Exchange Server 2010 Transition & Stuff

[MartinT]

Ever feel like you've been through the wars trying to get a project completed and finally driven home with a big smile of contentment?

In early July I started the process of migration (actually, transition in Microsoft speak) from our Exchange 2007 e-mail server to Exchange 2010. The kicker is that I wanted to end up with E2010 on our primary production server, which is more powerful than our test server, but you cannot upgrade. So I started down the road of Active Directory schema upgrade, installing E2010 in parallel with E2007 on a test server, migrating connectors, pointers, mailboxes, public databases, changing DNS etc. etc. If you've done it, you've also got more grey hairs like me. There were several serious sticking points along the way, not to mention having to keep e-mail services up at all times as it is so mission critical these days. I spent many mornings at 5:30am in the office doing things before the staff were up to notice. Google was very much MY FRIEND during all of this, and I also found some fixes that I could detail back onto the forums so it was not just take, take.

Anyway, to cut a boring story short (are you asleep yet?), we now have a shiny new e-mail system, Exchange Server 2010, sitting on Server 2008 R2, on our original machine with 24GB RAM, quad Xeon processors, 15k RPM SAS drives and it's all working perfectly. Outlook and Outlook Web App (webmail) work both inside and outside the school, photos of the sender are displayed, retention details are shown, the Offline Address Book shows all details of staff, calendar free/busy is displayed and it's FAST.

I am exhausted and am going away to Berlin next week for a few days. I may not be back...

[Alex_UK]

Well done Martin - now I know who to call when we upgrade!

[Beechwoods]

Well done Martin! I know the feeling. People just don't realise the months of effort that go into making systems work without them noticing. And the way that seemingly simple systems often have to deal with massive complexity at the backend to handle all the flexibility that is now expected of them...

It sounds like you deserve a break!

[prestonchipfryer]

Gosh Martin, wish I had just a smattering of your computer know-how. Find it a struggle understanding the different words used for various things.

John

[MartinT]

Thanks, guys.

Alex - seriously, if you do the transition and hit a problem then call me, I may have hit the same problem. I've documented a lot of stuff as it's easy to forget why I set things the way they are.

John - we're all experts in our field (I hope). There are many things that I wouldn't have a clue how to do

[Reid Malenfant]

<snip> we're all experts in our field (I hope). There are many things that I wouldn't have a clue how to do

I reckon you are bang on the money Martin I wouldn't even consider attempting what you did as i simply don't know what you did (even though you said what it was)

I'll stick to speakers & amplifiers, stuff all this code/language thing - English is bad enough

Well done fella, have a good weekend, you deserve a break.

As for 5:30AM You are too dedicated & no doubt at the end of the day undervalued...

[MartinT]

As for 5:30AM You are too dedicated & no doubt at the end of the day undervalued...

Thanks, Mark. It's a funny thing but despite earning only half what I used to earn at Xerox, there is far greater job satisfaction in what I do now. Being an educational establishment, I feel I'm doing something more worthwhile now and it makes me loyal without even thinking about it.

[s70rmp]

we've had some fun moving to E2010 !

the OWA part is quite good

[Reid Malenfant]

Job satisfaction is actually more important in a lot of ways than the renumeration I'm pleased you have a job that you enjoy Martin, i'm sure your school/college (whatever) is as well

[MartinT]

we've had some fun moving to E2010 !

the OWA part is quite good

Oh go on, do tell! Yes, OWA is superbly rich for a browser app and works well on many platforms.