Guide to migrate from Exchange 2003 to 2007 with EmailXtender

I recently completed a migration from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007. Though my enivironment is not too complex, hopefully my post will still be helpful as there are some important details that are not explained well in EMC's documentation.

To clarify on Exchange 2007 deployments, as some admins may not be aware, you do not "upgrade" an Exchange 2003 server to 2007. There is no upgrade path. You leave the Exchange 2003 server alone and you MIGRATE from Exchange 2003 to 2007. This means you setup a new Exchange 2007 server to temporarily coincide with your existing Exchange 2003 server(s). It's actually pretty easy, is well documented from several sources on the internet, and the Exchange 2007 setup does most of the work to "bring itself" into your existing Exchange environment.


My environment consists of:

- (1) Exchange 2003 server
- (1) EmailXtender server running 4.81.1147
- (1) Exchange 2007 server

Following Microsoft's guides, setup your Exchange 2007 to coincide with your existing Exchange 2003 server.

A good tutorial on the migration process can be found here:

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Transitioning-Exchange-2000-2003-Exchange-Server-2007-Part1.html


Setup a test mailbox on Exhange 2007 or migrate your own account over using the Exchange 2007 mailbox migration tool. Test your email flow between mailboxes on Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007 as well as to and from the internet.

Create a new account/mailbox on Exchange 2007. Call it EXADMIN07 or similar to easily identify it. Open the Exchange Management Shell and run the following two commands to give it RECEIVE AS and SEND AS permissions:

Add-ADPermission -identity (get-mailboxserver -identity "Exchange 2007 Server Name" | select-object).DistinguishedName -user "DomainName\exadmin07" -ExtendedRights Receive-As

Add-ADPermission -identity (get-mailboxserver -identity "Exchange 2007 Server Name" | select-object).DistinguishedName -user "DomainName\exadmin07" -ExtendedRights Send-As

In the above two commands, replace "Exchange 2007 Server Name" with your actual server name. Be sure to leave the quotes. For "DomainName\exadmin07" you can specify just the username of the new exadmin account (exadmin07) if you only have one domain. Again, leave the quotes.

As a side note, according to the EMC installation guide, on page 6-12 it suggests giving the EX account full access by running the following command:

add-mailboxpermission "mailbox-name" -user "EX-account" -accessrights fullaccess

This works too, but I didn't find it necessary.


Next, we need to give the original EXADMIN account (whose mailbox is probably stored on the Exchange 2003 server) the same permissions on the Exchange 2007 server. Therefore, run the following two commands from the Exchange 2007 Management Shell:

Add-ADPermission -identity (get-mailboxserver -identity "Exchange 2007 Server Name" | select-object).DistinguishedName -user "DomainName\exadmin" -ExtendedRights Receive-As

Add-ADPermission -identity (get-mailboxserver -identity "Exchange 2007 Server Name" | select-object).DistinguishedName -user "DomainName\exadmin" -ExtendedRights Send-As

The above two commands assume the EX account on the Exchange 2003 server is called exadmin.


Next we need to start journaling Exchange 2007 email:

Open the Exchange Management Console.
Navigate to Server Configuration -> Mailbox
Right-click your main Exchange 2007 mailbox database and choose Properties
Check the box next to "Journal Recipient"
Click the Browse button and add the EXADMIN07 account.
Click Ok.


Now, go to the EmailExtender server and add the new mailbox to pull journaled mail from:

Open EmailExtender Administrator.
Login.
Open the server tree in the left pane.
Right-click "EmailVault" and choose Properties.
Click the Email Connection Mailboxes tab.
Click the "Add Exchange Mailbox" button at the bottom.
Browse for the EXADMIN07 mailbox and click Ok.
Click Ok on the warning that you need to activate changes.
Click Options -> Activate Changes.
Click Yes on the warning that it will disrupt ongoing searches.


I have Outlook 2003 installed on my EmailXtender server. I configured the mail profile to monitor the EXADMIN07 inbox along side the EXADMIN inbox. This way you can watch email being journalled by both Exchange servers and watch email being pulled correctly from both mailboxes to EmailXtender too.

