Tips for migrating to Exchange server 2003

· Use the Microsoft® Exchange Server Deployment Tools. These are new in the 2003 release of Exchange Server, and will greatly help in guiding you through a successful deployment process. Included is an array of tools designed to diagnose and/or verify a wide variety of conditions that you might encounter.

· Keep in mind that Exchange Server 2003 makes widespread use of DNS.
Because Exchange is a major consumer of DNS, it will quickly and effectively expose any related issues.

· Confirm that your Mail Exchange (MX) records are pointing to the correct server or IP address.

· Verify that your DNS server is configured to use forwarders for addresses it is unable to resolve internally, instead of being pointed directly to an external DNS resolver. This is a good rule in general.

· Check that your local member servers are pointed to your local DNS server and not to an external resolver. The trick here is that you want to be able to find the other machines on your LAN and not just machines on the Internet.

· Certify that the Domain Controller (DC) acting as your schema master is using a DNS server that is accessible by your local servers. If the schema master is the DNS server, make sure that it is configured to use its own IP address for DNS and is the preferred DNS server of the member servers.

· Confirm on the first page of Properties on the zone that your DNS server is configured to Allow Dynamic Update.

· Verify that your DNS records contain entries under the domain, labeled _mcdcs, _sites, _tcp, and _udp, in addition to the Host records. If you do not see these entries and have already verified that Dynamic Update is enabled, go to your DCs and type "net stop netlogon" followed by "net start netlogon" from a command prompt. This will restart the Netlogon service and cause the DC to reregister its service resource records (SRV records).

· Verify that you can resolve the name of your mail server and your DC(s) by both short name and Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).

· Ensure that the first Exchange 2003 server that you install is not a cluster if your current e-mail environment contains Exchange 5.5 and no subsequent Exchange versions. Some Exchange services are supported on a cluster, but some are not. One of the services not supported on a cluster is the Site Replication Service (SRS), which allows Exchange 2003 and Exchange 5.5 to be on speaking terms. It's important that the first server that goes in is able to create the SRS and start communications.

· Install the Active Directory® Connector (ADC) and configure Connection Agreements (CAs) if your Exchange organization is Exchange 5.5. I strongly recommend that you use the ADC Tools, included with your ADC installation, to generate these CAs.
· Check that all ADC servers are upgraded to the proper Exchange 2003 version before you embark on your Exchange 2003 rollout if you are upgrading from Exchange 2000 mixed mode. I also strongly recommend that after upgrading your ADC servers you use the ADC Tools to revalidate any existing CAs.
· Remember that if you have third-party applications running on your Exchange server, you should check with your vendor to confirm that they have a compatible version available, and acquire it for installation on your new Exchange server. If your migration is an upgrade of an existing Exchange deployment, uninstall your third-party applications prior to the upgrade and reinstall the new version after the upgrade. (Note: upgrading to Microsoft Exchange 2003 is supported only on an Exchange 2000 server.)

· If you are upgrading from Exchange 2000, verify that you account for services that are no longer supported in Exchange 2003. These include:
Microsoft Mobile Information Server
Instant Messaging Service
Exchange Chat Service
Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server
Key Management Service
cc:Mail connector
MS Mail connector
· If any of these services are running on the Exchange server you plan to upgrade, you should remove them with Exchange setup before you move on. If you're going to need any of these services, you will need to keep at least one Exchange 2000 server available to run the service.

· Make sure the time onthe server that you are installing on is in sync with the time on your DCs. If the time is off by more than five minutes, Kerberos authentication will fail and you won't be able to perform any operations that require permissions on the Active Directory. If the times are out of sync, you can type "net time /set \\" from the command prompt on the Exchange server to fix it.