New Exchange Server

Yeah- Broke down and bought a nice new Dell Quad server with Exchange 2007 Enterprise. Anyone had any problems implementing and updating the schema into an existing ad w/ Exchange 2K? How long did you utilize the smtp connector before transferring mailboxes to the new server?

Does Exch 07 have a built in offline defrag or another method to shrink the db?

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Webmaster

A 3.6 MB PDF with slides containing probably a lot more info than you want, but it will make you feel even better about your new purchase:
"Storage Changes and Design Considerations"

RTmarc

Exchange 07 is pure sechs. Very easy to install and get integrated. The installer does almost every bit of the work for you. I let 03 and 07 run side by side for about three weeks. My 03 database took a **** so I went ahead and moved everyone over to the new servers. My 03 server is sitting, still in the environment, but no one is using it. Sometime this month I'll have to completely decommission the 03 box.

You will really, really like 07.

royal

Exchange 2007 is pretty nice. Moving from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 in a very large environment can be complex. This is due to Exchange 2003 using link-state databases and Exchange 2007 using AD Sites and Services. You have to be careful where you create connectors due to the potential routing loops that can occur. If you only got 1 Exchange 2007 server and only have 1 location, then you won't have to worry about this issue. As soon as you introduce the first Exchange 2007 server, it will put the Exchange 2007 server in its own routing group and create a connector to your Exchange 2003 environment. You can now transfer all your mailboxes. Once you get all your mailboxes transferred over and create the external and internal smtp connectors for internet traffic and have your mx records updated to point to Exchange 2007, you should be able to decommission the Exchange 2003 server AFAIK.

As for Offline defrags, this hasn't really changed much in Exchange 2007. You can still utilize eseutil /D for this:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998249.aspx

Here's an article that talks about going from Exchange 2003 and 2007 and then decommissioning:
http://www.internetaccessmonitor.com/eng/products/articles/transitioning-exchange-2000-2003-exchange-server-2007-part1/transitioning-exchange-2000-2003-exchange-server-2007-part1.php

jasonboche

garv221 wrote:

Yeah- Broke down and bought a nice new Dell Quad server with Exchange 2007 Enterprise. Anyone had any problems implementing and updating the schema into an existing ad w/ Exchange 2K? How long did you utilize the smtp connector before transferring mailboxes to the new server?

Does Exch 07 have a built in offline defrag or another method to shrink the db?

Was this for home or work?

garv221

Thanks for the info guys, those are some goods posts with good articles. I will finish the setup this week.

And yes, this is for work.

garv221

Just an update....Got Exchange 2007 transitioned into my network and working. All the mailboxes but one have been moved over. I moved them by schedule at night, so the morning Outlook has already been redirected to the new server. I have to say it was pretty much an easy transition, very straight forward. Active Sync works nice and I like the new OWA but I am having script errors on the premium side I will have to work out. SSL works nice with both services. I am not a fan of the stupid command line, how annoying!!! MS cannot be serious with that, having certain configs only available through command line?! At first I thought it would help with resource usage but man, Exchange hogs all available RAM and paging file, it gives it back but it takes a minute. I had a hiccup with GFI Mail Essentials not being compatible w/2007 and having to be setup on the perimeter which posed an issue because I was in the transition period and mail flow was being routed from one exchange to another. I noticed a few people were having problems w/ accessing OWA once an SSL cert was setup. I found the answer to be manually resetting the IIS permissions for the OWA directory. Other than that, runs good.