Exchange 2010 Coexistence with Exchange 2003
Hello, I have Exchange 2003 installation in a Frontend Backend topology with Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 domain controllers. My Exchange 2003 frontend server is NLB'd (Microsoft) and uses forms based authentication. All clients connect to a simple url https://email.rnd.com. I am in the process of introducing Exchange 2010 to this mix. I like Exchange 2010 CAS servers to use Exchange 2003 backend server for a while.I installed CAS servers, configured them to use NLB and added those servers to Client Access array. I also went to IIS Manager > Default Web Site > HTTP Redirect. > Selected the Redirect requests to this destination check box and typed the absolute path of the /owa virtual directory to https://email.rnd.com/exchange > Redirect Behavior, select the Only redirect requests to content in this directory (not subdirectories) check box > In the Status code list, click Found (302) > In the Actions pane, click Apply > type iisreset /noforce to restart IIS. Now if I type in https://email.rnd.com, I get Outlook Web Application logon page. if I type in my username and password, I get error saying service is not available, please try again later. Is there any additional configuration I need to do to make Exchange 2010 proxy in the requests to Exchange 2003 backend server? Thanks in advance
April 9th, 2010 5:06am

HI, You must configure exchange 2003 Url on OWA virtual directory to work redirection. Your direction should go to Exchange 2003 FE server. Set-OWAVirtualDirectory \OWA* -ExternalURL https://mail.contoso.com/OWA -Exchange2003URL https://legacy.contoso.com/exchange refer below msexchangeteam blog's article. Transitioning Client Access to Exchange Server 2010 http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/11/20/453272.aspx Regards Chinthaka Shameera | MCITP: EA | MCSE: M | http://howtoexchange.wordpress.com/
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April 9th, 2010 5:29am

Upgrade from Exchange 2003 Client Access http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee332348.aspx Regards, Xiu
April 9th, 2010 9:13am

Thanks for your posts. In my scenario, I can't move all mailboxes to E2K10 in one shot. They have to coexist for a while. I have a common URL for our users to access OWA, https://email.rnd.com. Once E2K10 CAS is introduced to network, I want users to type in the same URL and E2K10 CAS should proxy the request to E2K3 back-end. I am not interested in having a legacy name for E2K3 frontend server, but I could shutdown E2K3 services on frontend. I am interested in having one common URL for OWA that users could use whether their mailbox sits on E2K3 or E2K10. Thanks in advance.
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April 9th, 2010 5:11pm

Hi, Exchange 2010 Client Access servers do not proxy Outlook Web App requests to Exchange 2003 servers. There is no proxy component (EXPROX) that is included in the installation of an Exchange 2007 Client Access server. This component was removed in Exchange 2010. However, the Exchange 2010 Client Access server will perform a redirect for legacy users of Exchange 2003. When an Exchange 2003 user logs into an Exchange 2010 Client Access server, the server determines that the user’s mailbox is located on an Exchange 2003 server and will need to be redirected to the Exchange 2003 Front End server to allow the user access to their mailbox. Due to this change, your Exchange 2003 environment needs a new url that is accessible from the internet. This namespace url then becomes the redirect url for Exchange 2010 to use for the legacy users. Your users will not need to learn this new url because Exchange 2010 is going to do the redirect for them. Regards, Xiu
April 12th, 2010 5:23am

Thanks Xiu for clarifying the proxy part. If I understood this correctly, Exchange 2010 CAS will not service Exchange 2003 Backend server without Exchange 2003 Frontend Server as there is no proxy component with Exchange 2010 thus turning OFF Exchange 2003 Frontend servers is out of question. My Exchange 2003 Frontend servers are load balanced. Currently my internal DNS server (AD integrated) has an A record and PTR for email.rnd.com and external DNS server (public) has records for email.rnd.com. If I need to have Exchange 2010 CAS service Exchange 2003 Backend, I need to create a new A record for Exchange 2003 Front server, say owa.rnd.com on public and private DNS. Just curious, should the new Exchange 2003 Frontend server name start with "legacy", for example legacy.rnd.com or it's user choice. Why could I run this command below and why shouldn't this work? Set-OWAVirtualDirectory \OWA* -ExternalURL https://email.rnd.com/OWA -Exchange2003URL https://email.rnd.com/exchange Thanks in advance
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April 12th, 2010 9:06pm

Hi, Exchange2003 URL is the URL that we will use to access OWA 2003. When OWA 2003 user use https://email.rnd.com/owa to access OWA, it will try to recognize that it is a OWA 2003 user, then it redirect to Exchange2003 URL. So from the public, it should can find the exchange2003 URL. So Exchange2003URL It should be register on the Public DNS. It should point to the front-end server. You can use the name that you like. For this issue, we have to create a new A record for the Exchange 2003 Front-end Server. Also we have to modify the current record to point to the Exchange 2010 CAS. If we use Set-OWAVirtualDirectory \OWA* -ExternalURL https://email.rnd.com/OWA -Exchange2003URL https://email.rnd.com/exchange, then we OWA 2003 user try to access OWA, it find the https://emai.rnd.com/exchange which is point to the exchange virtual directory on CAS 2010. It cannot return the OWA logon page.Since we do not have any content for Exchange virtual directory. Regards, Xiu
April 14th, 2010 5:19am

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