With Exchange 2003 going end of life in less than two weeks, I have had a significant influx of last-minute migrations and migration questions.

For those that don’t know, Exchange 2003 is reaching end-of-life on April 8th, 2014.

What this means is that there will be no further patches or service packs for this product, nor, will you be able to receive any form of paid assistance from Microsoft.

You may be able to find a consultant that can help with Exchange 2003 for years to come. Keep in mind, that finding someone with that knowledge and skillset will diminish over time.

Real World: A couple of years ago I helped a friend with a failed Exchange 5.5 box. Yes, that is not a typo. We were able to get it operational. The miracle is that I remembered a best-kept secret from 5.5 to get it going. These were things I hadn’t thought about in 12 years!! I truly shocked myself.

The larger concern, however, is the complete lack of updates. If an exploit were to be found in the product, after April 8th, you are on your own.

Now, is the time to upgrade!

There are many great articles that have already covered this process. One of my favorites is by Jaap Wesselius. And while Jaap writes a fantastic article I wanted to write my own article for a slightly different audience in mind.

That of the small business.

Specifically, seventy-five users and below.

“Seventy-five?” you might say, “Isn’t that the max number of users for Small Business Server 2003?”

Yes, yes it is.

I will be focusing on a small company running Exchange 2003 Standard. While this will focus on the full version of the product, you can easily transpose this for Small Business Server.

We will focus on transitioning from a single server running Exchange 2003 to a single server running 2010. We will use a Cisco ASA 5505 as our firewall. Our network will look like this.

“Why not go directly to Exchange 2013?” you may ask.

Well, simply put, you can’t.

Microsoft has not released an upgrade path from 2003 to 2013. If your final goal is to get to Exchange 2013, Microsoft recommends you go to  2007, or, 2010 first. Exchange 2003 and 2013 cannot co-exist in the same forest.

Tip: Now you can cheat, and use products like MigrationWiz, to perform what they call a cross-forest migration. And it will get you directly to Exchange 2013. But that is exactly what you will get. A brand new forest and a brand new domain. And that comes with its own set of challenges. Don’t get me wrong, MigrationWiz is a fantastic product. In fact, keep your eyes peeled for an article in April that covers transferring mailboxes from Lotus Notes to Exchange 2010 using MigrationWiz. But for now, let’s follow Microsoft best practice.

First things first. The prerequisites. We need to do this before we even consider putting in the Exchange DVD.

Step 1: The Prerequisites

Before we can get started we need to do some checking in of Active Directory and the current Exchange environment.

First, we need to check the Exchange Organization mode. We need to make sure it is Native. To do this:

1. Open Exchange System Manager.
2. Right-click on the top-level item and select Properties from the context menu.

   

3. Check the box that says Operation Mode.
   • If this box says Native Mode (no pre-Exchange 2000 servers) then you are all set. Proceed to Step 4.

     

   • If this box says Mixed Mode (can support pre-Exchange 2000 Servers) click the Change Mode button.

     

4. Click Ok.

Next, we need to determine the domain functional level. We need to make sure this is a minimum of Server 2003.

Note: You can NOT do this if you have any Server 2000 (or older) domain controllers in the environment. Those will need to be upgraded or decommissioned first.

To check and modify the domain functional level:

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers
2. Right-click on the name of your domain.
3. Select Raise Domain Functional Level from the context menu.
4. From the Select an available domain drop-down, box choose Windows Server 2003.
5. Click the Raise button.

   

6. You will be prompted to confirm and warned the action is irreversible. Click Ok.
7. You will receive a dialog determining whether or not this was successful. Click Ok.
8. To confirm this worked, right-click on your domain and select Raise Domain Functional Level again. It should look like the screenshot below. Click Close.

   

Next, we need to determine the forest functional level. Like we did with the domain level, we need to make sure this is a minimum of Server 2003.

Note: If you have more than one domain in your forest, all domains must be at a Server 2003 domain functional level before the forest functional level can be raised.

To check and modify the forest functional level:

1. Open Active Directory Domains and Trusts
2. Right-click on the top-level node, Active Directory Domains, and Trusts, and select Raise Forest Functional Level from the context menu.
3. From the Select an available forest drop-down box, choose Windows Server 2003.
4. Click the Raise button.

   

5. You will be prompted to confirm and warned the action is irreversible. Click Ok.
6. You will receive a dialog determining whether or not this was successful. Click Ok.
7. To confirm this worked, right-click on the top-level node and select Raise Forest Functional Level again. It should look like the screenshot below. Click Close.

   

Next, we need to determine if the Domain Controllers themselves are at the minimum service pack level. If your domain controllers are all Server 2008 or newer then no problem. You are good to go. However, if you have any Server 2003, or, they are all 2003, then we need to check.

1. Log onto your domain controller.
2. Go to Start, right-click on My Computer and select Properties.
3. Under the General tab, in the System section, look for a Service Pack level.
4. Repeat this for all domain controllers.

   

We need to make sure our domain controllers are at a minimum Service Pack 1 (or running Server 2003 R2). If not, then you need to run Windows Update.

Technically, only the Domain Controllers hosting the Schema Master and Global Catalog roles need to be at Service Pack 1, but for the sake of simplicity, let’s get all our DCs patched up.

The next prerequisite is to make sure we Suppress Link State Updates. We do this from the registry of the Exchange 2003 server.

To do this, follow the steps in this Microsoft TechNet Article: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/exchange-server-2010/dd346700(v=exchg.141)

That’s all for Part I. In the next part in our series we will extend the Active Directory Schema to allow for Exchange 2010 and begin preparing our server that will host all our Exchange roles.

NEXT: Migrating Exchange 2003 to 2010 – Part II