Dear Experts,

We are in the middle of testing a migration of an SBS 2011 (running Exchange 2010) over to Server 2012 R2 with Exchange 2013 installed. Trying to install Exchange 2013 on our new 2012 R2 (setup as a replica server in the existing SBS domain) but it always fails with an error:

One or more servers in the existing organization are running Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003. Installation cant proceed until all Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 servers are removed.

We definitely dont have any 2000 or 2003 Exchange Servers in our environment. Having run an Exchange BPA, we see an old reference to the old SBS 2003 which used to run Exchange 2003. How can we remove entries to this so that we can install Exchange 2013?

Cheers, Oliver

It seems like a bit similar concern I find into this earlier discussed thread : https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/8ab5d80e-e706-440e-9319-11958cff6a61/installing-exchange-2013-error-failedone-or-more-servers-in-the-existing-organization-are-running?forum=exchangesvradmin

More details for planning and migrating a Small Organization from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2013, please follow this informative article : http://www.msexchange.org/articles-tutorials/exchange-server-2013/migration-deployment/planning-and-migrating-small-organization-exchange-2003-exchange-2013-part1.html

Meanwhile, when need to migrate users mailboxes between two exchange server, you may also checkout this automated solution (http://www.exchangemigrationtool.com/) that would be a nice approach for you to get this job done in a hassle-free environment.

Thanks for your reply Ronny.

The first thread you posted seems to be exactly what I need. When I run "Get-exchangeserver" the old Exchange 2003 is found. When I run "Get-ExchangeServer OLDSERVER | fl DistinguishedName" then I get the path in ADSIEdit. Should I completely delete the "CN=OLDSERVER" folder or should I completely remove the "CN=Old Administrative Group Name" - I have 2 entries under "CN=Administrative Groups"?

FYI, I am doing a Exchange 2010 to 2013 Migration (from SBS 2011 not from SBS 2003).

You should be able to safely remove the old Admin Group, leaving the Exchange 2010 Group (FY....).  Just to be on the safe side, I HIGHLY recommend you get a successful backup of the system state of your DCs first; if you would get unexpected behaviors after the removal of the admin group, you can simply do a restore of AD which will bring the old admin group back.

Should I backup the System State on both the old SBS 2011 (which I am migrating) along with the new 2012R2 which is setup as a replica Server? What's the best way of just backing up the System State? I have never had to restore AD - how would I do this in case of a problem?

Backup your domain controller (file system and system state) in case something goes bad.  Here's another link to a blog post on manually removing an Exchange Server from an Org.  I recommend taking a look at this as well some of the other articles Microsoft has to offer on this topic.

http://blogs.msmvps.com/bradley/2011/01/28/manually-removing-exchange-2003-from-the-migration-process/

You can backup both if you like.  Hopefully you've been backing up the SBS server all this time; check the selections in the backup job and you should hopefully see "system state" listed as one of the choices to be backed up. Here are two articles that explain what to do for your Server 2012 R2 server:

http://www.prohut.net/blogging/take-system-state-backup-windows-server-2012-r2/

http://www.msserverpro.com/backup-ad-ds-database-windows-server-2012-r2/

The restore, if necessary, is a whole different topic.

@ Hinte: Thanks for the link. I guess that it's not a good idea to delete the old Admin Group (CN=first administrative group) - see last paragraph of the article:

"So to review, you want to delete the SERVER name out of that adsiedit.msc, you do NOT want to delete that CN=first administrative group that you see there.  Regardless that thats the name of the Exchange group in Exchange 2003, you keep it on the server even after you just have Exchange 2010 in the network."

@ B0ndoo7 - thanks for the links.

• Edited by Oliver Buckie 17 hours 39 minutes ago

@ Hinte: Thanks for the link. I guess that it's not a good idea to delete the old Admin Group (CN=first administrative group) - see last paragraph of the article:

"So to review, you want to delete the SERVER name out of that adsiedit.msc, you do NOT want to delete that CN=first administrative group that you see there.  Regardless that thats the name of the Exchange group in Exchange 2003, you keep it on the server even after you just have Exchange 2010 in the network."

@ B0ndoo7 - thanks for the links.

• Edited by Oliver Buckie Friday, April 17, 2015 1:47 PM

@ Hinte: Thanks for the link. I guess that it's not a good idea to delete the old Admin Group (CN=first administrative group) - see last paragraph of the article:

"So to review, you want to delete the SERVER name out of that adsiedit.msc, you do NOT want to delete that CN=first administrative group that you see there.  Regardless that thats the name of the Exchange group in Exchange 2003, you keep it on the server even after you just have Exchange 2010 in the network."

@ B0ndoo7 - thanks for the links.

• Edited by Oliver Buckie Friday, April 17, 2015 1:47 PM