Upgrade Exchange 2003 Server to Exchange 2010 Server Environments Upgrading from Microsoft Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010
Microsoft Certified Partner Provides Migration Assistance for Exchange 2003 Server to Exchange 2010 Server  

Notice: As of April 14, 2009 Microsoft will not provide support for Windows 2003 Server and Exchange 2003 Server—these products are officially “retired” by Microsoft—Exiis Corporation will continue to support both products until June 30, 2015.

If you are experiencing a server-down or mission-critical issue, call 877-752-1122 for immediate help, support, or assistance.

Upgrade and Migration Experience You Can Trust

Exiis Corporation has been designing, implementing, deploying, migrating and upgrading Microsoft Exchange Server and related technologies since the 1996 release of Microsoft Exchange 4.0 Server. As part of the original Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Beta team, Exiis Corporation has been deeply involved with every stage of Exchange Server technologies and their improvements within Microsoft Exchange Server environments. Exiis Corporation serves the messaging and collaboration needs of organizations from Small Business Server environments to Enterprise-Class messaging systems that include Unified Messaging, Instant Messaging, Windows Mobile, iPhones, Blackberry, and complex Multi-Domain and Multi-Forest organizations.

Upgrading Exchange 2003 Server to Exchange 2010 Server

Businesses and organizations upgrading from Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server to Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server will find many differences during the upgrade process. Exchange 2010 Server has been redesigned from the ground up, leaving behind many of the previous technologies utilized in Exchange 2003 Server environments. As a result of introducing newer messaging technology solutions, together with improved high availability and reliability features, Exiis Corporation recommends clients consult with our highly trained and experienced Exchange 2010 Server professionals before they proceed.

A common misconception is the ability to perform an in-place upgrade--which is not possible--because of the new requirements mentioned above for Exchange 2010 Server. Exchange 2010 Server requires Windows 2008 Server on the 64-bit platform, which means previously installed Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server environments based on Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2003 Servers with Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 32-bit software cannot undergo an “in-place” upgrade. Because it’s impossible to upgrade a 32-bit based operating system to a 64-bit operating system, the migration process requires new hardware, a 64-bit operating system, and the 64-bit Exchange 2010 Server software. Once the hardware and software requirements are met, the process changes from an “upgrade” to a “migration” from a 32-bit messaging environment to a 64-bit environment.

Another significant difference in the upgrade process is the lack of several previously available tools that made upgrading and migration tasks an easier proposition. One of the most popular tools was the ExMerge utility which copies mailbox profiles storing them as .pst files. .PST files can be easily be exported and imported between earlier Microsoft Exchange Server versions while maintaining the integrity of the mailbox data. With the introduction of Exchange Server 2007, the ExMerge utility was dropped on favor of the “Move Mailbox” command, which moves mailboxes from Exchange 2003 Server databases to Exchange 2010 databases. The primary difference between these two processes is how the mailbox content is handled during the process. With ExMerge, all e-mail messages regardless of their current state are transferred between databases; with the “Move Mailbox” command, e-mail messages that are corrupt or databases that are damaged cannot be moved to the new Exchange 2010 Server, requiring they be repaired before the move is allowed. While the process may require additional time and effort to complete mailbox moves, the end result delivers a completely stable and reliable database structure in the new databases.

Dependency on Properly Configured Network Environments

Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server and Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server were very “forgiving” when it came to operating within a poorly designed network environment. Both Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange 2003 Server utilized multiple routes within the Windows 2003 Server environment to accomplish communication; Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server with Microsoft Windows 2008 Server is much more demanding, which delivers a high rate of reliability and availability, however, the requirement for a properly configured network environment is a necessity. Within the Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server environment, many components come under consideration: DNS, Server Certificates, Security, and network routing are just a few of these areas. Many network administrators, especially in smaller environments have discovered their network infrastructure and design was not as complete as it should have been requiring additional configuration changes before they could continue their installation. In many cases these changes are relatively minor and easily remedied; however, there are several components that rely on one another--even the slightest configuration error can cause a delay in the deployment process.

In addition to the network requirements, Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server also requires Windows 2008 Server as its base operating system, which means both the forest and domain levels must be raised in order to complete the installation. Network environments that have legacy Windows NT Server, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows 2003 Server within their networks will need to address specific Active Directory considerations. These and other considerations require experienced, seasoned, and well-trained system administrators to address requirements that could previously be ignored. Exiis Corporation has a complete staff of support and consulting specialists who can assist in the migration process while maintaining the integrity of the network.

