Upgrading to Exchange 2000 Server by using the swing upgrade method

This informational article discusses how to upgrade to Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server by using the "swing" upgrade method.

One way to upgrade to Exchange 2000 is to use the "swing" method. The swing method allows you the flexibility of the move mailbox method of upgrading, but does not require you to purchase new hardware for each existing server.

Essentially, with the swing method, an organization can purchase one or two new servers while upgrading the whole exchange organization to Exchange 2000. The move mailbox procedure is then used to move data onto the new servers. You then upgrade the computers that are running earlier versions of Exchange Server to Exchange 2000 Server, (or reinstall Exchange 2000 Server). Verify that the computers are stable, and then redeploy them in the production environment.

With the swing method you can upgrade existing hardware to make it more powerful and then reintroduce it into the production environment with minimal disturbance to your users.

Some advantages of the swing method include:

• Minimal user disturbance. The only downtime is the time it takes to move data between servers.
• You can upgrade users on Exchange Server 4.0 and Exchange Server 5.x computers.
• No operating system, Exchange, or hardware upgrades take place on the existing server until users are fully moved to another server.

Some disadvantages to the swing method include:

• The server name changes as users are moved onto new equipment.
• Key Management Server (KMS) cannot be moved.
• Older version connectors cannot be moved.

If you have KMS or older version connectors on the Exchange Server 5.5 computer, you may want to choose to run an in-place upgrade. Otherwise, you must reconfigure KMS and connectors on the Exchange 2000 server.

Move mailboxes to the swing server

1. Back up the server before proceeding.
2. Verify that the users being moved have Microsoft Windows 2000 accounts in Active Directory. If they do not, you may need to set up an Active Directory Connector (ADC) to populate the accounts from Exchange Server 5.5 into Active Directory.
3. Install Exchange 2000 Server on the "swing server," and join the existing Exchange Server 5.5 site.
   
   NOTE: For Exchange 2000 to join a site, there must be a server running Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 2 (SP2) in that site.
4. Use Active Directory Users and Computers to move the mailboxes from the server that currently exists to the swing server.
   1. Start the Active Directory Users and Computers Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in.
   2. Right-click the user being moved, and then click Exchange Tasks.
   3. In Select a Task to Perform, click Move Mailbox.
   4. In the Move Mailbox pane, verify that Current Mailbox Store is the Exchange Server 5.5 computer and that SERVER name is the Windows 2000 server name. Choose the storage group and mailbox store where you want to move the user to.
5. Verify that the mailboxes have been moved successfully.
6. Have the users log on to Exchange using a client. As long as the original server is still up, their profiles can be automatically updated.

Move public folders to the swing server

1. Use the Exchange Server 5.5 Administrator program to replicate existing public folders on the Exchange Server 5.5 computer to the new Exchange 2000 server.
2. Allow enough time for replication to finish. The amount of time necessary for replication depends on how many folders you have to replicate, how much data is going across, scheduled time for replication, and bandwidth.
3. Verify that replication has completed successfully.
4. Remove the replicated instances from the Exchange Server 5.5 computer.

Upgrade the original server

After all users have moved successfully over to the swing server and have logged on, you can then proceed with upgrading the original server. Throughout this process, you do not have to change the server name.

1. Upgrade or add new hardware.
2. Upgrade or reinstall the operating system.
3. Upgrade Exchange or install a fresh copy of Exchange 2000.
4. Verify that the server is stable and functional.

Move public folders back to the original server

When you finish the upgrade of the original server, you must move all users and public folders back to that server. Simply follow the same steps that are listed in the "Move public folders to the swing server" section, but this time go from the swing server back to the original server.

This swing server can then be reused to upgrade another Exchange Server computer by repeating the steps in this article.

For additional information about related topics, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: