markr1963

I would like some advice from any Exchange experts on SN.
I have a client that is currently running Exchange 5.5 in an NT4 domain. They are looking to move to Exchange 2007 in a Windows 2003 Active Directory domain (moving to 2008 later). I can sort the domain side of things out but have engaged a 3rd party to look at the Exchange migration. I am aware that the migration has to go to Exchange 2003 then to 2007 with all necessary testing but am alarmed at the projected time to complete this 3rd party has proposed. Bearing in mind that we are talking about 100 mailboxes would you guys say that 150 hours was reasonable? That’s the thick end of 4 weeks I reckon these guys are having a laugh.
TIA
Mark

hodgy0_2

it depends on how big the information store is

last year I consulted on an Exchange 5.5 recovery scenario (for a Primary Care Trust) where the priv.edb was 200gb - doing anything on it would take 4 days

but anyway it also depends if public folders are involved and if the 5.5 was being used for workflow

but simple mailboxes --- I would do an exmerge out and then exmerge in should take more than a week all in


ps -- yes you can exmerge into exchange 2007

darlodge

Can't help on the migration, but when your client buys the hardware make sure they get 64bit W2k3 SP2 otherwise Exchange 2007 won't work. It's only supported on Windows 2003 64 Bit running SP2 or when running W2k8.

Darren

Markus

I know of a2007 migration that's going to be happening soon.

They are on 5.5, thankfully on 2003 Server already. They too have a third party performing the migration. The project timeline is for 5000 mailboxes (no public folders or workflow. Not sure on the data store size, probably rather large though) is 4 weeks. The 3rd party wanted to do 400 boxes per week, but that would obviously take them outside the project timeline by a large degree. So it's been decided to do 175 the first week, and then split the remainder over the following three weeks.

markr1963

Guys, thanks for the replies. I have a few more details:

• The information store is just ove 10 gigs
• No more than 100 mailboxes
• They do use public folders though to what extent I need to check
• No workflow
• New hardware is a shiny new blade running W2K8 64 bit. Not R2 as I found out yesterday that E2K7 will no longer be supported.

Cheers

Mark

hodgy0_2

i think my estimate stands -- 7 days

how much of the new infrastructure are you providing -- presumably a 64bit box ready to put Exchange on

Exchange 2007 use AD for message routing so that will be done for them

are they using any of the new 2007 technologies like SCR CCR on the mailbox servers, that might add a few days to get set up

but simple mailbox transfer -- exmerge fantastic tool and could actually do the export overnight -- then import to the new environment

the only thing that you have to be carefull is how you design the cutover -- once you have done the bulk of the mail -- you could rerun exmerge against the 5.5 priv.edb and just set the parameter to export mail from the last day, that will run in about 30 mins max

then you can import it into the new evironment to get it upto date

the ISP can cache any mail in the actual cutover period and depending on the actual physical architecture you can configure the new exchange to recieve smtp mail sent to the existing MX record

ChrisB

I like hodgy's thinking of exmerge out of 5.5 straight into 2007 - must avoid a lot of work!

markr1963

Thanks again, guys.

Yep, they have a suitable box for E2K7 an AFAIK they're after as simple as possible in terms of features installed.

Didn't know exmerge could be used 5.5 to 2007. Might have to mention that to the 3rd party
How would one deal with the public folders?

Mark

hodgy0_2

the trick to using exmerge with Exch 2007 is to install the Exch 2003 management tools on a spare box -- this will connect to the 2007 mailboxes

you use exmerge on this box against the 2007 mailoxes -- and it will populate the new 2007 mailboxes -- it is listed in an official msxchange blog somewhere

what you do loose this way is the single instance storage on the new mailboxes -- but if you are saving a load of money you can buy product that can re-single instance anyway

public folders are a funny kettle of fish and in the early days of 2007, i,m not sure they were even fully supported, i think support has got better in recent service packs -- but I haven't look into it recently

but if there are not many of them and with simple permission structure you could simply do it manually -- buy exporting to a pst file

markr1963

Thanks Hodgy

I'm creating VMs of the various servers for some testing.

Incidentally, has anyone used the Exchange Migration Wizard from Quest?

Mark

David_Wallis

I did a migration from 2003 to 2007 cross forrest for around 300mailboxes in about a day or two.. (eitherway - over a weekend)

I used powershell to migrate the accounts

The below should do the trick:

markr1963

Thanks, David. I'll be taking a look at this.

The 3rd party are now asking for 7000AUD to prepare the plan for the, now revised to 170 hrs, project. I can only assume this plan will be in some elaborate typeface handcrafted in gold leaf

Meanwhile my virtual world for testing continues to grow...

Incidentally, anyone played with vSphere yet? One thing you can't do is convert an NT4 box to ESX4/4i VMwhich, frankly, is a bit of a bugger. I will end up running the NT4 VM in Workstation or Player inside of a VM on ESX4i (only have the one ESX host).

Mark

David_Wallis

played with vsphere, just looking at doing an upgrade of vcentre at this present moment

hodgy0_2

the problem with every project is how flexible you are as a customer etc -- what is you change control procedure

last year I headed up a project to remove a couple of legacy NT4 domains (each containing 80 odd 2000 and 2003 servers) fairly simple really -- used the quest domain migration tools

the point was it was for a major financial institution, so every single change had to go through a 3 week change process -- complete with bi weekly change board conference calls

in an environment where I had total control -- say a school or college I could have done it in less than two weeks and charged 20k

it took us 9 months and we charged 500k -- and the customer was delighted