I have two Hub/Cas installs in a Windows NLB config. They are currently working in a VM environment. Due to limitations of the VM servers (processor mainly) i need to move these to physical boxes before migrating mailboxes. My plan is to Join a physical Hub/Cas box to the NLB and then remove the original NLB nodes - then add another Physical server to the NLB to completely remove all VM members. Is there anything special that needs to be done when removing the first Exchange HUB/CAS server from the Exchange environment? I remember with Exchange 2003 that roles needed to be moved when removing the first Exchange 2003 server in the organization. I have not been able to find any such information with Exchange 2010 but I thought it would be best to check with other experts in the forum. Thanks for any advice!Wall

you should be good with above plan, i would recomend removing VMs and adding additional physical servers should be carried out off hours so as to avoid downtime or increased load on two servers during this time also if you want to avoid reconfiguring the hardware load balencer you might want to turnoff the physical servers and reset accounts and reset computer accounts then do /RecoverServerDhruv

There is no such special removal required. Just remove Exchange using add/remove programs. The concept of "first" Exchange server has pretty much gone away with the Exchange 2007 and higher versions. The only thing the first server did was the routing group connector. You may want to check what is generating the OAB and ensure that function is moved, but that is about the only thing I can think of that would be specific to any one machine. Are you using a CAS array? If not, I would suggest that you configure one now, before you move any mailboxes on to the platform. You can then completely control where the clients connect to. If someone went wrong with the NLB then you can simply point the CAS array DNS entry to a specific server, which will allow the clients to operate correctly. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources

I am using a CAS Array - didnt mention that in my post. My goal was to keep the CAS array in tact while migrating these services to physical machines vs. the VM's so that the CAS Array and WNLB would remain in tact. Thanks for the input and I will mark as answer when this is completed. Wall

Sambee is correct, in Exchange 2010 there are two roles that that only exist on one server and cannot be moved - the OABGen server. This resides on the mailbox role however so if its just HT and CAS you don't have to worry! The other role that is unique to one server is the Group Metrics service. This ususally resides on the same box as OABGen by default. http://clintboessen.blogspot.com/2011/01/exchange-2010-group-metrics.htmlClint Boessen MVP - Exchange Server, MCSE, MCITPx4, Dip Network Engineering Perth, Western Australia Blog: http://clintboessen.blogspot.com/

Hi Wall, Any updates?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.