Introduction

Since only the Exchange 2007 64-bit version is supported in a production environment, and because previous versions of Exchange (2000 and 2003) exist only in 32-bit versions, an in-place upgrade from Exchange 2000 or 2003 to Exchange Server 2007 isn t a supported scenario. Instead you must do a transition from these legacy Exchange Server(s) to Exchange 2007. A transition is the process in which you perform an upgrade to Exchange 2007 that is, you move data from any legacy Exchange servers in your Exchange organization to new Exchange 2007 servers, after which you decommission the legacy Exchange servers. A transition should not be confused with a migration; unlike a transition, a migration is the process in which you move data from a non-Exchange messaging system (such as GroupWise, Lotus Notes or SendMail) to an Exchange organization, or move data from a legacy Exchange organization in an existing Active Directory Forest to an Exchange organization in a new Active Directory Forest.

In this chapter we ll look more closely at performing a transition from a legacy Exchange organization consisting of a single Exchange 2003 server to an Exchange 2007 server, which will be installed as a typical Exchange Server installation.

Preparing the Environment for a Transition to Exchange Server 2007

Before we begin deploying the Exchange 2007 Server in our legacy Exchange organization, there are several preliminary requirements that we must complete. We need to prepare the Active Directory forest, the existing Exchange organization, and the server on which we...