The Implementation

When the test phase is officially completed and any lingering problems have been resolved with the upgrade process, there will typically be 10 “20% of the total user community upgraded. The project team will have all the tools it needs to complete the remainder of the upgrade without serious issues. Small problems with individual workstations or laptops will probably still occur but the helpdesk is probably familiar with how to handle these issues at this point.

A key event at this point is the migration of large amounts of Exchange data. The public and private information stores should be analyzed with eseutil and isinteg , and complete backup copies should be made in case of serious problems. The project team should make sure that the entire user community is prepared for the migration and that training has been completed by the time a user's workstation is upgraded.

It is helpful to have a checklist for the tasks that need to be completed on the different types of workstations and laptops so that the same steps are taken for each unit, and any issues encountered can be recorded for follow-up if they aren't critical. Laptops will most likely be the most problematic because of the variation in models, features, and user requirements, and because the mobile employees often have unique needs when compared to workers who remain in the office. If home computers need to be upgraded with the Outlook 2003 client and if, for instance, the company VPN is being retired , these visits need to be coordinated.

As with the pilot phase, the satisfaction of the user community should be verified . New public folders or SharePoint discussions can be started, and supplemental training can be offered for users who might need some extra or repeat training.

Decommissioning the Old Exchange Environment

As mentioned previously, some upgrades require legacy Exchange servers to be kept online, if they are running applications that aren't ready or can't be upgraded right away to Exchange Server 2003. Even in environments where the Exchange 5.5 or 2000 Servers should be completely removed, this should not necessarily be done right away.

Supporting the New Exchange Server 2003 Environment

After the dust has settled and any lingering issues with users or functionality have been resolved, the project team can be officially disbanded, and possibly receive some extra monetary reward for the extra hours and a job well done. If they haven't been created already, Exchange Server Maintenance documents should be created to detail the daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly steps to ensure that the environment is performing normally and the databases are healthy .

If the prototype lab is still in place, this is an ideal testing ground for these processes and for testing patches and new applications.