Moving Legacy Mailboxes to Exchange 2007

Alright we have reached the part where we’re going to move our legacy mailboxes from Exchange 2000 or 2003 Server to Exchange 2007. Doing so is a straightforward process and can be done using either the Move Mailbox wizard in the Exchange Management Console (EMC) or the Move-Mailbox cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell (EMS). For the purpose of this article series we’ll use the EMC. So if it’s not already open, launch the EMC, then expand the Recipient Configuration work center and click the Mailbox sub-node. Now highlight all the legacy mailboxes as shown in Figure 3.4, and then click the Move Mailbox task in the Action Pane.

Figure 3.4: Selecting Legacy Mailboxes in the Exchange Management Console

This will launch the Exchange 2007 Move Mailbox wizard, where you need to specify the destination server, storage group and mailbox database. Select the Exchange 2007 Server in the drop down box (Figure 3.5), and then click Next.

Figure 3.5: Specifying the Exchange 2007 Server as the Destination Server

Now specify how you want to manage any corrupted messages found in a mailbox (Figure 3.6), then click Next.

Figure 3.6: Specifying how corrupted messages in mailboxes should be managed

On the Move Schedule screen shown in Figure 3.7, select Immediately (unless you want the mailboxes to be moved automatically at a later time) and click Next.

Figure 3.7: Move Mailbox Scheduling Options

Finally click Move in order to start moving the legacy mailboxes to the Exchange 2007 Server (Figure 3.8).

Figure 3.8: Move Mailboxes Summary Page

As is the case with the Move Mailbox wizard in Exchange 2003, the Exchange 2007 Move Mailbox wizard can move 4 mailboxes at a time, and only one instance of the wizard can run on a server.

When all the mailboxes have been moved to the Exchange 2007 Server click Finish in order to exit the Move Mailbox wizard, and then check that mail flow to/from the Internet to the mailboxes on the Exchange 2007 works as expected.

If you will be running in a co-existence environment for a period of time, it’s important to understand that mailboxes stored on an Exchange 2007 server must not be managed using the Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) MMC snap-in, but instead must be managed using the Exchange Management Console (EMC) or the Exchange Management Shell (EMS). However Exchange 2003 mailboxes can still be managed using ADUC.

Note:
If you want to move the Mailboxes using the Exchange Management Shell (EMS), you do so using the Move-Mailbox cmdlet. Using the Move-Mailbox cmdlet gives you a set of advanced options, among which the most interesting one is the option of specifying the number of mailboxes to be moved at a time (as you read earlier the Move Mailbox wizard is limited to 4).

Redirecting Inbound Mail to the Exchange 2007 Server

When all legacy mailboxes have been moved to the Exchange 2007 Server, we can point SMTP traffic (port 25/TCP) directly to the Exchange 2007 Server, so that inbound messages are routed directly to this server. It’s recommended to deploy an Edge Transport Server in your perimeter network (aka DMZ), and let this server route inbound messages to the Exchange 2007 server on your internal network. Instructions on how to deploy an Edge Transport server is outside the scope of this article series, but I’ll cover that topic in another article in the near future. If you don’t want to deploy an Edge Transport server, you should bear in mind that you need to change the Permission Groups settings on the Default <server> receive connector under the Server Configuration work center node> Hub Transport sub-node in the EMC so Anonymous users are allowed to connect to the Exchange 2007 Server as shown in Figure 3.9, otherwise you won’t be able to receive e-mail messages from other SMTP servers on the Internet.

Figure 3.9: Permission Groups Settings on the Default Receive Connector

In addition you should make sure that any Send Connectors under Organization Configuration > Hub Transport > Send Connector tab are configured so that they can send outbound mail (either using a smart host or DNS MX) properly (Figure 3.10).

Figure 3.10: Send Connector Settings

When the necessary changes have been made, we can delete the routing group connector which was set up to establish mail flow between the Exchange 2003 and 2007 Routing Groups. In order to do so you should expand Administrative Groups > First Administrative Group > Routing Groups > Connectors and right-click on the respective Routing Group Connector then select Delete in the context menu as shown in Figure 3.11.

Note:
Officialy the correct way of deleting the routing group connectors is to use the Remove-RoutingGroupConnector cmdlet, but since Exchange 2003 version blocking doesn’t block deletes, you can also use the Exchange 2003 System Manager as well.

Figure 3.11: Deleting the Routing Groups Connector

Since the Routing Group connector won’t be deleted in both ends, you also need to delete it under the Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT) > Exchange Routing Group (DWBGZMFD01QNBJR) > Connectors.

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