Upgrading Existing Exchange 2000 Front-end OWA Servers

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There are several important factors to keep in mind when upgrading an Exchange 2000 front-end/back-end OWA configuration to Exchange Server 2003. First, before upgrading back-end mailbox servers, all front-end servers in an administrative group must be upgraded to Exchange Server 2003. The upgrade process on the Exchange back-end servers will actually stop if this situation is not corrected in advance. Consequently, it is important to upgrade or replace front-end servers as the first wave of an Exchange Server 2003 migration process.

The Exchange virtual server in Exchange 2000 runs on IIS 5, which cannot communicate with the IIS 6 Exchange virtual server in Exchange Server 2003. So, Exchange 2000 front-end servers would not be able to communicate with mailboxes on an Exchange Server 2003 system. Exchange Server 2003 front-end servers, on the other hand, are backward-compatible with IIS 5 and can subsequently communicate with back-end Exchange 2000 systems.

A second consideration to keep in mind when upgrading OWA front-end servers is that, during the setup process, Exchange Server 2003 will enable some of the Exchange services that might have been previously disabled. It is necessary to disable these services after the upgrade process to maintain the same level of security. The following services are affected by this:

  • Exchange Information Store Service

  • Exchange Message Tracking Agent (MTA) Service

  • POP3 Service

  • IMAP4 Service

NOTE

Because Exchange Server 2003 front-end servers do not require an Enterprise license of Exchange, it might be tempting to replace existing Exchange 2000 front-end servers, which required the Enterprise license, with Standard license versions to free the more expensive license. This concept can be achieved only if the front-end servers are rebuilt from scratch or replaced , however, because in-place upgrades of front-end servers cannot downgrade the license.


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Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Unleashed
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Unleashed (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0672328070
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 393
Authors: Rand Morimoto

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