How to virtualize Exchange 2003 and connect the virtualized machine to a SAN

Why is it recommended to install a new Exchange? Are there any issues with converting an existig server?

Wanted to add that current Exchange has around 100 mailboxes and a DB of around 72GB.

Because of corruption of the Exchange database.

That is not to say, that people do not P2V, many do P2V, but you must remember, you will need to stop and disable ALL the Services, and Exchange Services on the Server, before you start the process, so your Email Server will be down, whilst you migrate.

you must then ensure, and test the new migrated server before you started the mailflow again.

New Server Transfer Mailboxes - Recommended - Best Practice - Less Risk
P2V - Higher Risk

Thanks coolsports. Your post brings another question: Is it better to have the Exchange DBs moved to the SAN before or after virtualization?

Based on your post, I assumed they already were on the SAN. Well, your P2V will go much quicker if your DB volumes (assuming your DBs are not on C:) are on SAN volumes. So yes, it would be best to have them on the SAN for a quicker migration. On the other side, to save a step later on in migrating your DBs from RDM volumes to VMDKs, you don't need to move them before. You can just do a whole P2V. It's been a few months since I last did a P2V, so I'm not sure if you can select what datastore each DB volume can go on for the P2V. All your disks, though separate VMDKs, may be on the same datastore....you may not want that. If you have sVMotion (need Enterprise licensing), you can simply do that tho. So, to explicitly answer your question - it depends :) It depends on how long you want to be down for your migration. 72GB is a semi-lot of data to migrate. It could take you around 3hrs. That isn't horrible, but you may not want to be down that long. It's really up to you. Altho, you will need to determine how long you'd be down to initially to migrate your DBs to SAN storage to begin with. It may just be a moot point to do so and better to just do a P2V of it all.

~coolsport00

We're going through this same process in a few weeks.

Old server is on its last legs and we are soon moving to Exchange 2010 so decided to virtualise this box.

My plan of action is as follows:

a. Backup the entire server to disk and then to tape to ensure that we can roll back if required.

1. Shutdown the server and clone it using our cold clone cd.
2. Remove all non present devices.
3. Create new NIC's using VMXNET3 cards.
4. Check the config and ensure that mail is flowing between our internal servers, blackberry servers and the internet.

We may need to move the server to faster disks if required but will monitor and move if required.

That should pretty much cover everything.

We will be doing this over the weekend.

Question: In case the virtualized exchange doesn't work correctly or has some other issues can I still go back to my old box?!

Yes, provided the new server has not been live on the network, otherwise you may have Domain Issues with the old server, and it's machine account.

We finally did the conversion and it took a whooping 10 hours to complete. I am glad I hired some external help to complete this project. While it is true that our db was only 74GB, the total server size was around 600GB. I guess that is why it took this long. We put the virtualized machine on the SAN. I can already see an improvement in speed in Outlook.

Glad it's working well for you...

~coolsport00