At a high level, in order to upgrade, I will need to install new temporary server running Windows Server 2008 and Exchange Server 2010. I will then have to migrate the user mailboxes to the new temporary server. Once the migration is complete and Exchange 2007 is no longer being used or needed, I can then reinstall the operating system and install Exchange 2010 on the old machine. From there, I would move the mailboxes one more time from the temporary Exchange 2010 server to the permanent Exchange server.

I am lucky in that my migration is pretty straight forward and there isn’t more than a couple of dozen mailboxes to move. Hopefully it goes well.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 provides many enhancements to help organizations better manage their email, extend their messaging platform with Unified Communications technologies, and provide greater reliability and security. IT Pros are challenged with upgrading or migrating their existing email platform to Exchange 2007, while at the same time being keenly aware of the fact that email is something that can never go down. This session will teach you the best practices to migrate to Exchange 2007 so that you can be successful at acquiring the benefits of Exchange 2007 by a well-planned and executed migration. We will dive into migration and transition planning where you will learn scenarios to migrate environments such as Exchange Server 5.5, 2000, and 2003, Novell GroupWise and Lotus Domino to Exchange Server 2007. You will be trained to recognize and plan which of the different migration scenarios is best for you. You will learn what’s required to support multi-client environments (Outlook 2003 and earlier, as well as Outlook 2007) and what is required for coexistence planning.

About the Speaker:
Richard Claus is a bilingual Senior IT Pro Advisor working for Microsoft Canada. Based in Ottawa, Ontario, Rick is focused on engaging “the IT Pro community” by establishing relationships and giving support to various IT Professional focused initiatives, user groups and professional associations. He is very excited to have a position where he is empowered to reach out and share his passion for technology with the Canadian IT Professional community.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Rick most recently worked as an Enterprise Architect at a Microsoft Gold Partner. His previous design experience includes Virtualization strategies, Active Directory implementations and migrations, highly available Exchange messaging solutions, and overall systems management and interoperability. Besides design and consulting work, Rick brings over 17 years of IT experience, ranging from front line “in the trenches” admin duties, to training/mentoring/facilitating individuals and teams on how to use technology more effectively in their organizations.
Rick is an integral part of the Microsoft community team which drives awareness, education and training through special in person and online events. In addition to planning and delivering these events, his group directly engages with Canada’s professional communities, including IT managers, infrastructure specialists and architects, systems integrators, independent software vendors (ISVs) and community leaders.

Location:
Microsoft Canada Co.
100 Queen Street Suite 500
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 1J9
Date: October 23rd, 2008
Agenda:
5:00 p.m. Event registration
5:30 p.m. Presentation
7:30 p.m. Q & A
8:00 p.m. Door Prizes
Notes: Pizza and Pop will be served, Please RSVP to help us order enough of both.

RSVP: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=132403

My plans for the 646 is to write the exam sometime before the end of October. That being said, if it looks too ambitious then I might push it out to November. The Exchange certification I plan to work on with a friend in Ottawa to help keep me focused. The plan for him and I is to try and meet once a week via Microsoft LiveMeeting and discuss the chapters that we were to cover for that week. When we are done, we will try the exam. I imagine we will be early February or March before we tackle the exam.

For both of these exams, I will be posting to my blog a recommended schedule, a quick review of the weekly content and a question of the week. Look for me to have a plan together for the 646 exam first (probably next week) and then once I have the details finalized, the plan for 236. My intention with the LiveMeeting's on exchange is to open them up to anyone who is interested in following along. To follow along with either of these sessions, you will need the Microsoft Press Study Guides for the respective material. Unfortunately, I don’t have any copies of the book to give away, your best bet is to do like I did and order the book through Amazon. Ordering online saved me about $20.00 versus buying it in a store and I had the books in two days.

Here is the link to each of the books:

70-646, Windows Server Administration

70-236, Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

If you are interested in working on these exams, we’ll be creating forums for each of the exams at the OWSUG site where questions can be asked. Look for more information about 70-646 next week.

As long as RIM has its NOC and no one else is going that route, I don’t see RIM’s dominance in the corporate environment fading. The only other company who could pull off putting up a NOC tomorrow would be Microsoft and I could see them doing it as a SaaS offering which would tie into Exchange.

I got digging on the error and it looks to be a problem with Exchange SP1. I found the answer here http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid43_gci1302366,00.html. I followed the steps I found in this article and was able to uninstall exchange off the old exchange server.

The Lazy Admin website is a great source for scripts and tips to help you out. Now that Rodney is working for Microsoft Canada, I’m sure we’ll see even more great tips and information.

I’m subscribed, and I would suggest you should be too.