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Migration Requirements

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To ensure that your users benefit from all the functionality that is provided by the features in Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007, you must perform this migration. Even if you are already running Exchange Server 2007 in your environment, this migration allows you to take full advantage of the integrated security and monitoring features that are provided in Windows EBS.

Important

If you are migrating from Windows Small Business Server 2003 (Windows SBS), you must complete this migration and decommission your Windows SBS server within seven days of installing Windows EBS. You can extend this grace period to 21 days by installing a software update for Windows SBS 2003 that supports the “join domain” migration of Windows SBS data and settings. For additional instructions about how to migrate from Windows SBS to Windows EBS, see the Microsoft Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=123374).

Preparing for the migration

Before you begin this migration, make sure that you have migrated both the DNS and DHCP roles to Windows® Essential Business Server.

You can perform this migration during a normal business day. Mail flow is not interrupted, and users are automatically connected to the new Exchange Server location after their mailboxes have been moved.

If part of the migration fails, there should be minimal or no impact to your Exchange Server organization because the piece that failed to move will still be hosted on a functional Exchange Server.

Important

After you have migrated the mailboxes, public folders, and other settings to the new Exchange Server that is running on the Messaging Server, you should decommission your existing Exchange Server. We strongly recommend that you follow the instructions provided in this document to properly decommission the legacy Exchange Server environment. As part of the overall decommissioning process, you should pay particular attention to the instructions in the TechNet article “How to Remove the Last Legacy Exchange Server from an Organization” at the Microsoft Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=99646) to avoid losing e-mail connectivity during the transition.

Time estimate   

You will need approximately two hours to perform the mailbox migration, depending on the number of mailboxes in your environment. You may need several additional hours to replicate public folders.

Using Outlook Web Access

If you are migrating from an Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange 2000 Server environment, you may be using Outlook Web Access to connect to your Exchange Server with a URL such as https://<RemoteName>/owa. Be aware that because of configuration changes that were introduced during the installation of Windows EBS, your users may not be able to access their mailboxes through Outlook Web Access until you complete the mailbox migration. However, mail flow between the legacy Exchange Server environment and e-mail clients such as Microsoft Outlook functions properly.

During installation, Windows EBS automatically configured access to the following Exchange Server 2007 Web services on the Messaging Server: Outlook Web Access, Outlook Anywhere, and Exchange ActiveSync. For using Outlook Web Access, a server publishing rule was created automatically in Forefront TMG. This rule directs requests for https://<RemoteName>/owa (and the URLs https://<RemoteName>/exchange and https:/<RemoteName>/exchweb) to the Messaging Server. RemoteName is the public domain name for remote access (for example, remote.adventure-works.com) that you specified during installation of Windows EBS. This configuration allows your users to connect to Outlook Web Access and other Exchange Web Services on the Messaging Server after their mailboxes have been migrated.

If you need to use Outlook Web Access in your legacy Exchange Server environment before the migration is complete, you can configure custom publishing rules in Forefront TMG on the Security Server. To do this, you should use a domain name for the legacy mail server (such as mail.adventure-works.com) that differs from the remote name you specified for Windows EBS. Then you can use Forefront TMG on the Security Server to publish new URLs (that use this new domain name) to your legacy Exchange Server.

Before you configure Exchange Server publishing rules for your legacy Outlook Web Access, do the following:

  • Verify that the domain name that you want to use (in this example, mail.adventure-works.com) is correctly configured in the public DNS. The name must resolve to the public (external) IP address of the Windows EBS Security Server. You may need to contact your Internet service provider for assistance.

  • Obtain an SSL certificate from a public certification authority for the new domain name and install it in your legacy Exchange Server environment. You must also import the certificate on the Security Server. You do not need to obtain an SSL certificate if you already have a wildcard SSL certificate.

To configure publishing rules that allow Outlook Web Access on a server that is running Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange 2000 Server

  1. From the Windows EBS Administration Console, click the Security tab, click Network firewall, and then in the tasks pane, click Start Forefront Threat Management Gateway console.

  2. In the console tree, click Firewall Policy.

  3. In the tasks pane, click Publish Exchange Web Client Access. The New Exchange Publishing Rule Wizard appears.

  4. Follow the steps of the wizard to publish Outlook Web Access (or other Exchange Web Services) to your legacy Exchange Server environment.

After you make these changes, verify that you can access Outlook Web Access in your legacy Exchange Server environment.

For more information about configuring Exchange Server publishing rules, see the Forefront TMG Help: On the Security Server, in the Forefront TMG console, press F1.

Decommissioning existing Exchange Servers

After you perform the migration, you can plan to decommission your existing servers that are running Exchange Server. However, you should do so only when you have determined that the data and services on those servers are no longer required. In most cases, you should monitor your messaging environment for several weeks after the migration to ensure that all users can access their mailboxes and that there are no mail-flow issues.

For additional information, see Decommission Existing Exchange Servers later in this document.

Important

Be sure to read this entire document so that you understand when it is safe to decommission your existing servers that are running Exchange Server. If you are in doubt, do not decommission any servers.

Migration overview

For details about how to accomplish each of the tasks in the following table, see Step-By-Step Migration later in this document.

Target State Benefit Start State

All mailboxes reside on the Windows EBS Messaging Server
  • Exchange Server 2007 features (improved Outlook® Web Access and Outlook Anywhere)

  • Windows EBS integration benefits (such as monitoring and security)

Users’ mailboxes reside on a server that is running Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003

Users’ mailboxes reside on a server that is running Exchange Server 2007

Users’ mailboxes reside on a mail server that is not running a version of Exchange Server

All offline address books are generated on the Windows EBS Messaging Server

Existing Exchange Servers can be decommissioned in the future if necessary

Offline address books are generated on a server that is running a version of Exchange Server

All public folder replicas reside on the Windows EBS Messaging Server

Existing Exchange Servers can be decommissioned in the future if necessary

Public folders reside on a server that is running a version of Exchange Server

If you are not familiar with Exchange Server 2007, read Background Information later in this document before you continue.

If you already understand what this migration entails, advance to Step-By-Step Migration later in this document.