Upgrade Server 2003 Enterprise 64 bit Exchange 2007 Server to Server 2008 Exchange 2010 Server

Would i need R2?

You can't do an in place upgrade unless you want problems.The following Exchange blog link explains why in more detail.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2007/10/04/3404068.aspx
Even though Exchange 2007 sp3 can be installed on win2008 r2 you cannot do it as an upgrade.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607226(EXCHG.80).aspx

if you have extra hardware the safest would be install 2008r2, exchange 2010. move mailboxes. check incoming and outgoing emails once happy remove the old server...

http://www.commodore.ca/windows/exchange/how_to_upgrade_exchange_2007_to_exchange_2010_in_2hours.htm

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/eu/exchangesvrmigration/thread/0d0d031d-46ed-4806-ada5-6590346caa74

I dont have any hardware that can be used in this case.

To be honest i think our exchange environment could do to be started from scratch.

We have Exchange Backup Agent could we not backup the whole exchange setup and then replicate it on Server 2008?

This probably shows how much i know about Exchange...

The best way to achieve thsi is to find/loan a second machine and install Exchange 2007 SP1 on there and then move the users.
If there is no way you can get another machine, the only way i can think of achieving this is to export all the mailboxes to PST's and then uninstall Exchange 2007 and Powershell, upgrade the OS to Win2008 or 2008 R2 and reinstall Exchange 2007. Its not something I've ever been forced to do just trying to put myslef in your shoes!
You would need to consider the number of users you would have to export and the volume of data the PST's would take up.
Hope that helps.

Dear,

"the only way i can think of achieving this is to export all the mailboxes to PST's and then uninstall Exchange 2007 and Powershell" but this will have downtime.... can be 1hour to hours (depending on the mailbox size)

Thankyou so much for that as we only have 41 mailboxes at an average size of 35mb i doubt that it will take too long

What do you think?

Dear,

Below in not revomended but could be a better option if you dont have any hardware, no budget, no able to rent.......

could you please verify your exchange server hardware specifications? if your current server is not very  high end server, you can check the current system performance. if the usage is less take full serevr backup on two different places...

try to find any Core i 7 computer 64bit computer, install 2008R2, exchange 2010. move mailboxes, once done test only 1 user once suceed, uninstall exh 2007, disjoin from domain, format. install 2008r2, exh 2010 (make sure o put new server name not same as before) move mailboxes... all done

Make sure do this after office hours + weekend + support people on standby.

I may have an old HP ML150 2G RAM 3G XEON Server which i have to decomission today.

Will this do?

Thanks

I seem to have a problem I was going to install server 2003 64bit enterprise on our ML150 G2 Server and then install exchange 2007 move over all the mailboxes etc and then test it but I don't think the ML150 will support a 64bit OS :-(

If I had a machine could I not restore from a backup image so the server will be identical rather than moving mailboxes etc etc?

We're using backup exec 2010 which claims we can restore to any hardware with minimal downtime, just a thought to save some time.

Thanks