Advanced Availability and Reliability Features

Both Exchange 2007 Server and Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server broke new ground in addressing high availability and increased reliability requirements. Although the two Exchange Server solutions are similar, there are significant differences. Microsoft Exchange 2007 Server introduced concepts involving: “Local Continuous Replication (LCR)”, “Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR)”, and “Standby Continuous Replication (SCR)”, essentially allowing options where live copies of the Exchange 2007 databases could be stored in the event of a database corruption or a server interruption. The “basic” premise is to have a secondary copy of the current database stores located on another disk, a different server, or at a remote location. In the event of an emergency, these database copies could be retrieved quickly and easily utilized by another Exchange 2007 Server or automatically fail-over to another Exchange 2007 Server located at a different data center. Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) introduced the concept of having a standby Exchange Server but still required additional planning and some advanced knowledge of clustered server technologies—Exchange 2010 Server eliminates these advanced requirements allowing administrators to quickly and easily deploy redundant Exchange 2010 Servers within their environment with very little effort.

The underlying continuous replication technology remains in Exchange 2010 and has been greatly improved to support high availability features such as database copies, database mobility, and Database Availability Groups (DAGs). While there were many significant changes in the Exchange 2007 Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) which eliminated the need for Streaming Internet Transactions (this database was referred to as the “Streaming Database” or “.STM” for short), Exchange 2010 Server improves the Extensible Storage Engine even further as noted below:

·         Storage groups have been removed from the Exchange 2010 Server environment which means continuous replication and their technologies now operate at the database level.

·         Transaction logs can now be easily shipped or replicated to other locations and replayed easily into any copy of the mailbox database eliminating lost messages and corrupted log files.

·         Previously, the log replay functionality was performed by the Microsoft Exchange Replication service which has been moved into the Exchange 2010 Information Store service (store.exe) which eliminates the performance hit associated with failovers and switchovers. Because of this architectural change, activated databases already have a “warm cache” of these logs ready for use without the need to read and replay the logs as previously required.

·         When sending and receiving log files, Exchange 2010 Server no longer relies on the Server Message Block (SMB) as its data transfer mechanism but rather relies on an administrator-defined TCP port for data transfer, encryption, and compression. This provides a more reliable transport of the log files and a lighter network load.

·         Log shipping used to rely on the “pull” method, a process where log files were queried and delivered to the remote database, oftentimes leaving “open” log files behind. Exchange 2010 Server now utilizes the “push” method which sends “closed” log files to the remote server resulting is a more current and accurate record.

·         Seeding, the process of preparing and maintaining a database copy used to be restricted to the active copy of the Exchange 2007 Server database. Exchange 2010 Server now allows for the seeding process to take place against passive copies as well, which allows for multiple databases to be seeded without affecting the active Exchange 2010 Server processes.

Exchange 2010 Support for Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari Web Browsers

Mobility is a key enhancement for Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server environments, including the ability to connect to Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) over the Internet using web-enabled browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. In the past, users could only access Exchange 2003 OWA and even Exchange 2007 OWA using Microsoft Internet Explorer as their web browser. Because of the vast improvements in Windows 2008 Server, enhancements in Exchange 2010 Technologies, and a re-design of how Exchange OWA interacts with Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), users are no longer restricted to Internet Explorer to check their e-mail, calendar, and tasks. This is a huge advantage for mixed, homogenous network environments consisting of Apple Macintosh and UNIX/LINUX users who used to have to have a virtual instance of a Microsoft Desktop Operating System installed on their computers.

Exiis Corporation Help Desk and Consulting Services

Exiis Corporation has a complete team of Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server specialists to assist your organization when the time is right for an upgrade from Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 Server. In addition to Microsoft Exchange technology specialists, Exiis Corporation has additional teams that can assist in other areas of Microsoft Products and Technologies, such as Active Directory upgrades, Enterprise networking, and Microsoft applications. When you contact Exiis Corporation we’ll make sure you receive the high-quality level of service you deserve, connect you to the right engineer for your needs, and will assist you with additional resources for larger projects. Our team of professional Project Managers, Business Analysts, and Application Developers can assist with complex deployments, network re-designs, and multi-level domain and cross-forest requests.