*Bulletin ID* A2E_178
*Last Review* 05/22/2008
*Revision* 1.0
*Previous IDs* None
*Obsoletes* None

Server Move Best Practices

Summary

This article summarizes best practices to be employed prior to moving an Exchange server or Add2Exchange server. Not following these practices may cause synchronization issues for your installation of Add2Exchange.

Description

When migrating to Exchange 2007, you may or may not be moving the installation of Add2Exchange. We will identify the best practices for each scenario.

Add2Exchange is installed on the existing 2003 Exchange Server

You may not want to move the installation of Add2Exchange and only move from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 where Add2Exchange is installed on the existing 2003 Exchange Server.

In this scenario, you should probably be moving the installation of Add2Exchange as well. You do not have to move Add2Exchange, but in order to communicate to the new Exchange Server, you will need to uninstall the 2003 Exchange System Manager (Exchange) from the existing server and in order to communicate to the new 2007 Exchange Store, you will need to change the version of CDO to the 2007 version. Since this process does not allow for a fall back to older Exchange 2003 if the need should arise in your organization, this is a fairly destructive process and should be avoided.

The best practices when Add2Exchange is installed on the existing 2003 Exchange Server is to eventually decommission the old server and then either move Add2Exchange to a new server with Exchange 2007 CDO installed or install it directly on the new 2007 Exchange Server.

You will need to purchase the Server Migration Tool and the Add2Exchange Toolkit to help facilitate the process. After the migration, you will also need to purchase a Add2Exchange Server Migration License by reapplying from the new Server through the Add2Exchange Console in order to transfer your existing Add2Exchange license to continue replicating without interruption.

DidItBetter Software offers Server Move Services to handle the entire process where you can have our certified technicians handle the entire process and either purchase the aforementioned tools or have us use them as a service.

Add2Exchange is not installed on the existing 2003 Exchange Server

If you are not migrating the installation of Add2Exchange to a new server, and are only migrating your Exchange Server from 2003 to 2007, you are currently using Exchange 2003 System manager’s CDO to communicate to the old 2003 Exchange Stores.

In this scenario, the best practices when Add2Exchange is installed on a separate server and not on the 2003 Exchange Server, you will simply need to uninstall the older 2003 Exchange System Manager and upgrade to Exchange 2007 CDO to communicate with the new installation of Exchange 2007.

Please note that if the server that Add2Exchange is installed on is also the BlackBerry Server, you will need to talk to their technical support to clarify what needs to be done to their BlackBerry Server installation in order to continue its operation.

In this case, you do not need to purchase the Add2Exchange Toolkit. You will, however, either need to purchase a DidItBetter Level 4 Technical Support incident or purchase Add2Exchange Disaster Recover and Server Migration Tool. After you completely decommission your 2003 Exchange Server and install the Exchange 2007 CDO on the Add2Exchange Server, you will use the Add2Exchange Disaster Recover and Server Migration Tool to enable Add2Exchange to communicate to the new 2007 Exchange Server.

The process: when you are prepared to move the Public folders, you may do it with Exchange’s own replication tools. You can continue Add2Exchange replication during the Server Migration of Public folders, but it is not recommended. Again, it is possible and has been tested, but it creates more information to be replicated and can lengthen the public folder replication process considerably. If you want to continue to replicate, make sure the Add2Exchange Service Account is a member of the local Administrators Group on the New server. Even if you do not want to continue to replicate, you must make sure the Add2Exchange Service Account is a member of the local Administrators Group on the New 2007 server before it will work correctly.

Right BEFORE you move the mailboxes from the 2003 server to the 2007 Server, you MUST stop the Add2Exchange Service from replication and set the Service to Manual. Do not start the Add2Exchange Service to replicate again until the entire migration has completed.

When you have completed the Mailbox and Public Folder migration and are ready to decommission the old server, dismount the Exchange Stores on the 2003 Server (or stop the Exchange Information Services) and then Log on to the Add2Exchange Server and run the licensed copy of Add2Exchange Disaster Recovery and Migration Manager to “fix the relationships” to point to the new server stores. After this has completed, start the Add2Exchange Service and it will replicate as normal.

DidItBetter Software Technical support offers Level 4 Server Move Services to handle the entire process where you can have our certified technicians handle the entire process. During this DidItBetter Level 4 service you can either purchase the aforementioned tools, have us use the tools as part of the service and purchase them at a discount if you wish.

Applies To

  • Add2Exchange
  • Exchange

Keywords: Server Move, Add2Exchange, Exchange, Migration