Moving Exchange from old server to completely new server

Question

Hello All,
I hope to get some good pointers here.  I currently have Exchange server 2007 SP1 running today.  The server is old and the warranty just expired.  I have been given permission to buy a new server and migrate to it.  I have the new server
up and running with Exchange 07 SP1 installed.  I am looking for the best way to migrate and move users from one server, to the new one and decommission the old one.  The storage is    Are there any special steps I need to take?  Do
I need to do any ADPrep to tell AD to use the new server?   I've tried looking for a guide or a how-to but all I have found are vague and brief ways to install Exchange server, but not to migrate from one server to a new one. These are two separate
physical servers btw.
edit -  I forgot to mention that the exchange store is on a SAN via iSCSI
Thank you,
David

Answer 1

David,
Moving exchange in ten easy steps:
1.Bring up a new server as a new server in the same site. Use a different name for the new server. If you need to move Exchange to another server with the same name, follow the instructions in the Microsoft article “XADM: How to Move Exchange Server to a
New Computer with the Same Name” (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q155/2/16.asp).
2.To move user mailboxes to the new server, start Microsoft Exchange Administrator, click Tools, and select Move Mailbox. You can move all the mailboxes at once, one at a time, or several at a time. In many cases, you can move mailboxes during working hours
because each user is locked out of his or her mailbox only while that mailbox is being moved.
3.Create replicas of the public folders on the new server. When the contents of the folders have been replicated (do wait a little while!), remove the folders from the old server.
4.Create new connectors on the new servers. Change the costs of the old connectors you're replacing to be higher than the new ones, then recalculate routing.
5.Create mail exchanger (MX) records pointing to the new Internet Mail Service (IMS) as appropriate, and change the cost on the old MX record so that it’s higher than the costs on the new records. When you’ve verified that messages are flowing across the
new connectors, remove the old ones, then recalculate routing again.
6.Follow the steps in the Microsoft article “XADM: How to Remove the First Exchange Server in a Site” (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q152/9/59.asp) if the server
you're replacing is the first one in the site.
7.Leave the old server up for a while to give Messaging API (MAPI) clients time to connect to the new server automatically ( the old server provides referrals to the new one). It's true—you don't have to reconfigure MAPI clients!
8.Tell POP3 and IMAP4 users how to reconfigure their clients to point to the new server.
9.If you have a WINS or DNS alias for the old server, point it to the new server.
10.Stop the Exchange services on the old server, then use Exchange Administrator to delete the old server's server object, thus removing it from the site.
I hope that helps you out.
Cheers,
Curt Winter
Certified Microsoft Professional
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