Are you or anyone you know still running Exchange 2000? If so, you should
know that when you do finally get around to upgrading; Exchange 2010 and
Exchange 2000 cannot exist in the same Forest/Org. The oldest version of
Exchange that can co-exist with Exchange 2010 is Exchange 2003 SP2.
If you want to upgrade from Exchange 2000, you’ll have to upgrade in stages.
Because Exchange 2000 supports an in-place upgrade to Exchange 2003, this method
is going to be the easiest way to prepare for Exchange 2010. Exchange 2003
requires more resources than Exchange 2000, but for the purpose of a migration
project; it won’t be around for long anyway, so you might be able to upgrade
resources in place. Otherwise, you’ll have to allocate hardware for Exchange
2003 only to get rid of it when you go to Exchange 2010. If you are forced to
take this approach, I would recommend virtual hardware for Exchange 2003 as it
is now supported.
We can get into detailed guidance another time, but here are some scenarios
for upgrading to Exchange 2010 from an earlier version of Exchange. I am not
including Exchange 5.5 in this post because I hope nobody is still running it!
Also for the below guidance, I am assuming everything is running the latest
Exchange service pack and/or rollup.
| Current Platform* | Getting to Exchange 2010 |
| · Exchange 2000· On Win 2000
· With 2000 AD |
1. Do an in-place upgrade to Exchange 20032. Don’t bother upgrading the Operating System
3. Prepare for an AD 2003 upgrade (scenario 2) 4. Do an in-place upgrade of at least one domain controller to AD 2003 5. Migrate [UPDATE – NOTE THAT THIS REQUIRES ADDITIONAL CHANGES IN ACTIVE DIRECTORY. THE STEPS IN THIS ARTICLE ARE TO GET YOU TO EXCHANGE 2003 ONLY. THE HYPERLINK HERE INCLUDES THE REMAINING STEPS.] |
| · Exchange 2000· On Win 2003
· With 2000 AD |
· How did you get here? This is not a supported configuration! |
| · Exchange 2000· On Win 2000
· With 2003 AD |
1. Did you first prepare for mangled attributes? If not, examine scenario 3.2. Do an in-place upgrade to Exchange 2003
3. Migrate [UPDATE – NOTE THAT THIS REQUIRES ADDITIONAL CHANGES IN ACTIVE DIRECTORY. THE STEPS IN THIS ARTICLE ARE TO GET YOU TO EXCHANGE 2003 ONLY. THE HYPERLINK HERE INCLUDES THE REMAINING STEPS.] |
| · Exchange 2000· On Win 2003
· With 2003 AD |
· How did you get here? This is not a supported configuration! |
*When I list an AD version, I am also assuming /forestprep has not yet been run for a future version of AD.
Mike Crowley's Whiteboard 
Hi Mike,
I’ve got Exchange 2000 running on an old Windows 2000 Server. There are only 10 mailboxes. I’d like to replace the server with a new box running Windows 2008 with Exchange 2010.
Is it possible to export the mailboxes to pst files, delete the mailboxes from AD, and kill Exchange 2000 so that I could start with a fresh install of Exchange 2010? The upgrade/migration process seems like a lot of work for 10 mailboxes.
What do you think, possible or am I oversimplifying things?
Thanks,
Sam
If you’re not using AD for workstation authentication, or anything else I suppose this is fine. Exmerge.exe can pull out the 10 user’s mailbox into pst format. With Exchange 2010, you can then use import-mailbox to suck it back in.
If you can get away with it, I think your idea is indeed much simpler. But there could be other dependencies in your environment I’m not aware of.
Mike-
I’m an exchange newbie and have this exact task feel a bit like being fed to the lions.
I want to do this very methodically. My idea is to create an 03 server w/ 03 EX I’d like the both EX boxes to coexist and bring the emails over and make sure the 03 EX works properly.
After that process is done. I want decommission the 2000 EX box then raise the domain function mode then migrate from 03 EX to 10 EX.
Can 03 EX and 2000 EX coexist? And any useful links to accomplish this?
Yes. Exchange 2000 and 2003 can coexist, however since 2003 isn’t the end-game, I believe it makes more sense to do an in-place upgrade of the 2000 boxes instead of build, configure and then move away from new 2003 boxes.
Here is the article you’re looking for: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997042(EXCHG.65).aspx
Mike-
I’m looking for clarification when raising the domain level. I understand to get to exchange 2010 the very least level you must be in is 2003…
Now if I’m to do an in-place upgrade (I found this helpful walk through- http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Upgrade_Exchange_2000_to_2003.html)will I accomplish raising the domain function by selecting “upgrade from 2000 native mode” on the “select appropriate deployment process” screen?
There is no conflict with having 03 EX on a 2000 Server OS in doing this? My thought was you had to be rid of a 2000 environment to raise it and be on 03 OS Server and 03 EX. Am I understanding raising the domain level with EX 2000 would fail or the email system would not work properly.
So during the in-place upgrade EX 03 (I will be raising the domain level in the process) – then I’m in the clear?
And once I have installed 03 EX I am pretty much ready to migrate to 2010 – this sound correct?
Jared – Please email me directly: mike (at) mikecrowley.us.
I just needed to let you already know that your blog does not show up correctly on the BB browser, I added it to my bookmarks and have just checked from the desktop, good format but a disgrace its not portable.
Sorry about that. This is hosted on wordpress.com and I’m using a template with little control over browser support.