Forum Discussion

Matthew_J's avatar
Matthew_J
Level 4
8 years ago

Help with adding a NEW exchange server target

Can someone who has been here before give me a high level overview of the process needed to add a new exchange server target into EV10.0.4 CHF3?  I've read through several articles and posts about this but I'm having trouble tying together what needs to happen here to ensure a seamless migration.

Scenario: existing EV 10 environment that archives user mailboxes nightly out of an existing Exchange 2007 environment.  Additionally, we do journal archiving every five minutes for this same Exchange 2007 environment.  We are now in the "co-existance" phase of upgrading to Exchange 2013, which means all mail is flowing through the Exchange 2013 system and being proxied to the Exchange 2007 environment.  Before we can start migrating mailboxes, we need to add the new exchange server as an archive target for mailboxes and configure a journal mailbox archiving task and a mailbox archiving task, that part is comfortable and clear to me for the most part.  I also understand that we will definitely need to modify our provisioning times so that when we migrate a mailbox during the day, the provisioning for that user gets picked up before our next archiving window (6pm currently)  What I am having trouble with is the following...

Do we utilize the same databases/mailstore/journalstore partitions as the existing environment, since we want to archive a user mailbox to the existing corresponding archive (that has already existed when their mailbox was on Exchange 2007), once they are moved to Exchange 2013... if not, then why not? 

Do we utilize the existing journal store database and storage location for the new 2013 journal as well as the old, or treat it as a totally separate entity? 

One of the first steps I ran into when I started to "just do it" and got a little confused, was migrating the mailbox for the "Vault Service Account".  Initially, documentation I've read says we need to migrate that mailbox to Exchange 2013, but won't that then break archiving completely for the 2007 environment? 

Thanks everyone for any input you might have here.  I know I'm not the first one to upgrade an exchange server with vault and keep everything running smooth in the process, hopefully I can learn a little from the experts here.  :)

  • GertjanA's avatar
    GertjanA
    Moderator
    8 years ago

    Hello,

    One thing you MUST do is to create the registry key SynchInMigrationMode

    See the Registryguide.

    Location = HKLM\Software\WOW6432Node\KVS\Enterprise Vault\agents

    DWORD = SynchInMigrationMode

    Value = 1

    this will make sure that moved mailboxes will be connected to the existing belonging archive, and not create a new one. This is based on the LegacyMbxDN, which should not change during/after the move of a mailbox.

    You can keep using the existing index/data config on your EV environment, that does not change.

    As for the mailbox move of the VSA, it is merely to make sure that EV keeps working. As you already have permissioned the VSA and the System Mailbox on the Exchange 2007 server, the TASKS have the correct permissions etc to perform their duty.

    What I would do is follow documentation. When you have configured the necessary permissions on the new Exchange server, run Deployment Scanner. that will list issues you need to fix. For the rest, once the Deployment Scanner looks fine, create a mailbox archiving task for the E2013 server, move mailbox, test.

    As for Journaling, you will need a Journal Mailbox on the Exch2013 before being able to configure Journal Archiving from it. You might want to create a new Journal Mailbox on the E2013, configure EV, test.

     

    • Nate_D1's avatar
      Nate_D1
      Level 6
      8 years ago

      Great response Gertjan - thank you. I am working with Matt on this project, can you confirm one small detail for us that we want to nail down?

      Exchange2013 already has journaling enabled, and we want to set up enterprise vault to begin archiving this journal the exact same way we did in Exchange2007.  When we set this up, can we have BOTH the 2007 and 2013 journals archive into the SAME archive at the same time? 

      It seems like if journal messages from both servers were stored in the same archive it would make it easier to use Discovery Accelerator for legal discovery since there would just be 1 archive to search against.

      Appreciate it very much!

      • GertjanA's avatar
        GertjanA
        Moderator
        8 years ago

        Hello Nate,

        I believe you can, but why would you? It is way easier to set up a new archive, use that for the 2013 JNL mailbox.

        DA usually is configured to search a Vault Store (so you need to have a Journal Vault Store :-) ), and the archives in it. As DA initially investigates the indexes, it does not really matter.

        As note. Please consider upgrading to 11.0.1CHF5 as soon as possible. Not only will your users be delighted of the new search/archive explorer, you also will not have performance issues when archiving from 2013 jnl. If you keep your ev10 release, I have seem posts that archiving a 2013 journal mailbox with EV10.x performance drops with up to 50%.

        If your journal mailbox receives loads of messages, you might build up a backlog...