Exchange 2003 and 2007 co exisiting

[Dee]

Hi,

We have Exchange 2003 running on a Windows 2003 server and Exchange 2007
Server running on a 2008 server. We want to move the mailboxes from 2003 to
2007 with the least amount of downtime for our users (roughly 50 users).
Most of the websites point towards changing the routing of mail traffic from
one server to the other, then moving the mailboxes across. However as we have
mailboxes that are over 2GB each this would take a long time and risk emails
being bounced during the move.
My question is, is there a way for both Exchange servers to co-exist in our
environment so that we can move one mailbox at a time?

[Oliver Moazzezi [MVP]]

Hi there Dee,

If the Exchange Servers are in the same Forest/Domain and thus in the same
Exchange Org then yes simply move one mailbox at a time. It doesn't matter
where incoming mail is homed, that can either point to 2003 or 2007 for the
time being, either system will note if mail it has recieved is for a mailbox
for the other version of Exchange and pass across. This is done using the
Legacy Routing Group Connector that is created by default when Exchange 2007
is put into and Exchange 2000 or 2003 Org.

FYI: Moving a mailbox from one to the other using the Move Mailbox process
won't make it bounce mail. Exchange will hold it until it can deliver it to
the mailbox once the mailbox has moved.

Oliver

[Dee]

Hi Oliver,

Thank you for getting back so quickly. I'll give that a go and see how I get
on.

Dee

[Oliver Moazzezi [MVP]]

Cool no worries. Glad I could be of help.

Feel free to post again if you get stuck :-)

Take care,

Oliver

[Dee]

Hi Oliver,

Getting around to looking into Legacy Routing Group Connector.
If this is not working how do we go about setting up a connector between the
two servers?

Dee