Transitioning to Exchange Server 2007!
The organization that I work for has decided thats it’s time to upgrade to Exchange Server 2007. With approximately 18,000 Exchange mailboxes scattered across one four-node active-active-active-passive cluster and five two-node active-passive clusters spanning six geographic locations, this is going to be a mammoth task, nevertheless exciting!
The project will religiously adhere to the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF). Preparation is key to success. One of the most crucial stages is the testing. I’m doing the testing on a virtualized environment. More specifically, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007. The virtualization software is Virtual Server 2005 R2. The host is machine is a Windows 2003 x64 box with 16 GB RAM.
The virtualized environment will consist of two domain controllers, two Exchange 2003 backends, two front ends, an Exchange 2007 CAS server, a mailbox server, a hub transport server, and an edge server.
More on my adventures with this massive implementation will follow.
Shijaz Abdulla is a Partner Technology Advisor at Microsoft, helping their top tier partners build on their Microsoft practice. He is also a trusted advisor to medium enterprise customers in Qatar. He is a blogger, tech enthusiast, and a Microsoft evangelist.