I will be upgrading our Exchange Server 2003 to 2010.
MY SETUP AND PLAN
I have a simple Exchange 2003 environment. I have a front-End server which is mostly used by employees to connect their mobile devices (Ipad, Iphone, Android) via Active Sync, and occasionally OWA (Outlook Web Access). I have a SSL certificate from a vendor installed on the front-end server.
Then, I have a back-end server which houses one mailbox store (only about 75 mailboxes), and the rest of the exchange 2003 components.
My domain active directory (AD) is Windows 2003 Standard SP2 (32bit). I plan to upgrade the AD to Windows 2008 R2 64bit before the upgrade to Exchange 2010 upgrade.
I plan to transition from Exchange 2003 to 2010 as fast as possible, moving all mailboxes all at one time. All our desktop/laptop/VDI users use Microsoft Outlook 2007 to connect to their mailboxes. As soon as everyone logs in after the mailboxes are moved (and they are pointed to the new Exchange 2010 server), I plan to demote and eliminate Exchange 2003 front and back end servers. All my servers are VM running on three Citrix XenServers and VM resides on LUNs on a SAN.
MY QUESTIONS
Number of exchange servers.
I’ve been reading a book and articles (guide) regarding the transition from Exchange Server 2003 to 2010. One book says I can actually have the “Client Access Server”, “Hub Transport Server”, and “Mailbox Server” all in one server; a virtual machine in my case. This make sense to me because I have a simple setup and only have 75 mailboxes. I will have three volumes on the Exchange 2010 server: 50GB for the operating system and I have another 150GB available in the SAN which I will split between a Mailbox database and Log files. I just not sure how much I should allocate for each volume. My current Exchange 2003 back-end has a volume for exchange which 100GB with 59GB free space. Can someone give advice how much I should split the 150GB between mailbox and log?
I also ran into another book that advises to separate the “Mailbox Server” role. Effectively placing the “Client Access” and “Hub Transport” roles in another server. I feel that that is adding to the project expense. What do you think?Again, please advise.
Transferring OWA, ActiveSync, and Outlook Anywhere traffic to CAS.
Another guide article I was reading explains that after installing the “Client Access” server, to transfer OWA, ActiveSync, and Outlook Anywhere traffic to new CAS server. However, it does not explain the details of how to go about this. In a subsequent step, it instructs to install the “Hub Transport” role, then transfer inbound and outbound mail traffic to the HT server. Again, it does not explain the detail and how to do this. Can someone help me please?
Thank you very much