New Exchange server

admin_2 · ‎01-29-2002

I am moving my current Exchange Server to a new box and was wondering if anyone has done this? On the current Exchange server there is a Unity folder and I want to keep this without having to reinstall. Will the Unity server sync backup with the new Exchange server or is it more complicated?<br><br>

kechambe · ‎01-29-2002

I would suggest placing the new server in the same Exchange site and then moving the mailboxes from one server to the other. Unity will be down for the count if that Unity folder in Exchange gets hosed up. If you do it this way please read this first:
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/788/AVVID/move_mb_exchange.html

Keith

Keith Chambers
Unity Technical Lead
Unified Voice Team, San Jose
Cisco Systems
kechambe@cisco.com

Report Inappropriate Content · ‎01-29-2002

How is the Unity folder connected to the Exchange server? The plan is to move the priv.edb onto the new server. Or if necessary move the entire Exchsrvr folder to the new server. We do not want to join the new server onto the current one.

kechambe · ‎01-29-2002

The Unity folder is in the Exchange LDAP directory. How many Exchange servers do you have now including the one on Unity? Or is Unity sitting on top of your current Exchange server?

Keith

Keith Chambers
Unity Technical Lead
Unified Voice Team, San Jose
Cisco Systems
kechambe@cisco.com

Report Inappropriate Content · ‎01-29-2002

We currently have the Exchange server which is part of Unity and one seperate Exchange server. We are taking the Exchange server out and replacing it with a new computer. We have installed the new Exchange to be the same as the old, same site name, server name and any other configuration is the exact same as the previous server. The difference in only the hardware. The new server is not connected to the network at this time, due to the same name being used. We will stop the current Exchange server and copy the IS to a network drive. Then we will connect the new server and copy the IS to the new server. We can copy the entire Exchsrvr if need be. If we copy the entire Exchsvrvr will this get the Unity folder? Or can the folder be copied seperately?

kechambe · ‎01-29-2002

So you have 2 Exchange servers (1 is the Unity server) total. Right? Are they both in the same site?

Keith

Keith Chambers
Unity Technical Lead
Unified Voice Team, San Jose
Cisco Systems
kechambe@cisco.com

Report Inappropriate Content · ‎01-29-2002

Yes both servers are in the same site, ECITYSUITES>HOUSTON> server. What is the method for disaster recovery if the Exchange server were to go down and the Unity server remained fine? Is there a way to connect the new Exchange server without having to reinstall Unity?

kechambe · ‎01-29-2002

OK so you are going to need to add that server back to that site or reinstall Unity after adding the Exchange server on the Unity box to your new site. You have to pick one of those options. Do you understand why this is? There is no way to more Unity to a new Exchange site because Exchange can't do it. With 3.0 this is much cleaner since we use SQL for our database rather than the Exchange directory.

If the Exchange server went down you would need to restore the server from backup and put it in the same Exchange site.

Keith

Keith Chambers
Unity Technical Lead
Unified Voice Team, San Jose
Cisco Systems
kechambe@cisco.com

Report Inappropriate Content · ‎01-29-2002

The site is not different it is the same. We are basically doing this as if Exchange had crashed and we have to create a new Exchange server. If this was the case how would we bring Unity back to the new server without reinstalling Unity?

kechambe · ‎01-29-2002

If your server cashed and you had an existing Exchange site (which you do) you would restore that server back into the still existing site. You would not create a new Exchange site.

Example:
You have 4 Exchange servers in a site. One fails. You restore from backup recovering that failed server. That recovered server is still in the same site.

Keith

Keith Chambers
Unity Technical Lead
Unified Voice Team, San Jose
Cisco Systems
kechambe@cisco.com

Report Inappropriate Content · ‎01-29-2002

That is basically what I am doing. I am taking down an Exchange server and have already created another server that is a duplicate of the original server same site server name and everything. I am going to restore the IS from backup to the new server. Will the Unity server see the server as the same server as before, there by setting up the Unity folder or is there something else I need to do?

kechambe · ‎01-29-2002

OK back in the beginning you said that you don't want to join it to the existing site so I was under the impression you wanted to create a new one.

Back to your original question:
Will the Unity server sync backup with the new Exchange server or is it more complicated?

It's really not about Unity if you're going to be restoring the SAME server back into the SAME Exchange site. As long as you have a backup product that can do this Unity will never know the difference. It's all Exchange at this point.

Make sure you have a top shelf backup product. The only one that Cisco have tested is BackupExec.

Keith

Keith Chambers
Unity Technical Lead
Unified Voice Team, San Jose
Cisco Systems
kechambe@cisco.com

Report Inappropriate Content · ‎01-29-2002

We do backups using ArcServe and backup the IS on the Exchange server not the Unity Exchange. Our plan however is to copy the IS to a network drive and then copy the IS back to the new one and restart. When you are referring to backup is there something else we should be backing up along with Exchange? Should we backup Unity Exchange also?

dgrant · ‎01-29-2002

I am afraid that this is not going to be that simple. I have had to do this before, and it was NOT an easy process. The information store will not startup and read the priv.edb file and chug along happily.

I spent many hours (6+) reading through Microsoft Support articles in order to troubleshoot the error messages that I received on starting up the IS. As soon as I fixed one, another one would appear.

My recommendation is to bring up the new server in the same site, and use Exchange to move the mailboxes to the new server. My second and last choice would be to do a full backup using a qualified Exchange backup program, and then do a restore.

-Dustin

Report Inappropriate Content · ‎01-29-2002

Actually it is not that hard. I have already done this before. I have documentation regarding the process I am trying. It all states to copy the Exchsrvr folder from the old server and then copy it to the new server. Since the only thing I am changing is computer hardware and not any names or config it should work with minimal problems. If anything I may have to run the IS intergrity patch. We have copied the IS from the original computer and I had it up and working on the new server. Of course it was not connected to the network at the time.