SCR Between Exchange 2003 and 2007

hi there,
in a test lab i followed this guide http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/high-availability-recovery/clustered-continuous-replication-failover-standby-continuous-replication-part1.html

you have a DC in site A and site B

you create a SCC cluster in site A and have 1 active and the other passive.

on site B you deploy another CCR cluster, this time set both the nodes as pasive.

so to sum it up:

site A has 1 DC and 1 active CCR exchange node, and 1 passive Exchange node

site B has a DC and 2 passive CCR exchange cluster nodes joind to a different cluster from the live 1

so site A might belong to a cluster called siteA.domain.local and site be might be siteB.domain.local

now assume site A fails.

you have to manually make the exchange cluster in site A take the role as the active/passive exchange cluster (here you specify an IP address to use in the local subnet in site B), then update exchange A record in DNS to point to the new IP address in the new siteb exchange ccr cluster.

then outlook clients can again access their mailboxes.

its all a manual process but it work and dont take much time to do.

does this help?

sorry i made a mistake above please see in bold what it should have said:
you have to manually make the exchange cluster in site B take the role as the active/passive exchange cluster (here you specify an IP address to use in the local subnet in site B), then update exchange A record in DNS to point to the new IP address in the new site B exchange ccr cluster.

Thanks.  Would I use my present Exchange 2007 server name as the CMS?

Does it matter that my production exchange 2007 server sits on Win 2003 and the dr exchange 2007 server sits on win 2008?

ok your problem is as you have a current exchange 2007 server which is not in a cluster you are going to have to:

implement a CCR cluster in to your current excahnge organisation first.
move all the mailboxes over, replicate public folders etc if you have any etc.
once this is done and the old server has the stores dismounted you can remove the mailbox role from the none clustered exchange server. This will still be used as client access and hubtransport etc.

because you have to implement a new cluster you will have to use a NEW CMS name.

as long as server 2003 sp1 and server 2008 are ENTERPRISE editions you will be fine to configure this setup.

and once that is done you can then deploy the standby cluster in the data centre as a passive/passive node.

come a failure you have to enable the standby cluster to take the role of the exchange 2007 mailbox server and specify an ip address in the data centre subnet then make sure you update DNS if it dosnt do it automaticly

Always something.  I have the standard operating systems in both cases.  Can I go to enterprise without having to reinstall Exchange?

Thanks.  

You wrote "it won't be used as the clustered mailbox role." (last comment).  Which server hosts the mailbox role?  My current Exch 07 box contains 32 gb of memory.  Will the clustered servers need the same to profit from Exch 07's memory benefits?  Will it just be wasted on the box that is stripped of its mailbox duty?  Will the CCR cluster retain the connection with Exch 2003 in my mixed organization?  With a new CMS name will I have to reinstall Outlook?

You wrote "it won't be used as the clustered mailbox role." (last comment).  Which server hosts the mailbox role?
 
Currently you have 1 exchange 2007 server which hosts all the roles, mailbox, client access, and hub transport and unified service if you use that.
 
When you create the NEW productive cluster and join that in to your exchange organisation you will then have 2 exchange server with the mailbox role which means they both have the necessary to host mailboxes. The clustered exchange servers can ONLY host the mailboxes and not have the CAS or HT role. This means that your current exchanve 2007 standard server will be used by the new cluster exchange 2007 server as the hub transport and the client access
 
So In a nut shell you will be deploying a clustered mailbox server in to your exchange org, once moved the mailboxes over to the new CMS and the offline address book and public folders if you have them. You can if you want remove the mailbox role on the current exchange 2007 standard server you have. You dont have to but it will just be a waisted role on that server. However the new CMS will use the HT and CAS role on the old standalone 2007 exchange standard which was used to host the mailboxes.
 
My current Exch 07 box contains 32 gb of memory.  Will the clustered servers need the same to profit from Exch 07's memory benefits?  Will it just be wasted on the box that is stripped of its mailbox duty?
 
32GB of ram is way over the top for what you need on your standalone exchange 2007 server,  however you can physicly remove this ram from that server and put it in the new exchange cluster nodes you will deploy. However as that single exchange server will still be used for the HT and the CAS (so wont be stripped of its dutys and waisted, infact it is mandatory that you have it as you need a server with the HT and CAS roles) role you should keep around 4GB there and share the rest in nodes of the exchange CMS.
 
Will the CCR cluster retain the connection with Exch 2003 in my mixed organization?  
 
Ok first you need to complete the migration to your current 2007 exchange server from 2003. once all mailboxes are on this server, public folders offline address book etc etc and  it is the native 2007 excahnge server you then need to do as I have said above by deploying a CMS in the current exchange organisation then move the mailboxes to the CMS and leave the current exchange 2007 server with the HT and CAS roles.
 
With a new CMS name will I have to reinstall Outlook?
 
As long as the old 2003 exchange server and the current exchange 2007 server is switched on. Outlook will auto update the server to which is in the profile to the new server so you wont have to change any thing in outlook itself