If you would like to read the other parts in this article series please go to:
Removing The Last Exchange 2003 Server From Exchange 2007 (Part 1)
Removing The Last Exchange 2003 Server From Exchange 2007 (Part 2)
Removing The Last Exchange 2003 Server From Exchange 2007 (Part 3)
Introduction
Since part one of this four-part article we’ve re-routed Internet email, moved the public folders, moved the Offline Address Book, removed the mailbox and public folder stores from the Exchange 2003 server and removed the Routing Group Connectors created during the installation of Exchange 2007. As you can see, there is quite a list of things to do before we can get around to removing Exchange 2003 and there are still a few more to go. In this last part of this article we’re going to look at what we need to do with our recipient policies, the public folder hierarchy and lastly the Recipient Update Services.
Once all these have been dealt with, we can then think about removing the Exchange 2003 software from the server.
Prepare Your Recipient Policies
One important topic to cover is preparing the recipient policies prior to removal of Exchange 2003. In Exchange 2003, a recipient policy can control email address generation as well as Mailbox Manager settings. For example, when creating a new recipient policy in Exchange 2003 you are presented with the window shown in Figure 21 where you can see the option to create E-Mail Addresses or Mailbox Manager Settings.
Figure 21: New Recipient Policy
Therefore, policies that have both email addresses and Mailbox Manager settings will have the corresponding tabs present when you view the properties of the recipient policy as shown in Figure 22. Recipient policies may also only have either the E-Mail Addresses tab or the Mailbox Manager Settings tab.
Figure 22: Recipient Policy With Both Settings
The problem is that later, you will upgrade your recipient policies via an Exchange Management Shell cmdlet. Policies with Mailbox Manager settings on them cannot be upgraded and thus the Mailbox Manager portion of the policy must be removed. How you prepare your recipient policies depends on which tabs are present within the policies. If there is only a Mailbox Manager Settings tab present, this policy should be deleted completely. To do this right-click the policy in Exchange System Manager and choose Delete from the context menu.
If there are both Mailbox Manager Settings and E-Mail Addresses tabs visible, then right-click the policy and choose the Change property pages… option from the context menu. You will then be presented with the window shown in Figure 21 although this time both check boxes will be selected. You need to clear the Mailbox Manager Settings check box to remove this from the policy.
The important thing to remember is that only email address policies should remain. What happens to the Mailbox Manager settings? You’ll need to create equivalent Messaging Records Management policies and I’ve covered this subject here on MSExchange.org
Move Public Folder Hierarchy
Previously within part two of this article we moved the public folder contents from the Exchange 2003 server to the Exchange 2007 server to the point where we were able to remove the public folder store from the Exchange 2003 server. However, we’re not finished yet with public folders since the hierarchy still exists within the Exchange 2003 administrative group as you can see from Figure 23.
Figure 23: Public Folder Hierarchy in Exchange 2003 Administrative Group
Moving the public folder hierarchy is simply a question of dragging and dropping it into the new administrative group created during the installation of Exchange 2007. However, before it can be dragged and dropped a new Folders container must be created within the Exchange 2007 administrative group. This is done from within the Exchange System Manager on your Exchange 2003 server. Yes, that’s right – you will be making a change to the Exchange 2007 administrative group using the Exchange 2003 Exchange System Manager. This can be achieved by right-clicking the Exchange 2007 administrative group called Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT). From the resulting context menu, choose New and then choose Public Folders Container. The result will be a new Folders container under the Exchange 2007 administrative group. You can then simply drag the Public Folders object from the Exchange 2003 administrative group to the Exchange 2007 administrative group, the result of which is shown in Figure 24.
Figure 24: Public Folder Hierarchy Moved
That may appear to be a simplistic approach to moving the public folder hierarchy but that’s the recommendation from Microsoft and I’ve used it successfully in Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 migration projects.
Remove Recipient Update Services
It’s now time to remove the Recipient Update Service (RUS) objects that are present in Exchange 2003 as they are no longer used in Exchange 2007. You will find the RUS objects in the Exchange System Manager under the Recipients node.
One type of RUS, the Domain RUS, can be deleted via Exchange System Manager. The other type of RUS, the Enterprise RUS, cannot and we’ll cover how that’s done in just a minute. In Figure 25, you can see the two RUS objects that are present and it should be obvious that the one with Enterprise Configuration in its name is the Enterprise RUS.
Figure 25: Exchange 2003 Recipient Update Services
First, let’s look at deleting the Domain RUS in Exchange System Manager. Simply right-click the Domain RUS and choose Delete from the context menu. You will of course be presented with an “Are you sure?” prompt. That’s all there is to it.
To delete the Enterprise RUS, however, requires the use of ADSIEdit since you’ll notice that there is no delete option if you right-click this RUS in Exchange System Manager. ADSIEdit can be obtained by installing the Windows 2003 Support Tools from the Windows 2003 CD. With ADSIEdit connected to the configuration naming context, drill down the tree in the following order:
Configuration / Services / Microsoft Exchange / <organization name> / Address Lists Container / Recipient Update Services
You should see a screen similar to the one shown in Figure 26. All you need to do is to right-click the Enterprise RUS object, which is highlighted in Figure 26, and select Delete from the context menu. The RUS object will be deleted with no questions asked. As ever, be careful when using ADSIEdit to delete objects as you can do some damage if you delete the wrong objects.
Figure 26: Removing the Enterprise RUS With ADSIEdit
Remove Exchange
At this time you’re now in a position to remove the Exchange software from the server. To do this just go to Control Panel and then choose the Add/Remove Programs option. Highlight the Microsoft Exchange entry and click the Change/Remove button. You will then be presented with the Exchange installation wizard and on the Component Selection screen you will be in a position to change the Action setting of the parent Microsoft Exchange object to Remove. This will then change the Action setting of the other installed items to Remove as shown in Figure 27.
Figure 27: Removing Exchange 2003
You can then proceed to follow the remaining wizard screens to remove Exchange. Note, though, that you’ll more than likely be prompted for the Exchange installation CD during the un-installation process so make sure you have that handy before you start, or at least a path to the Exchange 2003 setup files somewhere on your network.
I’d like to finish this article by highlighting a warning that Microsoft makes about deleting the legacy administrative groups that belonged to Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003. You should not delete any of these administrative groups if they held mailboxes at any previous stage. Simply leave the administrative groups as they are and forget all about them.
Summary
Over the four parts of this article we’ve covered the steps required to remove the last (the only) Exchange 2003 server from an organization that has migrated to Exchange 2007. If you face the prospect of having to do this, I’d recommend building yourself a small lab environment using virtual servers and running through the steps in this environment before doing it in your live environment.
If you would like to read the other parts in this article series please go to:
Removing The Last Exchange 2003 Server From Exchange 2007 (Part 1)
Removing The Last Exchange 2003 Server From Exchange 2007 (Part 2)
Removing The Last Exchange 2003 Server From Exchange 2007 (Part 3)
