Hello, My organization is in the middle of planning a migration from Exchange 2003 to 2010. I was hoping to get another set of eyes on what we are planning and maybe someone could answer a couple of questions... Basically we are a small organization 50 users. I know that we are a good candidate for it, but due to some Administrative restrictions we cannot use Office 365 or any other hosted solution. Our current environment consists of an Exchange 2003 cluster and a 2003 OWA and front end server. We plan to deploy 2 VMs. One will house the Exchange 2010 holding CAS, HUB, and MDB roles, the other will be a TMG server that also has the EDGE role. We plan on using Forefront for Exchange on this server as well. Finally we will be using Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE). We have layed out or deployment steps as follows: Phase 1: Prepare domain for Exchange 2010 Anything besides schema upgrade? This has been done.Exchange native mode or mixed? Does this need to be set? Install Exchange Do we install all roles first then just configure in the following order? Install Client Access role Do we need to create a new exchange certificate here? Use our wildcard or purchase new?Since our OWA server will be in the mix initially it will still hold the existing cert Configure OAB (Offline Address Book) and web services virtual directories. i.e. OAB, OWA, and ActiveSyncRegister Filter Pack Ifilters, does this need to be done in Exchange 2010 with all service packs?Install Hub Transport RoleConfigure a legacy host name.Configure ActiveSync authenticationInstall Mailbox roleMove OAB Generation to 2010 server. Publish Free/Busy.Configure Receive Connector (Internal)Configure Firewall rulesMove Internet mail flow from 2003 to 2010. Configure Send/Internet Connector (route through old OWA)?Move mailboxesRemove old Exchange backend form the Exchange environment Phase 2: Build TMG 2010 Server Install Edge RoleInstall Forefront for ExchangeInstall TMG 2010Added policies for Mail, OWA, and ActiveSyncModify Connectors to route through TMGOnce mail flow is working as expected, uninstall exchange from OWA and 2003 exchange servers.Phase 3: Register with FOPEConfigure FOPERoute mail incoming and outgoing through TMG to FOPE Does anyone see any issues with our steps or have any suggestions/advice for us? Thanks in advance,

Theres quite a few questions here, I would use the exch deployment assitant to help you.Sukh

Thanks for the response. We have used the deployment assistant. That is where we got most of our steps. We LOVE the tool. I guess I was looking for two things by posting. First, are there any glaring issues in our plan. When two people stare at the same thing for a while obvious things can sometimes get missed. Second, we were a little unsure if during the Exchange 2010 install, and since we are using basically a single server minus the EDGE, do we install all of the roles at the same time or install one configure then install the next? Thanks again for the response,

You can install all the roles in one go, when you install you select the roles and Exch install them.Sukh

You can install all the roles in one go, when you install you select the roles and Exch install them.Sukh

Thanks Sukh! We will be attempting to make some time to get the install rolling this week. I will let you know how it goes. do you see any other issues in our steps above? We pulled most of the data from the Deployment Tool so I believe it to be pretty straight forward. Thanks,

Most of it is covered by the ExchPDA, dont forget to create a CAS Aray even if you hav one CAS server. Make sure you have the latest SP and hotfixes for the OS and Exch as well, you may as well go SP2 RU2 for exch. You might get a few warnings along the way about DL's that dont containg suported chracters, convering recipient polices to OPATH etc.. deal with these along the way, anything you're not sure about, may open a new post and ask.Sukh

Hi, If you meet problem during the deployment, please feel free to startup a new thread in this forum. Thanks.Xiu Zhang TechNet Community Support

Thanks again everyone. We did run into a couple of hiccups and we are working through them. I appreciate everyones advice.