Re: 2 FE and 3 BE Exchange 2000 upgrading to 2003 need guidance

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Ben-

There is a difference between "in place hardware upgrade (IPHU)" and
"in place upgrade"

By doing an "in place hardware upgrade" I'm replacing the "hardware"
and able to use the same hostname, ip, etc. This also gives me a
nearly perfect fall-back method that you never get with the migration
option. Since this is essential to my situation I nearly always take
this route rather than risk it all and rely on a tape backup. If
nothing goes as planned all I have to do is shutdown the new servers
and power-up the old servers. Since all that hardware is being
replaced in my case, and design, I like this option.

Can you offer any advice to doing a "IPHU" to the FE servers? What is
required to basically restore one of these from a disaster-like
situation?



Ben Winzenz [Exchange MVP] wrote:
I'm a little confused by what you are saying. You first indicated that you
have all new hardware for all machines. However, then you seem to indicate
that your plan is to do in-place upgrades.

You either upgrade the existing server, or you "migrate" to new hardware.
If you are doing in-place upgrades, then you need to install Exchange 2003
*before* you upgrade the OS to Win2003.

Also of note here is that you need to upgrade the FE servers before you do
anything else. Setup will not allow you to install Exchange 2003 mailbox
servers if there are still Exchange 2000 FE servers in place.

As far as your BE servers are concerned, why bother doing an in-place
upgrade? If you are already going to be bringing the new servers up as
Exchange 2003, it would be much easier to simply use the Exchange Tasks to
do "Move Mailbox" from the old to the new servers. This would even allow
you to keep both servers online (and receiving mail) during the process.
IMO, you are needlessly complicating your plan.

--
Ben Winzenz
Exchange MVP
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<dreemail@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1153753659.462965.284060@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have 2 FE MS Exchange 2000 servers, network load-balanced, and 3 BE
Exchange 2000 servers. I have new hardware for all the FE and BE
servers.

Known limitations / Conditions:

1. The existing BE servers are running out of disk space.
2. Each BE db is at or around 40-50 GB
3. The Excahnge servers do not need to be sending/receiving email
during the upgrade.

My plan is as follows:

A. Upgrade the existing FE 2000 servers to FE Exchange 2003 (not sure
how to get these over simply to the new hardware).
A1: Upgrade FE servers to MS 2003 OS.

B. Do and "in place hardware upgrade" on the BE servers. Basically
shut-down the servers and verify the pub and prive edb's are in a clean
state. Build like servers on new hardware. Copy db's to the new
servers.
B1. Start new servers running MS 2000 and Exchange 2000
B2: Upgrade BE servers to Exchange 2003 (one at a time, I presume)
B3: Upgrade BE servers to MS 2003 OS.

C: Consolifate from 3 BE to 2 BE servers. Since two of the new
servers will have very large disk-arrays, the third BE server will be
consolidated using mailbox move tool.

Fall-back:

I'd like to have a 100% fall back plan. Is there anyway to do an "in
place hardware upgrade" on the FE servers and just replace them with
the new servers?


.

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