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jbsmithox

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Exchange 5.5 on NT to Exchange 2k upgrade

Hell all,
Ok here's the scenario.  Currently in place there is a win2k dc with ad.  One the same domain is an Nt 4.0 BDC running exchange 5.5 sp3.  I want to upgrade to exchange 2k on the same server that has has exchange 5.5 now.  There are sixty mailboxes and about 25gb in the information stare. What to do.  I thought of two possible scenarios.

First is to cheat and use exmerge export to psts  (or can I without 2k installed) then wipe out the box.  Install win2k and then install exchange 2k.  Then use exmerge to import the pst's into the boxes.

Second is to do what MS says to do which is to upgrade the existing box to win2k then install the ad connector.  After that upgrade exchange 5.5 to exchange 2k.

Has anyone done either of these.  Which is better and which is prefer.
Thanks in advanced
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jpmarten

Option 2 will get you a cleaner upgrade.  Option 1 will work, but sometimes there has been issues with the inplace upgrades from E55 - E2k.

If you decide on option 1, then once you are ready to upgrade e55 to e2k, delete ALL connectors on the box, including the IMC.  If you have MSMail or CCmail connectors then remove them before the upgrade.
I went with option 1) because NT box had become very unstable due to loading some bad demo software. There should not be any major problems with this. Remember you will have to export and import any "public folders" through Outlook, exmerge doesn't handle them, only mailboxes. Also going this route, all mailbox ID's will change, and you will have to re-initialise connections to exchange from all outlook clients.

Option 2) is probably less work, and unless you have problems with current box, or need to re-configure for some other reason, is definately preferable.
Well Peter Mac is correct, I meant to say Option 1, I was just not paying close enough attention.  I was thinking option 2 was exmerge.
com'on jpmarten, you know better than to suggest option 2. Never go with option 2!

Either the exmerge method, or the swing method. (install a new e2k server into the 5.5 site and move everything over)
lol, ok man I was dislexic this morning
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ASKER

Thanks for the help.  Can you use exmerge to export the mail form exchang 5.5 if you don't have exchange 2k in place.  I know the importing will work once I have exchange 2k in place but I thought that you need exchange 2k in place to export as well.
You just have to do it as a two step process, not one step.

Two step process exports all data to pst files to a folder you select.  Then you can run the second step on the E2k server and import those pst files.

One step process exports from one server to another server, this would mean that you have to have a E2k server up and running at the time.
Just be sure that when you exmerge from Exchange 5.5 you are logged in with the Exchange service account using Exmerge version 3.71 -

When importing the pst files into Exchange 2000 mailboxes, you must use the Exmerge for Exchange 2000 which can be found in the UTILS directory.
Utils directory of the Exchange 2000 CD that is! <-_->
Basically both scenarios will give you issues with the upgrade.

Before deciding on a method first think about things like service outage and reachability of your exchange environment.

MS states that there are basically 2 ways of migrting to exchange 2K:
- In place upgrade (upgrade exch5.5 with exch2k on the same box)
- Migrate from 5.5 to exch2k.

The second option will lead to a situation which requires steps like installing AD-connectors and such.

Using exmerge will lead to a situation in which you basically throw away your entire mail environment and after that create a new one using exch5.5. This is the cleanest installation.

Keep in mind that exch2k has changed a great deal in regards to the mapping of a mailbox with a user. With ech5.5 you could let a user have multiple mailboxes. with exch2k it's one user which is mailenabled, so he can only have one mailbox.
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kevala

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