Exchange Server Forums

Upgrading to ex 2007

Users viewing this topic: none

Logged in as: Guest

Printable Version

All Forums >> [Microsoft Exchange 2007] >> Installation >> Upgrading to ex 2007

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

Limited time MSExchange.org offer! -- 1.Sep.2008 1:00:00 PM

TechGenix and SolarWinds have partnered to provide free copies of SolarWinds Exchange Monitor to all visitors who join the MSExchange.org Forums. SolarWinds Exchange Monitor is a handy desktop dashboard that continuously monitors Microsoft Exchange to deliver real-time insight into Exchange services, mail queue sizes, and host server health. Learn more about Exchange Monitor and the free offer!

Upgrading to ex 2007 - 21.Aug.2008 9:51:30 PM

Fixxxer

Posts: 11
Joined: 21.Aug.2008
Status: offline

Im planning to upgrade my ex 2003 environment to ex 2007, now ive done alot of reading/research and have a rough idea of the best way to do this, but i would like to post my current setup and plan of attack for people to provide feedback and assistance as to wether im doing it the best way or if i should concider other options.

We run 3 2003 exchnage server, 2 back end server each with about 500 mailboxes on each (they also replicate a public folder store), and 1 front end server in a DMZ. Now from what i have read i will run in mixed mode while upgrading but my end goal would be to have still 3 exchnage servers 1 being the Edge Transport Server in the DMZ and the other 2 servers being the HUB, Mailbox and Client Access Servers. With again each of these servers with half the mailboxes each.

Would this be a good way to do this, or should i concider things like having the Client Access Server separate from the mailbox server, or spliting other roles etc? im not limited to only using 3 boxes, but i dont need to over do it ether.

Any comments are much apriecated

Post #: 1

Featured Links*

RE: Upgrading to ex 2007 - 21.Aug.2008 10:54:36 PM

Elan Shudnow

Posts: 576
Joined: 4.Jan.2007
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline

3 boxes if you really do want the edge:
Edge
Mailbox
CASHHUB

3 boxes if you decide not to go with the edge:
SCC or CCR Cluster
CAS/HUB

One thing to keep in mind is that since you have 2 public folder servers, you won't be allowed to deploy a CCR right off the bat since the first Exchange 2007 server will try to create a public folder database and you can't have public folder databases when there's more than 1 public folder database in the organization. In this case you'd have to bring up a regular mailbox server first and then you can bring up your CCR.

Then you can migrate public folders to this new Exchange 2007 mailbox server and migrate mailboxes to your CCR. Then when you decomission Exchange 2003, there will be 1 public folder database in your environment which will allow you to create the public folder database on your CCR. You then migrate the data to CCR, then decomission the regular Exchange 2007 mailbox server.

Another thing to keep in mind is OWA proxying. When you bring up your Exchange 2007 environment, you'll want to have all your Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007 OWA traffic going through your CAS. But if you do this, if you plan on doing phased migrations, you will need to make sure your CAS is not on your Mailbox Server or /exchange proxying from CAS to Exchange 2003 Back End breaks.

Other than that, there's a lot of information on Technet and blogs, but you said you've been doing some researching already so I'm sure you know where most of this information is. I just figured I would bring up those couple gotchas to keep in mind when planning your migration.

_____________________________

Elan Shudnow
http://www.shudnow.net

(in reply to Fixxxer)

Post #: 2

RE: Upgrading to ex 2007 - 21.Aug.2008 11:41:02 PM

Fixxxer

Posts: 11
Joined: 21.Aug.2008
Status: offline

Thanks for the speedy reply, you have given me some other options to think about now, much appreciated

(in reply to Elan Shudnow)

Post #: 3

RE: Upgrading to ex 2007 - 22.Aug.2008 12:42:07 AM

choppol

Posts: 387
Joined: 9.Feb.2003
From: sydney
Status: offline

Depending on how active is your BE is now. If you think your BE is over performing then I would suggest move CAS to a separate server else it can go on 1 box.

Exchange has changed alot in recently version so more memory and faster disks will make a big difference.

(in reply to Fixxxer)

Post #: 4

RE: Upgrading to ex 2007 - 22.Aug.2008 1:36:33 AM

Fixxxer

Posts: 11
Joined: 21.Aug.2008
Status: offline

Yeah the BE is getting hammered quite a bit now, but when i upgrade im also putting in much better HW, with alot more RAM, so i am thinking about if the can share a couple of the roles on the 1 box.

im also now thnking about having 1 Edge Server then 1 CAS/HUB server and 2 clustered mailbox servers. (this will mean getting 1 extra server that i planned) Or i may even be able to have 1 edge server and 2 BE with CAS, HUB and Mailbox shared between the 2.

Im still researching more info on Clustering for redundancy.

(in reply to choppol)

Post #: 5

RE: Upgrading to ex 2007 - 22.Aug.2008 5:14:12 PM

ismail.mohammed

Posts: 2334
Joined: 9.May2007
From: India
Status: offline

hi mate,

I have following topology:
Considering the fact about of high availability
You can have 1 edge server and hub-cas in one server each (NLB & SAN Certificate) if one server goes down other server should available for doing the task.

Clustered mailbox server like SCC - you can have 10000 mailboxes in one server if you are going with good configuration.
(http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/webtech/index.html)

If you are thinking of going with less cost
1 Edge server
1 hub-cas
1 mailbox server (Having high end configuration) or else you can go with cluster for this mailbox server

(in reply to Fixxxer)

Post #: 6

RE: Upgrading to ex 2007 - 27.Aug.2008 9:09:08 PM

Fixxxer

Posts: 11
Joined: 21.Aug.2008
Status: offline

Thanks to all for your response, have given me alot of assistance.

I would like to clarify 1 point made by Ismail, i think after putting more thought into it i am possibley looking at the below setup.

1 ET (placed in DMZ), 1 HUB/CA & 1 MB Server, so 3 servers in total, with maybe in the future implementing a 2nd MB and having some kind of clustering.

My main concern with the above config was the lack of redundancy, but ismail suggested above that in the event the ET fails, the HUB/CA can take over as a redundant server? If this is the case? how would this work, is there any extra config required? Or is this by design?

(in reply to ismail.mohammed)

Post #: 7

RE: Upgrading to ex 2007 - 31.Aug.2008 10:12:35 PM

Fixxxer

Posts: 11
Joined: 21.Aug.2008
Status: offline

bump!

(in reply to Fixxxer)

Post #: 8

RE: Upgrading to ex 2007 - 31.Aug.2008 10:41:37 PM

Elan Shudnow

Posts: 576
Joined: 4.Jan.2007
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline

So your MX record would point to an A record. This A record could be anything like mail.domain.com or smtp.domain.com. This record should point to a public IP which would be NAT'd to an internal IP. The NAT'd internal IP should be your Edge Transport Server. If your Edge Transport fails and you want mail to still flow, you could just change your NAT rule so it NAT's to your Hub Transport temporarily till you get your Edge Transport up. Or you can have a 2nd MX record with a higher weight that goes to a different A record which points to a public IP that is NAT'd to your Hub Transport. So if your Edge Transport fails, it'll revert to the MX record which points to your Hub Transport.

_____________________________

Elan Shudnow
http://www.shudnow.net

(in reply to Fixxxer)

Post #: 9

RE: Upgrading to ex 2007 - 31.Aug.2008 11:26:33 PM