Migration Advice Needed

[Paul_Daley]

Dear all,

We have an old EV 6 SP4 for exchange installation that we want to upgrade to the latest version on new servers.

The existing installation is all on a single server but the new EV servers will be virtualised with VMware with the databases on a seperate machine.

To complicate things, we're also going to introduce FSA!

I was assuming that we'd need to upgrade the existing EV box to 8 and then migrate to the new servers. Would this be right?

Should we have multiple EV servers - one for Exchange archiving and the other for FSA? Could we then single instance across both? (all the VM's will be accessing the same SAN)

Thanks for any help or advice.


Regards,

Paul.

[Liam_Finn1]

First of all the upgrade will need to be done. EV6 will require a few steps to upgrade.

EV6 - EV7 - EV7.5 - EV8 so it will need much planning

I think you should first move the databases to the new server. Next upgrade finally introduce a server for FSA if you feel that the load of running it all on one server is too much. It is hard to say split FSA and MBX archiving because that all depends on the load your system can take and the number of users you have to process.

You will only get single instance if both FSA and mailbox archiving are in the same storage group. Also note that SIS will only work on any new data archived. The data that already exists in the archives will not be single instanced unless you export the archives and re-archive them again which will be a lot of work

[Paul_Daley]

Thanks Liam,

So do the upgrades, move the database, then move to new server. Or did you mean move the database first, then upgrade...

With so many upgrade steps, will the old EV outlook client work with the new EV server? Or will I have to push out a new client version for each step?

Is there a guide anywhere that describes moving EV from one server to another?



Thanks,

Paul.

[Liam_Finn1]

I would move the database first. It will give more power to the SQL if it is on it's own server and also make more available to EV for the upgrades

Then I would do the P to V move so the EV will be on new hardware.

Next do the upgrade

My recommendation is do the EV upgrades in one move. Seeing as you only have one EV server I think you can make all the steps in one go all the way to EV8 SP3 or if you wait a few weeks you can get EV8 SP4.

If you do the upgrade in one go then you will have to deploy new clients to all your users because i don't think the client is that much forward compatible because in EV8 new features like Virtual Vault are implemented and the old client wont work with these

Do you have DA or CA? If yes then you need to watch fir an upgrade step for them because you need to go to EV8 SP1 before going to the higher SP's because a schema change is not implemented on SP2 or higher in DA8.

this does not apply to EV.  EV can be upgraded to EV8SP3 or 4 directly from EV7.5

[Paul_Daley]

Thanks for clarifying that. No we don't use DA or CA.

Given that we've got to do three upgrades, would it be easier to start with a fresh v8 install? Is it possible to migrate the archives into it or would we have to unarchive everything and rearchive it (which I don't think is really an option)?

As for the clients, will the v8 version work with v6? I'll have to try it...

When exactly is v8 SP4 expected?


Thanks,

Paul.

[Liam_Finn1]

You cant install EV8 SPx and migrate without using a third party tool like the Archive Shuttle tool from EVtools.net

To do it natively you will have to export and import all over again. Go with the upgrade it will make your life easier

Version 8 wont work with V6 clients as far as I can remember. You will have to upgrade the client

SP4 is expected in before the end of the month.

My guess is that you will see it within the next two weeks but I have not heard any official date.