Migrating 2 servers into 1

[oyell]

Hello,

We would like (if possible) to migrate two Enterprise Vault servers into one server.

Both servers are in same domain, 64-bit and are running version 9 of Enterprise Vault. First server is a Windows 2003, and the other is a Windows 2008. They are using 2 different service users, and are only archiving email, not files.

In same scenario, we would like to upgrade to version 10.

I have been trying to find any documentation on how this is possible, and only information I found is to migrate one server to another, and then upgrade, but then we are still left with 2 servers running version 10.

One solution is of course restoring all mail to original mailboxes, but situation is that many exchange servers is on satelite based communications, and the servers have archived for many years, and therefore this is not a valid option.

Other option is to export everything on one server to pst files, transport the .pst files with a hard drive to each location, and import, and thereafter add the exchange servers to the other server, but again, it`s not a valid option due to satelite communication (1-2Mbits).

Best solution (again ,if possible) was to migrate both these servers into 1 server version 9, and then upgrade this server to version 10, or upgrade both servers to version 10, and then migrate one server to the other.

Any help is gratefully welcome!

[TonySterling]

Could you clarify if both EV servers are part of the same Site?  Do they share a EV Directory database?

[oyell]

These are located in 2 different sites, and databases are located on 2 different sql servers.

[TonySterling · Accepted solution]

In that case you have a couple options.

1. Like you said, restore everything back to Exchange and then target the mailboxes with the new EV Server. 
2. Use Move Archive that is part of EV to move the archives from one site to the other
3. Export to PST and import those into new archives in the new site
4. Use a third party tool to migrate. Here is a list for those:

QUADROtech - Archive Shuttle

Akaibu - Evolve

Globanet - Email Migrator (GEM)

TransVault - Migrator

There is also this White Paper written by TPM

Enterprise Vault Whitepaper Migration Tools Overview

There are pro's and con's to each option so you need to look at things like number of mailboxes, size of archives, your timeframe, etc..