POP3 to exchange 2007 Transition (Full Version)

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pbryant75 -> POP3 to exchange 2007 Transition (26.Jun.2008 3:14:30 PM)

I work for a company that has two sites on 1 domain.  We are currently using internet mail hosted with a local ISP with about 70 users.  I am planning the implementation of Exchange 2007 and would like to bring up each site seperate. To do this, I need Site 1 to send and receive mail though the ISP's server and Site two through exchange.  Does any one know of a proven method to achieve this? 

Thanks in advance.



Sembee -> RE: POP3 to exchange 2007 Transition (30.Jun.2008 2:52:32 PM)

Having done this many times, the best solution for you is big bang. Any kind of coexistence is just going to cause a problem with email going in places you don't expect it to, not arriving and generally getting in a mess.

The major problem is that Exchange doesn't expect to share the SMTP address space with another site. It is expecting to be responsible for all email for that domain. How are you planning to get inbound email in to Exchange?
This is one article on SMTP address space sharing: http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/planning-architecture/exchange-2007-smtp-namespace-sharing-different-relay-domain-types.html

Send/Receive email is the least of your worries. How are you going to manage the configuration of Outlook? The importing of the PST files of their existing email?

Simon.



pbryant75 -> RE: POP3 to exchange 2007 Transition (30.Jun.2008 4:48:14 PM)

Thanks for the reply Sembee.  I don't think this article applys to my situation as both of my sites are already on the same domain.  I know that it is ideal to bring both sites up at the same time, but because this is my first implementation, I would like to be able to isolate it to one site in case there are problems.  Plus, the two sites are 30 miles apart.  As far as Outlook goes, I haven't decided how i'm going to migrate users existing mail (.pst files) into exchange.  Btw, each site has about the same amount of users.

Thanks



Sembee -> RE: POP3 to exchange 2007 Transition (30.Jun.2008 8:17:51 PM)

The article is not in a reference to your sites, but Exchange co-existing with the external ISP. If you don't want to big bang then you have to deploy a different configuration of Exchange to ensure that email goes to the users on the existing ISP correctly.

My personal recommendation though would be to bring in an outside consultant to assist - someone who has done this before. Email is not something that you can really learn on the fly with because of the impact on the business. A change of email source can result in the loss of email if not planned correctly. The number of questions that you need to answer is quite long - I have only touched on the surface of them - and that is before you even get to the install point.

Simon.



pbryant75 -> RE: POP3 to exchange 2007 Transition (2.Jul.2008 10:48:38 PM)

Thanks Sembee.  Based on your posts and other material that I have read, implementing the two sites seperately doesn't seem like a good idea and unfortunatly, I can't afford to bring in an outside consultant.  I talked to someone that with the help of a consultant implemented Exchange 2007 recently in a smaller organazation that was using POP3 email.  He said that they configured Outlook to sync up with Exchange by changing the default file location of the POP3 account to the OST.  He then exported the PST files into Exchange. They also went ahead and setup and an Exchange account.  So users were sending and receiving email through their pop3 account.  After a couple of days he had the MX records changed and all he had to do was change the outlook mail account to the Exchange account that he had already created. He said that there was no downtime using this method.   He also mentioned something about email aliases having to be created, with I didn't really understand what he meant.  Does this sound at all like a viable solution and do you have any experience with this type of deployment?

P.S.  Sorry for sounding so ingnorant.



Sembee -> RE: POP3 to exchange 2007 Transition (4.Jul.2008 5:51:15 PM)

If you are currently using Outlook then the files will be in PST format anyway. However as soon as you add an Exchange account to Outlook, Outlook will try and use it. Therefore you have to ensure that the server is ready to manage the email as soon as you start changing clients. That will also mean that some internal email will stay on Exchange and not go through the existing solution. There is no real co-existence period because of the way Exchange is designed to work. You can get close to predicting email flow but not 100%.

Simon.



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