Exchange 2003 Upgrade

[abrewer]

Have Unity 4.0(2) with Exchange 2000 off-box with UM. Planning to Upgrade Exchange 2003 on new hardware and upgrade to Unity 4.0(4) to support (know 4.0(5) or 4.1 better choice).

Looking for the cleanest overall migration path. We could move Exchange2000 to the new hardware and then upgrade to Exchange 2003 (keeping same server name as documented in the MS KB article) or could build the new server as 2003 move mailboxes, and point Unity to the new partner server.

I've seen various issues with permissions and Forestprep, but don't believe we are impacted since 4.0(2) is not Exchange 2003 aware.

Have completed similar upgrades but no with Exchange 2000->2003. Read Reconfig & Upgrade Guide but still not sure what approach will work best. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Hin Lee]

If you are going to upgrade to Exchange 2003, you will need to upgrade Unity to at least Unity 4.0(3). It does not matter if the messages are going to be on an exchange 2000 server; if exchange 2003 exists in the ORG, for all intents and purposes, it's a exch 2003 ORG.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps2237/prod_system_requirements_hardware09186a0080531f2a.html#wp34788

I would say that building a new exchange 2003 would be the best thing. After you do that, run the Message Store Configuration Wizard to point your upgraded Unity to the new mailserver for partner server. You can then move the mailboxes over.

Changing the Partner Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2000 Server for Cisco Unity 4.x http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps2237/products_upgrade_guides_chapter09186a0080205a7f.html#wp1126338