Open Outlook on the EmailXtender server.
Click Tools - Email Accounts
Click Next.
Click Change to edit the Exchange Server settings
Click More Settings
Click the Advanced tab
Click Add
Type EXADMIN07 as the mailbox name
Make sure you are NOT using Exchange cached mode (the checkbox should not be checked)
Click OK
Click Next
Click Finish.
Scroll down on the left in Outlook and you should be able to open the plus sign next to "Mailbox - exadmin07" and view the inbox.

Watch both inboxes. Send a few test messages to and from a mailbox on the Exchange 2007 server. Make sure they appear in the inbox using Outlook on the EmailXtender server. What a few moments and they should disappear as EmailXtender collects the messages. If they don't disappear after a minute or so, either stop and restart the EmailXtender services or reboot the EmailXtender server.


Next we need to install local copies of EXShortcut forms in Outlook on all client machines

In section 6-34 of the EmailXtender installation guide it says to "Push out and publish the .oft files to the Personal Forms Library on each Outlook client". However, per EMC tech support, you should instead "share and install" the equivalent .FDM forms instead. I had not luck working with OFT files in my environment.

On your EmailXtender server, find the ¿Program Files\OTG\EmailXtender\Exchange Forms¿ folder and take a look at the contents. There you will find FDM and OFT forms. Make note of which FDM forms you need. You will at least need ExShortcut.fdm. If you are shortcutting tasks, notes, and meeting requests you will need to install the associated FDM files as well.

To install the forms, first share the ¿Program Files\OTG\EmailXtender\Exchange Forms¿ folder with read-only access for everyone.
On an Outlook client, click on the Tools menu and navigate to Options -> Other -> Advanced Options -> Custom Forms -> Manage Forms
Click on the Install button.
Click in the box next to "File name:" and type "\\emailxtender_server_name\Exchange Forms"
Click the drop-down menu next to "Files of type" and change it to "Form Message (*.fdm)". You should now see all the FDM forms.
Click a form name and then click Open.
Click on OK for the form properties.
Repeat these steps until all forms you need for your environment are installed. Not all are necessary.
Click Close.
Click OK three times to close all of the dialog boxes.


Next we need to install Exchange 2007 OWA shortcut support

From the Exchange 2007 server run ExOWA2007Setup.exe. This file is found in the "EMC EmailXtender 4.81.1147\Setup\Windows" folder after extracting the downloaded setup package.

Be sure to type credentials using the FQDN such as "domainname.local\administrator" and the password (no quotes). Do NOT just use the username, it will fail. If the Exchange 2007 EX account has administrator priveleges on the Exchange server, use that account. Otherwise use an account that has local administrator priveleges to at least get the software installed.

Open Administrative Tools -> Component Services
Navigate to Component Services -> Computers -> My Computer -> COM+ Applications
Right-click EMC EmailXtender for OWA 2007 and click Properties
Click the Identity tab
Change the user (if necessary) to the EXADMIN07 account. Be sure to retype the passwords too. Click OK.

If you changed the username in the previous step we need to reset some components to activate the new credentials. Otherwise skip these last steps.

Navigate to Component Services -> Computers -> My Computer -> COM+ Applications -> EMC EmailXtender for OWA 2007 -> Components

Right-click on each of the following components and disable them. Then go back to each one and enable them:

ExOwaShortcut.CoExOwaShortcut.1
ExOwaShortcut.CoExOwaShortcut2.1
ExOwaShortcut.CoExOWAUtils.1

Close component services

Test shortcut support by using OWA and try opening a few emails that have shortcut attachments.


After all mailboxes are migrated to the Exchange 2007 server and Exchange 2003 has been properly decommissioned and uninstalled (as per Microsoft documention), you can delete the exadmin account and remove it from the list of monitored mailboxes in EmailXtender Administrator.

A good tuturial on how to remove the last Exchange 2003 server can be found here:

http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/migration-deployment/removing-last-exchange-2003-server-exchange-2007-part1.html


My step-by-step guide may not work in all environments, but at least it will give you a starting point on the overall procedure if you have none already.