Exchange 5.5 Migration to Exchange 2K Active Directory

[deborahwagaman]

After reviewing the Cisco article for Migrating from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000, some clarification on when the old Unity server and mailbox migration steps take place during the procedures is needed

We are planning on going with Exchange 5.5 and 2K not being connected and setting up a new Unity 4.0.3 server(same exact version) then using DiRT to restore the data.

Questions- when we are ready to restore the data to the new Unity server, the mailboxes from the Exchange 5.5 server should already be migrated, correct? Also, before the restore, should the old server but shutdown and not be back on the network?

Is there any reconfiguration needed on Call Managers? We are on 3.3.2 spc for CCM.

[kechambe]

1. Yes if you goal is to not run Unity in mixed mode than you need to have all of the mailboxes migrated over before the restore.

2. Before you do the DiRT restore you must shutdown the existing Unity server and never start it up again.

Also you should look at going to 4.0(4) and install the latest version of the Exchange 2000 post-SP3 hotfix on Unity. Together they had a lot of high availability and resiliency to Exchange 2000 integrations.

Thanks,

Keith

[deborahwagaman]

Keith,

Thank you for the input,exactly the information I needed. One more question regarding the migration. We have a license for unified however over 90 % of our company has VM only so hidden mailboxes were created for those who did not want to have vm go to their Outlook (don't know why they do not like the feature). We still they want to have the same configuration so after the restore when Unity is searching for a matching user, it will create an additional user for the additional hidden mailboxes? Can we go in later and associate the new 2k mailbox with the same user account we have with the regular mailbox? Will Unity have a problem?

[kechambe]

Unity will match what we have in SQL up with the mailbox after the upgrade. Here is the process that Unity uses:

http://www.ciscounitytools.com/HelpFiles/UnityDisasterRecovery.htm#_Toc65396562

Now with Exchange 2000 and AD each user can only have a single mailbox. It isn't like 5.5 where you can be associated with more than 1. So you are going to have to do some work here for the migration. Check out:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=274173

Please keep in mine that the above doc and utility isn't Cisco supported. You are on your own for the actual Exchange migration.

If you do get some mismatches along the way it isn't a big deal. You can use the Migrate Subscriber Data utility to fix it up. See:

http://www.ciscounitytools.com/App_MigrateSubscriberData.htm

Thanks,

Keith