I'm working on an upgrade from Exchange 2000 Standard to Exchange 2003
Enterprise and have some questions about my migration strategy. Here's a
brief rundown on the environment, both in the same AD environment:

Server A
-Exchange 2000, SP3
-Windows 2000, SP4

Server B
-Exchange 2003, SP1
-Windows Server 2003 Standard

Our users are accessing their email in different ways; OWA, POP3 and
Outlook. We're trying to do a gradual migration and I was wondering if this
will work. Here's what I was planning:

1. Set up Server B as a front end server.
2. Point MX , POP3 and OWA DNS to Server B.
3. Migrate Outlook user's mailboxes from Server A to Server B.
4. Gradually migrate POP3 users so I can import their mail.
5. Bring Server A down.

The questions:
Will this work? ;-)
Can Exchange 2003 be a front end server without Exchange 2000 being a back
end server? Is that necessary?
Can mailboxes exist on both servers even if Server B is a front end server?
If so, can POP & OWA users whose mailboxes are on Server A still get their
email externally (Internet) through the front end server?

Sorry for the long post, I was just trying to be thorough. Thanks in advance
for any help!

George

Re: Will this work? 2000 to 2003 gradual migration w/ front end server by Mark

Mark
Fri Aug 20 02:10:47 CDT 2004

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 14:24:13 -0400, "George Jetson"
<georgejetson@bellsouth.net> wrote:

>I'm working on an upgrade from Exchange 2000 Standard to Exchange 2003
>Enterprise and have some questions about my migration strategy. Here's a
>brief rundown on the environment, both in the same AD environment:
>
>Server A
>-Exchange 2000, SP3
>-Windows 2000, SP4
>
>Server B
>-Exchange 2003, SP1
>-Windows Server 2003 Standard
>
>Our users are accessing their email in different ways; OWA, POP3 and
>Outlook. We're trying to do a gradual migration and I was wondering if this
>will work. Here's what I was planning:
>
>1. Set up Server B as a front end server.
>2. Point MX , POP3 and OWA DNS to Server B.
>3. Migrate Outlook user's mailboxes from Server A to Server B.
>4. Gradually migrate POP3 users so I can import their mail.
>5. Bring Server A down.
>
>The questions:
>Will this work? ;-)
>Can Exchange 2003 be a front end server without Exchange 2000 being a back
>end server? Is that necessary?
>Can mailboxes exist on both servers even if Server B is a front end server?
>If so, can POP & OWA users whose mailboxes are on Server A still get their
>email externally (Internet) through the front end server?
>
>Sorry for the long post, I was just trying to be thorough. Thanks in advance
>for any help!
>
>George
>

Setting up server B as an FE will preclude its ability to host
mailboxes and public folders.
I would select a small to mid size box and load it up with W2k3/E2k3
then bring it online as a proper FE. Do the MX/A record changes as
necessary. Point all (OWA, POP3, OMA etc) users at this FE.
You can then gradually migrate all users from server A to server B
without them needing to know.
At the end you can either leave the FE there (you need a licence) or
you can realign the DNS and bring the server down leaving the single
E2K3 box.


Re: Will this work? 2000 to 2003 gradual migration w/ front end server by George

George
Fri Aug 20 10:41:18 CDT 2004

Thanks for the reply! It just so happens we have a test box that was running
w2k3/e2k3 that would be perfect for this.

One other question...do you have to manually configure a machine as a
backend server or does bringing a frontend server online do it
"automatically?"


"Mark Arnold [MVP]" <mark@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:ek8bi0tl61ltvn38qtjq6scpcugfab4hu8@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 14:24:13 -0400, "George Jetson"
> <georgejetson@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
> >I'm working on an upgrade from Exchange 2000 Standard to Exchange 2003
> >Enterprise and have some questions about my migration strategy. Here's a
> >brief rundown on the environment, both in the same AD environment:
> >
> >Server A
> >-Exchange 2000, SP3
> >-Windows 2000, SP4
> >
> >Server B
> >-Exchange 2003, SP1
> >-Windows Server 2003 Standard
> >
> >Our users are accessing their email in different ways; OWA, POP3 and
> >Outlook. We're trying to do a gradual migration and I was wondering if
this
> >will work. Here's what I was planning:
> >
> >1. Set up Server B as a front end server.
> >2. Point MX , POP3 and OWA DNS to Server B.
> >3. Migrate Outlook user's mailboxes from Server A to Server B.
> >4. Gradually migrate POP3 users so I can import their mail.
> >5. Bring Server A down.
> >
> >The questions:
> >Will this work? ;-)
> >Can Exchange 2003 be a front end server without Exchange 2000 being a
back
> >end server? Is that necessary?
> >Can mailboxes exist on both servers even if Server B is a front end
server?
> >If so, can POP & OWA users whose mailboxes are on Server A still get
their
> >email externally (Internet) through the front end server?
> >
> >Sorry for the long post, I was just trying to be thorough. Thanks in
advance
> >for any help!
> >
> >George
> >
>
> Setting up server B as an FE will preclude its ability to host
> mailboxes and public folders.
> I would select a small to mid size box and load it up with W2k3/E2k3
> then bring it online as a proper FE. Do the MX/A record changes as
> necessary. Point all (OWA, POP3, OMA etc) users at this FE.
> You can then gradually migrate all users from server A to server B
> without them needing to know.
> At the end you can either leave the FE there (you need a licence) or
> you can realign the DNS and bring the server down leaving the single
> E2K3 box.
>