I have Exchagne server 2007 with CCR cluster & one HUB/CAS/Edge Server. Now I want to upgrade to 2010 with three mailbox servers in DAG including one server in DR. One dedicated server for HUB/CAS & one dedicated server for Edge. Also changing the servers & storage. pl suggest the best way of upgradation.

Hire a consultant is always the best way. The architecture change in mailbox management in particular is significant and you would be well advised to get in additional support to design it for you. Remember there are no in place upgrade options, so you will have to migrate to new servers. The Microsoft Deployment Assistant might be able to provide some assistance as well. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exdeploy2010/default.aspx#Home However given the complexity, a consultant to assist is going to be your best option. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources

In addition to what Sembee has stated, if you have the time and want to learn then Virtualization is your friend for migration projects. You can setup your production as VM's and test, practice and learn before you actually perform this task.MVP Exchange Server

Existing Exchange server 2007 is configured as CCR cluster using the external SAN storage & both of servers has only two internal harddisk for OS & exchange binary . Both of servers use the same storage. My proposed exchange server 2010 has also two internal harddisk & I have assume to use the same external storage which is 1.5TB spae. My current database size is 1TB. Do I need to require two storage for cnfiguring the cluster? If yes then 2010 cluster seems quite expensive. Rgds Arun

My planning to implement the Exchagne cluster is: I have two servers with 2 internal hard disk & one External storage. I will configure the Ms. Cluster using external stroage so that if my server1 goes down then other server will takeover the mailbox role. How can I configure the cluster using singel storage on Exchange 2010. Rgds Arun

You either need to hire a consultant or go and do a lot of reading. The way that Exchange 2010 handles clustering has completely changed. What you want to do isn't possible with Exchange 2010. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources

If I want to have redundancy on Server level then it' not possible on Exchange 2010? DAG seems quite expensive as we need the double storage.

A DAG is your only option. Storage is cheap. The concept of shared storage for Exchange has gone. Microsoft's way of thinking now is that you have the data on two or more servers on cheap storage, and that provides your data protection capabilities. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources

Anyone tested the performance on SATA drive.

SATA disks work fine, just use lots of them for maximum performance. Whether you would find it acceptable or not is a different matter. However the whole Exchange 2010 database design change is to allow the use of lots of cheap disks, rather than a smaller number of more expensive ones. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources

Exchange 2010 is now heavily dependent on memory caching. I do not know how many mailbox you have, but in most setup one medium range 1U Server is over the top, for most setup. With DAS attached storage. You do not need 15k SAS drives. You can go with only SATA drives. Capacity depends with the size of database. and DAS is chip compare to SAN. Look for online calculator for help. Basically, what you can do, is setup three servers with HUB&CAS&MBX role, deploy all three server in single DAG. Half of the active mailboxes would be setup on one Server other half on second server, and on the third server you have all passive copy databases. These would achieve load balancing and High-Availability . If you have enough storage space, you can setup that first to members in DAG host both Active and passive mailbox database, and third server is for DR purposes only, and host only passive databases and is activated only when both primary servers failed.

I have completed the Exchange upgradation to 2010. Thanks all for the advise.Arun Khatri