Exchange 2007 Upgrade Project Summary
Summary
The current Exchange 2003 environment is approaching end-of-life and an upgrade is required in the short term to address scalability, performance and stability concerns.
The goal of this project is to upgrade Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 and migrate all Exchange mailboxes to Exchange 2007 by February 2010.
Project Timeline
- Planning and Building the Exchange 2007 Environment: July 2009 - December 2009
- Migration of existing Exchange customers: January 2010 - February 2010
- Project Closure: February 2010
Features
| Features | Exchange 2003 (Current Environment) | Exchange 2007 (Proposed Environment) |
|---|---|---|
| Mailbox Size | 250MB | 1GB |
| OS Environment | Windows 2003 Server 32-bit Each Mailbox server is limited to 4GB of RAM | Windows 2008 Server 64-bit Each Mailbox server will initially have access to 20GB of RAM and can easily be expanded if required |
| Hardware | Physical Difficult and costly to increase specs and add new servers | Virtual Servers can easily be added as needed and specs fine tuned to improve performance |
| Performance | Known Performance Issues Lack of available memory impacts performance and reliability | Significant Performance Improvements More available memory in a 64-bit environment improves performance and reliability |
| Mac Compatibility | Limited Support Entourage is known to have Calendar sync issues | Support from Apple and Microsoft Coming Soon Mac OS X Mail supports Exchange 2007 in the latest MAC OS (Snow Leopard); Outlook for Mac is coming soon.** |
| Webmail | Basic functionality | New Features New scheduling assistance, document viewer, search functionality, security features, improved performance. |
| Administration | Basic functionality | New Features Improved provisioning, monitoring, reporting and deployment tools. |
** It is not known if Mac OS X Mail or Outlook for Mac will resolve the issues experienced by Entourage. However, there appears to be commitment from both Apple and Microsoft to support Exchange customers who use Macs. Initially, the auto-discovery feature will only be enabled for @exchange.ubc.ca email addresses. Further research and investigation will be required before we consider offering this feature to other domains using Exchange.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Exchange 2010 is now available. Why not skip Exchange 2007 and go straight to Exchange 2010?
A. As of November 9th 2009, Exchange 2010 is now available. Before moving to Exchange 2010, UBC IT will need to wait until Service Pack 1 is released and the product has stabilized. In addition, all supporting software (e.g. SnapManager for Exchange, Sophos PureMessage, etc…) may require updates to support Exchange 2010. This may delay a transition to Exchange 2010. Also, it may take time before Exchange 2010 is officially supported in a virtual environment by VMware and Microsoft. Upgrading to Exchange 2007 will address some short-term scalability, performance and stability concerns while we wait for a stable version of Exchange 2010 (most likely Service Pack 1.) This project will also move Exchange to a virtual environment which will ease the transition to Exchange 2010 in the long term.
Q. Are you looking at reviewing the costs of the Exchange service?
A. Reviewing the costs of the Exchange service is not in the scope of this project. However, UBC IT, through a separate project, will certainly review the costs of the Exchange service.
Q. Why aren’t you providing more mailbox space than 1GB?
A. UBC IT is currently restricted by the size of the NetApp SAN filers. UBC IT has determined that providing a new default limit of 1GB is attainable. Keep in mind that additional storage is required to capture 28 days of mailbox backups. Departments will still be able to request additional quota if required.
Known Issues
This section will cover the known issues and suggested solutions for those migrating from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007. Please refer to the Exchange 2007 Migration Known Issues Page for more information.
Project Information
The PowerPoint presentation from the Systems Administrators Information Session held on November 16th 2009 is available here.
More detailed information on this project can be found on this page.
