OWA 2003 front-end and 2000/2003 backend

I presently have an exchange 2000 frontend server running on windows 2000in a
administrative group. When I tried to deploy exchange 2003 frontend server I
got an error saying that I will need to first upgrade the frontend server to
exchange 2003. I will be upgrading that to OWA 2003. However, some of the
exchange servers in my organization are 2000 and some are 2003. Once upgraded
to OWA 2003, will both the accounts sitting on exchange 2000 and 2003 be
available through OWA? I will also be deploying another front-end server,
this time windows 2003/exchange 2003 and this will be used to support
rpc-over-https on a clustered exchange 2003 back-end. I know that rpc-https
will only be available to users having there exchange mailbox on the exchange
2003 system. However if an exchange 2000 user hits this box using owa, will
they be redirected to the exchange 2000 server where their mailbox sit so
they can retrieve mail via OWA on the second front-end server? Any thoughts
or documentation links would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance guys and gals

cao!

Bharat
Tue Apr 04 19:17:23 CDT 2006

Inline.

--
Bharat Suneja
MVP - Exchange
www.zenprise.com
blog: www.suneja.com/blog
-----------------------------------------


"Nphil" <Nphil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:88E45770-DF5F-402D-92F1-1922127D5872@microsoft.com...
>I presently have an exchange 2000 frontend server running on windows 2000in
>a
> administrative group. When I tried to deploy exchange 2003 frontend server
> I
> got an error saying that I will need to first upgrade the frontend server
> to
> exchange 2003.
By default all new Exchange servers are installed as BEs - you can't
designate it as a FE during Exchange setup. Therefore, if you have any
existing 2000 FEs, you will need to upgrade those to 2003 first.

I will be upgrading that to OWA 2003. However, some of the
> exchange servers in my organization are 2000 and some are 2003. Once
> upgraded
> to OWA 2003, will both the accounts sitting on exchange 2000 and 2003 be
> available through OWA?
Yes they will, but mailboxes on Exchange 2000 BEs will still get OWA 2000
interface till they're either moved to an Exchange Server 2003 box or the
server is upgraded to 2003.

I will also be deploying another front-end server,
> this time windows 2003/exchange 2003 and this will be used to support
> rpc-over-https on a clustered exchange 2003 back-end. I know that
> rpc-https
> will only be available to users having there exchange mailbox on the
> exchange
> 2003 system. However if an exchange 2000 user hits this box using owa,
> will
> they be redirected to the exchange 2000 server where their mailbox sit so
> they can retrieve mail via OWA on the second front-end server?
No, Exchange Server 2003 FEs will work with Exchange 2000 BEs. As stated
above, the UI will still be OWA 2000 if the mailbox is on a 2000 BE.

Any thoughts
> or documentation links would be very much appreciated.
Excellent documentation - Deployment Guide - Upgrading from Exchange 2000
Server to Exchange Server 2003
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/guides/Ex2k3DepGuide/428e1090-c8a4-492c-9079-92ff2b588d55.mspx


>
> Thanks in advance guys and gals
>
> cao!