Hello everyone,

I had some problems with my old Exchange 2010 as it was freezing from time to time. I decided to install a new Exchang 2010 server. I transferred mailboxes, MX record stays the same and I routed all e-mails to the new server now. I disconnected other server from the network to test is everything working fine and so far so good.

My bigger concerns are following now:

a) how to transfer license as I wanna use the same license key which old server uses.

b) How to Uninstall old Exchange 2010 server.

In regards to license transfer I don't want to get to the point where I am going to get message that I used the same license key on another server. Do I have to deactivate license on the old server? How do I do that. Maybe uninstallation of it will send a signal to Microsoft that license is gone. Has anyone come across this kind of issue? So what do you think should I uninstall old server first before I enter this license?

In regards to my second question which is related to the first one. How do I properly remove old Exchange 2010 server. I found some instructions that I should just go to "programs and features" and uninstall it this way or run a setup from CD. Other instructions says that I should uninstall database over power shell and uninstall public folders etc. I would like to do it as clean as possible as I don't want my new exchange or any of DCs to look for missing Exchange later. Which option properly uninstalls Exchange 2010 from my domain and from AD. I wanted to add that my Exchange2010 are on Windows Server 2008 R2.

I just wanted to add that I phoned Microsoft to ask about it but they said that I have to pay for support otherwise they can't help me. What would you do first? license or uinstallation of old Exchange 2010? I still have over 100 days of trial on new build server.

You can simply assign old License key to new Exchange server and activate it.

Uninstall is also quite simple, but you must remember some things - first you must move all mailboxes, verify if they moved without errors and remove move requests (they block mailabox database removal). You must also move arbitration mailboxes (Get-Mailbox -Arbitration -Database db1 | New-MoveRequest -TargetDatabase db2).

If you have public folders you must also move all replicas to new server (there is special script in Exchange/Scripts folder for this task) before you can delete public folder database. You must also move role of OAB generation to new server.

Hi

Exchange licenses aren't activated so you can use the same key on the other server once you have decommissioned the old one.

To uninstall Exchange you need to remove the database(s) first and then run setup from the DVD or use programs and features.  The uninstall process will prevent you from removing Exchange if it cannot be done cleanly.

Steve

I moved all mailboxes to the new server and my old Exchange 2010 is disconnected phisically from the network as I wanted to test everything before I decide to uninstall old exchange. All seems to be working.

Well I heard about "arbitration mailboxes". These are some hidden ones which needs moving before I can uninstall Exchange 2010. Do I need them at all ?

In regards to Public folders.... I do have a public folders on my old Exchange 2010 which I haven't transferred across to the new Exchange 2010. The reason why is that I read that they are just needed if you have PCs using old Outlook versions. All my PCs uses Windows 8 and Ms Office 2010 or 2013. I have couple of old Windows XP laptops but they also uses Ms Office 2010. Do I need to transfer public folders in this case? Public folders are on my old server just because in the past I had Exchange 2003 and when Exchange 2010 was implemented public folders at that time were transferred over plus at that time some users had still Ms Office 2003.

So you think that If I use the same license on another Exchange 2010 I will not get licensing issue that I use this license twice ??

How do I know which server holds a role of OAB ? Do you think role is not installed on new server with typical installation? Exchange 2010 is able to send and receive e-mails without old exchange connected to the network.

Any more suggestions. Can we discuss this as I would like to get more confident with a process.

thanks

Hi,

1. Arbitration mailbox is used to store organization-wide data such as administrator audit logs, metadata for eDiscovery searches, and Unified Messaging data. To avoid more issues, we recommend to move the mailboxes. And here is a reference about how to move arbitration mailboxes:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/3912.exchange-2010-how-to-delete-the-first-database-and-move-the-system-mailboxes.aspx

2. If the public folders wont be used in the new environment, we dont need to move them.

3. For the issue whether the license can be used twice, we recommend you to contact with Microsoft Customer Service to confirm.

4. By default, when Exchange 2010 is installed, OAB is created in the default internal Web site in Internet Information Services (IIS).
For more information: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996917(v=exchg.141).aspx

If you have any question, please feel free to let me know.

Thanks,
Angela Shi