Migrating from Exchange 2000 Server to Exchange Server 2003 is a straightforward process. Ultimately, the complexity of your environment and other factors, such as available resources and your budget, will determine the approach you take.
Exchange 2003 and Windows 2003
Because Exchange 2000 isn't supported on Windows Server 2003 servers (although you can run Exchange 2000 on a Windows 2000 member server in a Windows 2003 domain), you must upgrade to Exchange 2003 if you want to use Windows 2003. Exchange 2003 is supported on a Windows 2003 or Win2K platform. To run Exchange 2003 on a Win2K platform, the platform must
- be running Win2K Service Pack 3 (SP3) or later
- have Windows 2003 domain controllers (DCs) or Win2K SP3 (or later) DCs available
(For more information about Exchange and Windows interoperability, see "Exchange 2003 Deployment Fundamentals," September 2003, http://www.exchangeadmin.com, InstantDoc ID 39489.) These dependencies mandate that you use a specific in-place upgrade strategy for your Exchange 2003 migration.
Before you can perform an in-place upgrade, you must first upgrade the Exchange 2000 server to Exchange 2003; only then can you upgrade Win2K to Windows 2003. No other upgrade sequence will work, although you can use the Move Mailbox tool to directly migrate Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2003 on another server running either Windows 2003 or Win2K without having to perform an in-place upgrade.
After you install Exchange 2003 on a Win2K server, the process of upgrading Win2K to Windows 2003 is clear-cut, and Exchange 2003 behaves proactively during the upgrade process. For example, Exchange 2003 ensures that the Windows Web services aren't disabled during the upgrade—a valuable function because Win2K-toWindows 2003 upgrades tend to disable services by default as a security measure. In addition, Exchange 2003 makes the appropriate changes to Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0, such as switching to Worker Process Isolation Mode and enabling the appropriate Internet Server API (ISAPI) interfaces, including remote procedure calls (RPCs) over HTTP and Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA). Exchange makes these changes automatically during the OS upgrade.
The Exchange 2003 ExDeploy Tool
Although migrating from Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2003 is somewhat simpler than other Exchange migrations (i.e., from Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003), the migration can be even more straightforward if you use the Exchange 2003 ExDeploy tool, which you can find in the \support\exdeploy directory on the Exchange 2003 installation CD-ROM. Double-click exdeploy.chm to start the wizard. Under Options, choose the Upgrade from Exchange 2000 Native Mode option. The tool will present various steps for performing the installation, as Figure 1 shows.
You don't have to use ExDeploy, however. ExDeploy is merely a set of tutorial-type Help pages designed for small environments; it guides you through the various tasks in the migration process and is useful if you have a simple environment with only a handful of Exchange 2000 servers to upgrade. If you have a broader, more complex environment, consider using the conventional upgrade approach, perhaps briefly reviewing the ExDeploy instructions to help you plan your migration.