So, we are planning to upgrade from exchange 2003 to 2010 finally, but there are a few complications that I wanted to ask about. - We had our original server fail about 2 years ago. RAID got corrupted, and slowly enough that all recent backups were also corrupted. We moved to a different physical server and installed Exchange 2003, however at the time I did not know about the work involved in removing a first server in the organisation, and ended up removing it forcibly. As a result, the old server still exists in LDAP, and the old server still lives on as a physical machine which has a couple of pieces of specialist software on it. I know there's an article about what to do here, but wanted to check if the specific situation requires any other handling. - We are then wanting to upgrade to Exchange 2010 and end up with only that single server in the organisation. We have a virtual host to transfer the current server to, but I wanted to know what articles there might be on a migration from 2003 to 2010 with a single server. How long to keep the virtual server around, whether to change IPs on the new server or keep them on the old server, etc. I'll be doing this in about 3 weeks time, so I will hopefully have enough time to read up on the necessary details.

Hi First you need to investigate so the software that's installed on the old server works and are supported for Exchange 2010, check with the vendor(s) When you have got the answer it works with their software it's time to deploy your Exchange 2010 server and install the 3rd parts, but doublecheck so everythings works before you are installing any 3rd part products For deploying 2010, there are good documents you can follow and read through http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exdeploy2010/default%28EXCHG.140%29.aspx http://msexchangegeek.com/2010/01/30/rapid-transition-guide-from-exchange-2003-to-exchange-2010/ http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/migration-deployment/removing-last-exchange-2003-server-exchange-2007-part1.htmlJonas Andersson MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007/2010 | MCITP: EMA 2007/2010 | MCSE/MCSA Blog: http://www.testlabs.se/blog

There you GO...Follow the instruction from Jonas and you are good to GO :) Also let us know if you face any issue removing old Exchange 2003 server.Gulab | Skype: gulab.mallah

There you GO...Follow the instruction from Jonas and you are good to GO :) Also let us know if you face any issue removing old Exchange 2003 server.Gulab | Skype: gulab.mallah

Thanks for the links. Those are primarily what I was after. Just wanted to clarify, since it looks like I made a bit of a mess explaning: The software still on the server is not related to exchange. Here's what happened: Server X is sole exchange server and Domain controller. It is also first-organisation exchange server. Has RAID corruption, we recover, and install new exchange server to server Y. Server X has exchange removed forcibly after transferring mailboxes, heedless of how to do this correctly. Server X is reduced to a virtual server because it still has a handful of old non-exchange related software. Server X still appears as exchange server in AD and exchange system manager. Now we want to install exchange 2010 on the same physical machine as server Y, converting Y to a virtual machine to be removed once the new server is up and running. So, knowing my error in the forcible removal of the exchange 2003 install from server X 2.5 years ago, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing even the tiniest scrap of what I needed to do here. Should I go through the procedure to remove the first organisation server entries from AD? Before or after 2010 is installed? And should I keep the IP for the 2010 install, or change it to let the old server coexist for long enough for everyone's outlook to switch over to the new server?

Hi Andrew, Per your description, it seems clear now, 1. the old exchange 2003 server X still showed in the ESM, I would suggest you could remove all the related information through the ADSI, you could refer to below link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833396 2. you want to convert the exchange 2003 server wich you are using to a virtual machine. If so, you could do that, and with the ip address on the physical box. After the operation, you'd better to confirm everything work well. 3. you want to install the exchange 2010 on the physical box Y, so, you could use a new IP address and new OS to install exchange 2010 all the roles you need. 4. after the excahnge 2010 deployed successfully, do the mailbox move process; if you have outlook 2003 in your scenario, leave the exchange 2003 server for a period time. There are many procedures need to do, it is suggested that do everything carefully, if you have any issue, please post here, we could gave some for information for you. Regards! Gavin TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks again. I've spent a bit of time now trying to follow up on these documents, and I wanted to check back here, since the whole reason I'm in this mess is that I didn't check the right documents when I was removing the old exchange install. I checked the following (http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Removing-First-Exchange-2003-Server-Part1.html) to see what I should have done before removing the original Exchange 2003 install. It appears that I at least got some of it right. The potential issues are as follows: - Free/Busy system folder is gone. It was corrupted by the RAID on the old server, so I would need to find some way of re-creating from scratch exen if backups still existed. - There are no connectors. Probably not an issue, but I wanted to check. - There are no routing groups. Also probably not an issue, but again, checking. - The old server still exists in System Manager. Am I correct in assuming that I should follow the article you linked above (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833396) and simply right click on the defunct server entry in System Manager and go All Tasks->Remove Server? Everything else looks good, as if I did some of the steps correctly. Thanks for all the help.

Thanks again. I've spent a bit of time now trying to follow up on these documents, and I wanted to check back here, since the whole reason I'm in this mess is that I didn't check the right documents when I was removing the old exchange install. I checked the following (http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Removing-First-Exchange-2003-Server-Part1.html) to see what I should have done before removing the original Exchange 2003 install. It appears that I at least got some of it right. The potential issues are as follows: - Free/Busy system folder is gone. It was corrupted by the RAID on the old server, so I would need to find some way of re-creating from scratch exen if backups still existed. - There are no connectors. Probably not an issue, but I wanted to check. - There are no routing groups. Also probably not an issue, but again, checking. - The old server still exists in System Manager. Am I correct in assuming that I should follow the article you linked above (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833396) and simply right click on the defunct server entry in System Manager and go All Tasks->Remove Server? Or, will I have to use ADSI edit as well? I'm running in 2000 mode for exchange, rather than 2003. Everything else looks good, as if I did some of the steps correctly. Thanks for all the help.

Just unmarked the other posts as answers since I assume people don't read already-answered questions. They are definitely good answers, I just also need to know how to remove this non-existent server, and recreate the free/busy folder.

Hi Andrew, Glad to hear the update! And you could reopen the thread anytime, if you want to continue to follow the issue, don't worry about other things, it's our job. :) About how to remove the non-existence server, because that there is still some non-exchange software installed on it, so when we remove it from AD through the ADSIEDIT tool, we must be carefully enough, just remove the entries as a exchange server, but as a server account in the servers directory should not be removed. If the non-exchange software is not a software that must work in the domain; I would suggest that, we could disjoin it as a domain member server, and then remove all the information from the AD about it through ADSIEDIT; the finally, we could add it as a domain member server again. As we known, the free/busy as a system folder in the public folder database, if it is disappear, seems that the publicfolder database corrupted. If we just want deploy the exchange 2010 in your scenaro, I think it is no need for your scenario. If I misunderstand your issue, please tell me. And I would do some test in the non-production lab firstly if I do the migration. If you still have any issue, please tell us. Regards! Gavin TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.