Systems upgrade order

[Manofmilk]

Hi all,

We currently have:

Exchange 2003
EV server 8.0
Outlook 2000, 2003 and 2007, with EV 7.5 and 8.0 Outlook clients.

Over the course of the next year we want to get to:

Exchange 2010
EV server 'latest' (9.x?)
Outlook 2010 with the latest (9.x?) clients.

What we are currently struggling to understand is in what order to perform all the various upgrades/migrations/deployments to keep EV working for our users, i.e.

Does EV server 8.0 work with Exchange 2010?
or
Does EV server 9.x work with Exchange 2003?

and
Does EV server 9.x work with Outlook 2000 and EV Outlook client 7.5?
or
Does EV Outlook client 9.x work with EV server 8.0?

etc, etc, etc

Many thanks for any advice offered.

[GertjanA]

Hello Manofmilk,

Exchange 2003, EV server 8.0, Outlook 2000, 2003 and 2007, with EV 7.5 and 8.0 Outlook clients.

Over the course of the next year we want to get to:

Exchange 2010, EV server 'latest' (9.x?), Outlook 2010 with the latest (9.x?) clients.

Depending on your timescale, you might actually wait for EV10. But, the upgrade for EV consists of going through the upgrade to 9, then to 10.

So, I suggest:

Upgrade remaining EV7.5 clients to 8 clients (so they are certified to talk to EV9)

Upgrade EV to 9 (last SP currently is 2) (so you can archive from Ex2003 and in future from Ex2010) EV9 is REQUIRED to archive from Ex2010.

Upgrade to EX2010. To accomodate clients, your best go would be to get all clients to Outlook 2007, and eventually to OL2010 with EV9 HTTP client. There is no DCOM client for OL2010. DCOM functionality in the client might get added in later versions of the client, but you have to asses if you can live with the http-client features. There is not much missing then in the client. There are some threads discussing this.

Also do think about your SQL-server version. For EV9, I believe you need to be on 2005SP2 minimum.

Additionally, you might want to also consider upgrading the OS on the EV-servers (64-bit W2008R2)

Hope this helps.

[Manofmilk]

Thanks for your response.

The EV OL client 8 refuses to install with OL 2000 (and Outlook 2000 doesn't work with Exchange 2010 anyway) so getting the clients upgraded first I think would be best.

Realistically though we would need a migration process over at least a month, so do you know if the at least the basic email archive/retrieve functionality of the older Outlook client would still work for these users if we went up to EV 9 server and they were left with OL2000 and EV OL client 7.5 for a while?

Conversely do you know if OL2010 with EV OL client 9 would still work with an EV 8 server, if we decided to do all of the client upgrades first?

We intend to test as much as possible in a virtual environment but getting a definite ‘that will/won’t work’ from somebody who has already tried will stop us wasting time.

Didn't realise about the 'http' client only in OL2010, will have to look into that - thanks for the heads up.

SQL isn't a problem though so that is one less thing to worry about.

Cheers.

[GertjanA · Accepted solution]

Officially you are supported 1 version up, 1 down (ie client 7.5 and client 9.0 work with ev8 server, ev 8 client works with ev7.5 server and 8.0 server etc.)

Unofficially, older clients will work also. I've seen EV6 client work with EV8 server without problem.

[Manofmilk]

Thanks - we're not too fussed about being offcially supported or not for a few months, as long as it keeps working for the users during the migration thats what counts.

[GertjanA]

You're welcome.

If you are satisfied with an answer, could you mark one as ' solution' , so the thread is considered closed?

Regards