thanks Curtis Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

1) You should go directly to Exchange Server 2010. There are some fundamental changes done in 2010 so there is no reason to learn 2007 and then learn another new product if you want to move to 2010 later on. 2) Since you already have the PSTs you can use import-mailbox in Exchange 2010 to import the mailboxes. 3) There is quite a lot of alternatives when it comes to configuring the clients. You can rely completely on a new function called Autodiscover and let the users configure their own mailboxes. You can, depending on the Outlook version, deploy .msp-fil or .prf-files through GPO. There are more options as well but now you have a couple of alternatives to get you going. 4) I would recommend you to deploy a central server and let the bransh offices connect either internally or through internet. If there is no obvious reason to deploy one server per office it seems a bit to much for just a couple of users... These are just my opinions, I’ m sure that there are plenty of other opinions out there. Please let me know if you have any further questions!Martin Sundstrm | Microsoft Certified Trainer | MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator | http://msundis.wordpress.com

Thank you very much for your responses. I may bump this in a few weeks with a couple more questions.

I would go with Exchange 2010, because its way ahead of 2007 in so many areas its ridiculous. Also SP1 should be out pretty soon so it will make it even more robust, and if you go to 2007 now, upgrading from 2007 to 2010 is a forklift upgrade as well, i.e. no in place upgrade and you need 64 bit hardware for both 2007 and 2010 so its double the hardware. ExMerge will work for 2007 (although its not supported) however for Exchange 2010 you will need to use the Import-Mailbox function. Alternatively you can look at third party solutions like Lucid8's DigiScope http://www.lucid8.com/product/digiscope.asp that provide you with a GUI and all sorts of intuitive and powerful stuff. You know you might consider using the OWA / Web App for you users. Are they really in need of the thick Outlook client? Lots less for you to configure and for users to mess up if you use the Web App and with Exchange 2010 its pretty dang awesome in a number of ways. Check this out http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/outlook-web-access.aspx Based upon what you have written here, one (1) server should do very nicely, just give it plenty of memory and disk from the start. Troy