Moving from a Linux Mail Server and peer-to-peer network to Exchange Server 2007 (Part 3)

If you missed the previous parts in this article series please read:

• Moving from a Linux Mail Server and peer-to-peer network to Exchange Server 2007 (Part 1)
• Moving from a Linux Mail Server and peer-to-peer network to Exchange Server 2007 (Part 2)
• Moving from a Linux Mail Server and peer-to-peer network to Exchange Server 2007 (Part 4)

Updating User information in the Active Directory

Now that we have created the users we should move on to user information. Using the New-Mailbox cmdlet we are not able to add all the information that we have in our CSV file. We can use the same Exchange Management Shell session and run another cmdlet to add the left over information in the $Passwdfile variable in the new users that we have just created. The following cmdlet can be used (Figure 01):

$FilePasswd | ForEach { Set-User $_.Username –Office $_.Office –Phone $_.OfficePhone –HomePhone $_.HomePhone}

Figure 01: Adding information from $Passwdfile into the current AD accounts

The result can be seen in the user’s Properties as shown in Figure 02 and Figure 03.

Figure 02: User has received information from $PasswdFile variable

Figure 03: User with telephone information that was created in the Linux box

Using the same concept, we can create extra columns in the passwd.csv file to add more information in the new users’ accounts. For example, we can create a column called MobilePhone in the CSV file and add that information for all users and add –MobilePhone $_.MobilePhone in the set-user cmdlet. Using this logic we can add as much information as we want in the new environment through the initial CSV file.

Joining the workgroup workstations in the Active Directory domain

In order to migrate to the new environment, we have to work on the workstations first. Then, we have to keep in mind the following points before starting this process:

• We must make sure that all workstations use the Active Directory DNS Server in the DNS settings.
• Make sure that all workstations are using the correct DNS suffix (Active Directory suffix).
• Inform the users after joining their workstations in the Active Directory that they have to log on to the domain with the current user name credentials used to access the message system and password that we defined previously.
• Download the Windows 2003 Resource Kit and make it available to be copied to all workstations when necessary.
• We can perform this process gradually, we don’t need to work on all clients at the same time.

We have just covered some of the initial setup. All workstations should be resolving through the Active Directory DNS Server and they should also be accessing DNS resolution from the old zone (apatricio.ca) without problems. Now, we can start the workstation migration from workgroup to Active Directory:

1. Join the workstations into the Active Directory
   More information can be found at this Microsoft KB article.
2. Log on locally as Administrator.
3. Copy the moveuser.exe to c:\
4. Configure the local profile to be used with the new Active Directory account (Figure 04). We can run the following command:
   Move <local-user-name> <domain-NetBIOS-Name\user-name>
   Where Local user is the local user name that the user has been using.
5.  

Figure 04: Moving local user profile to be used in the new Active Directory account

5. Log off from the machine as administrator.
6. Users can log on using their user name and the initial password that we already defined during the user mailbox creation through PowerShell.
7. After logging on users will receive a message asking to change their password. Instruct them to use the same password that they have been using to access the Linux box to retrieve their messages.
8. The users should be accessing the same information that they had had before we moved the profile with the moveuser.exe tool. The user experience should be the same; it includes desktop icons, Outlook Express, etc, as shown in Figure 05.

Figure 05: Users logged on to the domain will access the same information that they used to have locally

Migration Process – Current Status (Update #02)

Now, our workstations have begun to be moved to the new domain, and all users are using their Active Directory accounts to log into the domain. Our users have enabled mailboxes already; however they are still accessing the Linux Box. A picture of our environment can be seen in Figure 06.

