Thanks Ray! Exchange 5.5 disaster averted!

I was working with a fellow SBS'er this past weekend to help him do an SBS 2003 migration from SBS 4.5. Unfortunately when we came in on Sunday morning the old 4.5 server had died a painful death and wasn't working at all. We got 2003 up and running and my fellow consultant was happy to have Internet email and calendaring on Exchange 2003 up and running.

However his client had other ideas as Tuesday at about 4 PM he called me to let me know he needed about 5 old mailboxes off of the tape backup of SBS 4.5/Exchange 5.5 and put them into the new SBS 2003 by Wed morning. Ouch, nothing like a tight deadline and a client waiting.

So after getting the tape and tape drive (if I needed it) at about 8pm I got to the office and started to proceed. I started to research what was necessary through the newsgroups and previous posts and pretty much everyone suggested reinstalling 4.5 and then exmerging everything out. But when Ray Fong (Microsoft SBS PSS Support) speaks I take a listen...

(Ray /On) An unsupported shortcut is to mount the Exchange 5.5 database directly
under Exchange 2003. The Site/Org name of Exchange 2003 will be different
than the one in Exchange 5.5. So use LegacyDN.exe to change the name. Next,
delete everything in the MDBDATA folder, and replace with priv.edb and
pub.edb. Next, rename them to priv1.edb and pub1.edb. When the database is
mounted, it will auto create the stm files. Next, run exmerge to export all
the data and use outlook to export the public folder. When everything is
done, remove Exchange 2003 completed including the Exchange object in AD.
Finally, put a clean exchange back and exmerge the data in.
(Ray /off)

Well I had a demo SBS 2003 server running so I thought why not try it as I let the 4.5 install continue. Working through some of the items above took a little bit but placing the Exchange 5.5 .edb files as stated above and using the LegacyDN.exe utility worked great! I was able to exmerge out and then copy the files to the new SBS 2003 through Remote Web Workplace (the longest part at about 1.5 hrs). Then I exmerged the .pst files back in and everything looked great after verifying a couple of logins. I didn't detail everything above but gotta give my props to Ray Fong. Without his advice above I would have never tried it. I was able to go to bed at about 2:30 this morning knowing I had learned another little something.

If you haven't checked out the newsgroups do it now and learn a bunch. Start by going to the SBS Community web site and take a look at the newsgroup section. Then run and use Google Groups to find out the answers to the very problems probably tens of others have had using SBS.

Also, just a side point, if you're a SBS'er (Small Business Server Consultant) learn from what I have recently been reminded of. Some of my greatest clients (and friends) can be what would appear as competitors. In the Consultant field we don't know everything and if someone tells you that he's full of crap. Be able to cover for others and filling in technical expertise in one area or another can be a win win for consultants and their clients. Make sure you use all the valuable people around you, including so-called competitors.