EXC11: Migrating to Exchange 2010 from Exchange 2003 Jim McBee Ithicos Solutions LLC

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 Today’s coverage Focus is on Exchange 2003 Prerequisites – What can you do today? Lessons learned Migration process

 Prerequisites Most common problems are ones that can be avoided. Planning, evaluating existing environment, avoiding show-stoppers, preparing existing environment. Prepare your Active Directory in advance

Existing environment I can’t say this often enough Look at ALL the software you currently use Determine upgrade path and how it will work in the future

Software and third party add-ons Antivirus / anti-spam / content security software Backup software Firewall / reverse proxies Load balancers Storage / storage drivers / storage management Blackberry or other mobile device servers Faxing / voic integration Message signature software Client-side software

Active Directory Exchange 2010 *will* expose any potential problems ● Get Active Directory Sites and Subnets defined properly Setup.com /PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions Setup.com /PrepareSchema Setup.com /PrepareAD Setup.com /PrepareAllDomains All domain controllers should be running W2K3 SP2 Forest should be in W2K3 forest functional mode All domains should be in W2K3

Exchange Preparation All Exchange servers must be running Exchange 2003 SP2 Exchange 2003 must be in native mode Link state must be disabled ●

Document… How does mail flow in your environment? What software or services use the Exchange server for messaging or relay? ● Digital Senders? Copiers? Help Desk software? Who are your biggest users? What client versions are in use? ● Outlook, webmail, mobile phones Have you written any custom applications: ● Using WMI? WebDAV? Transport sinks? ExOLEDB? MAPI? ● What is your plan for moving ahead?

Tools Exchange Best Practices Analyzer v2.8 ● Identify and fix existing problems ● Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer ● JetStress 2010 ● Load Generator ●

Exchange Connectivity Analyzer

Exchange Deployment Assistant Wizard driven Asks a series of questions Provides you a checklist

Exchange Servers Minimum dual proc/quad core servers Minimum 8GB of RAM Disk space considerations for snapshot backups Windows Server 2008 R2 ● Office 2007/2010 Filter Pack x64 ● Plus some additional prerequisites (or)

 Lessons Learned Some things you learn the hard way

Build a representative lab Lab environment should match your existing environment closely ● Storage / backup ● Same hardware platform ● Load balancers Test your D/R and failover designs! Test Did I say test?

Some little things… Storage, admin, and routing groups are gone Transaction logs are 1MB Hub Transport queues in a ESE database Maximum of 100 databases Single copy clusters gone Client Access and Hub Transport server roles required W2K domain controllers will cause issues

Admin interface All Exchange administration performed through Exchange Management Console ● This includes recipient administration Active Directory Users and Computers extensions no longer work properly ● They should be removed from admin’s workstations ● Set a demarcation point at which you remove them Admin tools are only x64 ● Use Windows 7 x64 ● Set up W2K8 x64 Terminal Server for administrators

Outlook 2003 client issues Outlook 2007 / 2010 is a better client Outlook 2003 SP2 should be used UDP notifications gone ● Results in up to a 1 minute delay RPC encryption required on E2K10 RTM ● See KB More client issues: ●

Transaction log replay lag… Meh….

Load balancing expertise Windows NLB does not work on servers with Mailbox role if server is in a DAG Recommendation that a hardware load balancer be used: ● F5, Kemp, Cisco

Changing your approach to backups Streaming database backups are gone You must change how you do your backups Allocate enough disk space for snapshots or use third party storage/SANs Windows 2008 backup utility *is* Exchange aware, but backs up data at the *volume* level not the file or folder level

Certificates Exchange 2010 servers have a “self-signed” cert Consider using “Unified Communications” certificates ● aka Subject Alternate Name (SAN) certificates ● Certificate contains names of all possible hosts used Wildcard certificates are simpler but security risk ● *.contoso.com

 Migration Process Recommended installation order ● Prepare forest and domains ● Client Access servers ● Hub Transport servers ● Mailbox servers ● Edge Transport servers ● Unified messaging

My recommended installation order Upgrade existing services BEFORE supporting new ones! Install *all* roles and completely test new scenarios such as high availability, mailbox moves, redirection, etc… Start transitioning services only after testing is complete

Transitioning Client Access servers Client Access configuration ● Address any potential name space issues such as legacy OWA host names ● Create RPC Client Access Arrays ● Get certificates issued ● Configure load balancing (if applicable) ● Configure redirection or proxying ● Test, test, test Don’t forget to test Autodiscover and other web services ● Update external DNS records to use new CAS infrastructure ●

Transitioning Hub Transport Create routing group connectors to legacy E2K3 routing groups ● Confirm that all source and target bridgeheads are defined properly Create Send Connectors5 Configure Receive Connector properties ● Direct inbound mail to E2K10

Transitioning Mailbox servers Consider enabling circular logging on the databases during the transition ● Create public folder databases Replicate public folder content Start moving mailboxes

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