Figure 06: Current status of our scenario

Our next steps are enabling Exchange Server 2007 to accept the current client’s settings before switching to Exchange Server 2007, to do that we have to set up some Exchange Server 2007 components, such as:

• POP3
• Receive Connector
• OWA

Configuring POP3 Setting in Exchange Server 2007

We will install Outlook 2007 on all workstations but until then our current clients running Outlook Express should work without any problems. We will accommodate them on to Exchange Server 2007 using their current settings. To do that we have to enable POP3 in Exchange Server 2007:

1. Open the Exchange Management Console.
2. Expand Client Access.
3. In the work panel click on Exchange Server 2007, and in the result panel click on POP3 and IMAP4 tab.
4. Click on POP3 and in Toolbox Actions click on Properties under POP3.
5. Click on Authentication tab.
6. Select Plain text login (Basic Authentication) as shown in Figure 07.

Figure 07: Configuring the POP3 Authentication

7. Click OK.
8. Open services.msc and make sure that the POP3 Service is configured to start automatically and click on Start.

Let’s get a workstation to validate the new POP3 Settings. Configure this workstation using a test user in the current environment (Linux box) and then change the Outlook Express settings to use the IP address of the Exchange Server. Make sure that the test user can download messages through the POP3 protocol. We can send some test messages to the user’s mailbox using Exchange 2007 OWA because the new user’s Exchange 2007 mailbox is empty.

Configuring a Receive Connector for internal users

In order to allow the current internal users to send messages through SMTP we can create a Receive Connector that will allow all internal clients to send messages through it. It will be a temporary configuration. After we install Outlook 2007 on all clients they will use MAPI and this connector can be removed. 1.       Open the Exchange Management Console.

1. Expand Server Configuration.
2. Click on Hub Transport.
3. In Toolbox Actions, click on New SMTP Receive Connector.
4. In the Introduction section, label the new receive connector and select Custom. Click on Next.
5. In the Local Network Setting section, just type in the FQDN name to be used for this Receive Connector. Click on Next.
6. In the Remote Network settings, we have to add our internal network and click Next.
7. In the New Connector, a summary will be displayed, click on New. (Figure 08)

Figure 08: Finishing the new receive connector that all internal clients will use

If your current environment allows any internal user to send messages through the Linux box we have to enable Anonymous users in the new Receive Connector. To do that, just check Anonymous users on the Permissions Groups tab. (Figure 09)

Figure 09: Allowing Anonymous users to send messages through internal receive connector

The last setting to be done in our new Receive Connector is to allow the internal clients to send Internet messages through this new connector (Figure 10). By default the Exchange Server 2007 will allow relay only for the local domain. The internal users will not be able to send internet messages, to change this behavior we can run the following cmdlet:

Get-ReceiveConnector *Internal* | Add-ADPermission –user “NT AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON” –ExtendendRights ms-Exch-SMTP-Accept-Any-Recipient

Note:
Our Receive connector name is “Internal Receive Connector”.

Figure 10: Adding the ms-Exch-SMTP-Accept-Any-Recipient to Anonymous users in the Internal Receive Connector

Time to validate the Receive Connector! Here are some tests to validate if our internal clients will work on the new environment:

• Telnet <IP-Exchange-Server> 25
  The FQDN besides 220 must be the name that we have set up during the Receive Connector, if it is not please make sure that the IP addresses range in the network remote settings include the IP address of the host where we are doing the test.
• Configure a single machine with the IP Address of the Exchange Server 2007 in the SMTP configuration and send a message to internal and internet recipients. This process should work properly.
•  

If everything went well we know that after switching the environment from Linux to Exchange 2007 all users will be able to send messages internally and externally without problems. If you have different settings to send messages, such as SMTP Authenticated or TLS make sure that you change your Exchange Server 2007 to work properly with your needs before changing the environment.

Conclusion

In this tutorial we have seen how to update the users’ attributes and configure some Exchange Server 2007 components to work with the current environment. In the next and final article we will be looking at the final steps to switch between message systems and install Microsoft Outlook on the workstations to migrate the user data from local to the Exchange database.

If you missed the previous parts in this article series please read:

• Moving from a Linux Mail Server and peer-to-peer network to Exchange Server 2007 (Part 1)
• Moving from a Linux Mail Server and peer-to-peer network to Exchange Server 2007 (Part 2)
• Moving from a Linux Mail Server and peer-to-peer network to Exchange Server 2007 (Part 4)