This is the last article for our Exchange transition scenario. Today, i will transfer the mailboxes to the new Exchange 2007 Mailbox servers, configure Outlook Anywhere in my new organisation, create policies which are identical to the policies in Exchange 2003 organisation. After that i will write a disclaimer and set it up for external emails. Lastly I will remove the connectors between old organisation and the new one and uninstall the Exchange 2003 servers.
I transfer the mailboxes by using EMC of Exchange 2007 server. After opening the console, I click the mailbox under “Recipient Configuration”. On the right side, i see all the accounts in my Active Directory which have mailbox and a “Legacy Mailbox” label is situated beside each account. This label is telling that the mailbox is hosted on an older Exchange Server version. I select all of the accounts that I want to transfer and right click them. “Move mailbox” is the command that i select from the menu and a wizard appears. It is self explanatory. I select the target database by this wizard and press the “Move” button at the end of the wizard. After the moving operation is completed, “Legacy Mailbox” label is turned into “User Mailbox” label.
Now it is time to configure Outlook Anywhere on my CAS server. I expand “Server Configuration -> Client Access” on Exchange Management Console (EMC) and right click on the server name. When i choose “Enable Outlook Anywhere” from the menu, a wizard starts. I write “mail.mstip.com” to URL part and select “Basic Authentication” from authentication part and finish the wizard. When I configure my Outlook 2003/2007 client as it is seen below, connection is successfully established:
Figure 1: Outlook Anywhere settings for Outlook 2003/2007 client
I can create new policies for my new Exchange 2007 organisation which are identical to the old ones. I have an extra recipient policy on the old organisation other than the default policy. In this policy, Mailbox Manager settings are defined and with these settings, Inbox and Deleted Items contents are deleted after 120 days of arrival. Because the policy is not re-generated automatically in my new organisation, i have to create it again.
For this purpose, I open the EMC on Exchange 2007 server and open “Organization Configuration -> Mailbox”. I click “Managed Default Folders” tab on the right side. I right click the folder that i want to create policy, and select “New Managed Content Settings” from the menu. At the first screen of the wizard, I give a name for my new policy and select “Length of retention period (days)” checkbox. I write 120 to the box on the right side. I leave the “Retention period starts” list as it is. I select “Permanently Delete” from the “Action to take at the end of the retention period” list and click Next. At the second screen, i don’t touch anything and click Next. The third screen is the last screen. I take a look at the summary and press the New button. This creates my new policy. I can also take similar actions for the other folders if necessary.
The default policy can be reached from the “Organization Configuration -> Hub Transport -> E-mail Address Policies” tab. When i right click the policy and select edit, a warning message appears as it is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Warning message while editing default policy via EMC
To overcome this problem, i run the following command from Exchange Management Shell:
Set-EMailAddressPolicy “Default Policy” -IncludedRecipients AllRecipients
This action upgrades the Default Policy to Exchange 2007.
Now i can create a disclaimer for outgoing emails for my organisation. I open “Organization Configuration -> Hub Transport -> Transport Rules” in EMC console of HUB server and right click the empty space and select “New Transport Rule…”. At the first screen of the opening wizard, i give a descriptive name to my new rule, leave the “Enable Rule” checkbox selected and click Next. On the second screen, I fill the “sent to users inside or outside the organization” box in Step 1 field. In Step 2 field, I click the underlined Inside word, and choose Outside from the appearing list (Figure 3). After clicking Next button, i select “append disclaimer text using font, size, color with separator and fallback to action if unable to apply” checkbox. When i select it, in the Step 2 field, underlined disclaimer text word appears. I click it and write a disclaimer as it is shown in Figure 4. I can also change the color and font type of the disclaimer from this screen. I click the Next button and i don’t touch anything on the next screen. After pressing the Next button again, “Create Rule” screen is shown. I click the New button and my new transport rule is created(Figure 5).
Figure 3: Condition screen of New Transport Rule wizard
Figure 4: Actions screen of New Transport Rule wizard
Figure 5: Create Rule screen of New Transport Rule wizard
I have to delete the connectors between old organisation and new organisation. As you already know, these connectors are used for mail traffic between Exchange 2003 servers and Exchange 2007 servers. For this purpose, i open the Exchange 2003 server System Manager console and open the connectors folder under our organisations (Figure 6). I right click the connectors respectively, select delete from the menu and confirm the deletions. This removal finishes e-mail communication between old servers and the new ones.
Figure 6: Removal of connectors
Now it is time to uninstall the Exchange 2003 servers step by step. I logon to the EXC03MB01 server. I open Add or Remove Programs from Control Panel. I select Microsoft Exchange from the menu and press Change/Remove button. I click Next on the Welcome screen. On the second screen, i select the remove option for Microsoft Exchange and by clicking Next button removes the Exchange Server role from the server. I do the same thing for the other Exchange 2003 servers.
That is all for the article series of Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 transition. Actually it is not so difficult but you have to plan the transition very well (Planning is the key). Bye for now.
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