In the last 3 parts we have discussed about the different transition scenario from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007, installation of Exchange 2007 in existing organization & PF, mailboxes and oab movement.

Transition from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 : Upgrading Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 Part-1
http://exchangeserverinfo.com/2007/12/04/transition-from-exchange-2003-to-exchange-2007.aspx

In this article we will see how to remove the last legacy exchange 2003 from the organization.

                        Removal of Last Exchange 2003\2000 server from the organization Part-4

Quick Review:
We have happy domain (Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007)
We have another domain Smile.com (Only Exchange 2003)
We have routing group connector between these two organizations.
Moved the mailboxes, Public Folders & OAB

 Now it’s the time to remove the Exchange 2003 from the organization. Before we could remove the exchange 2003 from the organization of happy.com we need to create a connector between Exchange2003.smile.com to Exchange2007.happy.com. But in real time for internet connection we need to point to MX record information either to edge serve or hub server.
This article is purely a lab setup where I have routing group connector which I need redirect to Exchange 2007.
Lets have a discussion on mailflow between these two domains. Basically I am able to receive email on Exchange 2007 server box if any users from smile.com send mail.
 
Reason for mailflow in Exchange 2007: From smile.com to Exchange 2003.happy.com we have a connector which is responsible to delivery the message to Happy Exchange Organization. At the time of installing exchange 2007 it will select the mailflow setting within the organization by selecting Exchange 2003. This will create a connector between e2k3.happy.com to e2k7.happy.com that is why we are able to receive mail on Exchange 2007. So it very important that before we could decommission the exchange 2003 it is necessary to create a mail connector between ex2k3.smile.com to e2k7.com.


So lets take a walk on the removal of exchange 2003 server.

The first command i will type is getting the connector information to know the mailflow topology

Get-routinggroupconnector
 The above command will display the list of routing group connector which we have in the Exchange organization.
Figure1:


If you see the above figure it is clearly showing you the routing group connector between Exchange2003.happy.com to Exchange 2007.happy.com.

Then we need to check the send connector status, by typing this command get-sendconnector
Figure2:

In the above figure we have send connector between Ex2k3.smile.com to E2k3.happy.com (For the mailflow)

Even you can check receive connector status by typing this command : get-receiveconnector
Figure3:

Based on the above figure we have default receive connector default is normal smtp connection and client is for non-mapi connection.

Now I am going to create a new send connector between E2K7.happy.com to Ex2k3.smile.com
Open EMC => Organization Configuration => HUB
In the Action Pane click on “New Send Connector”

Figure 4:


























In Exchange 2003 smile.com I will create a smtp connector from ex2k3.smile.com to e2k7.happy.com specifically

Now I Created a SMTP connector on Ex2K3.smile.com

Figure 5 (This smpt connector need to create on ex2k3.smile.com)





Now we need to create a receive connector:

I am going to configure it from the powershell command

New-ReceiveConnector -Name "Ex2k3-E2k7 Recv" -Usage Internal -Server E2K7 -PermissionGroups ExchangeServers -RemoteIPRanges 192.168.0.1 -AuthMechanism ExternalAuthoritative -Bindings 0.0.0.0:25

Even you can create the receive connector for EMC : Server configuration => Hub => Action pane

You can see the receive connector in the EMC console
Figure 6:

Try to do some test regarding mailflow between this two organization:

Like sending mail from smile.com to happy.com and vice versa see the message tracking for better understanding i.e track the message from ex2k3.smile.com message tracking and e2k7 message tracking & e2k3.happy.com message tracking. so that you can understand how to read message in this two exchange architecture.

Then try to disable receive connector, the you will see the below output:
NDR will generated and e2k7 mailbox will not receive email

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: testing
Sent: 11/27/2007 11:01 PM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

  trans1@happy.com on 11/27/2007 11:02 PM
  You do not have permission to send to this recipient. For assistance, contact your system administrator.
  <Ex2K3.smile.com #5.7.1 smtp;530 5.7.1 Client was not authenticated>

Reason: Ex2k3 need to have permission on E2k7.happy.com
So inorder to avail this permission I need to enable a receive connector and for more information please go to see the permission tab of receive connector.


After this you need to change the cost of old connector which we had from Ex2k3 to E2k3 connector on Ex2k3.smile.com
Figure7:




After changing the cost in ex2k3.smile.com then restart SMTP and routing engine.

Now let me test it once again (Mailflow testing from smile.com to happy.com)
Figure 8:


Now it is able to deliver it to E2K7.happy.com directly. Initially what happened is if we have same cost on smile.com then it was routing through Exchange 2003 connector in my scenario see this below figure :



Now I have configured a send and receive connector. So now I can safely delete the old connector from Ex2k3-E2k3
From Ex2k3.smile.com
How to delete smtp connector between ex2k3-2k3 from ex2k3.smile.com server:
Open ESM => Routing Group => Delete that specific connector

From Happy Domain I will delete the e2k3 receive connector from powershell
First I will check the list of connector I have by typing this command get-sendconnector


In the above screen you will notice you can able to see connector from E2k3-Ex2k3 that is my old which I am going to delete by typing the below command:

Remove-sendconnector –identity “E2k3-Ex2K3”

Right now I removed the connector between the forest.

Now I need to remove the connector between E2k3.happpy.com and E2k7.happy.com

From powershell
Get-routinggroupconnector

In the above screen you will 2 connectors which we need to delete
Remove-routinggroupconnector –identity “E2k3-E2k7”
Remove-routinggroupconnector –identity “E2k7-E2k3”

Now I removed all the connectors which are connected to my first legacy exchange 2003 server.

Deletion\ Moving the  RUS
You can delete the Domain from ESM and enterprise RUS need to be remove from ADSIEDIT.msc (because enterprise can’t be deleted from ESM. (For information please refer Microsoft technet article) But in real time I noticed that some of them rehome the RUS in my condition I will follow the Microsoft recommendation. (Don’t forget to take a system state backup)

1) Deletion of Domain RUS
a. Log in to E2k3 server
b. Open ESM => Recipients => Recipient Update Service
c. Right click domain RUS and then delete it.
2) Deletion of Enterprise RUS
a. Open Adsiedit.msc => Configurations => services => Ms Exchange => Organization  => Address List Container  => Recipients => Recipient Update Service => Delete enterprise RUS.

Note : But I would suggest you to move the RUS to exchange 2007 in realtime scenario.

We are done with all the re-assigning the role to new server, now we can simply go to add\remove and uninstall the Exchange 2003 server i.e go to E2k3.happy.com server => insert exchange 2003 cd and uninstall the applicaiton.

After removing the Exchange 2003 what you see in ADSIEDIT.msc


Based on the above figure you will notice that only we have First Administrative Group. You can delete it right away but only when you confirm that everyone are using only outlook 2007 because the LegacyExchangeDN property on a mailbox from an Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2000 administrative group still references the Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2000 administrative group even after you move the mailbox to a server in the Exchange 2007 administrative group. Office Outlook 2003 and earlier versions use the LegacyExchangeDN property to get free/busy information.
If the administrative group that the LegacyExchangeDN property references no longer exists, Outlook will not be able to find free/busy information. In addition, all versions of Outlook use the LegacyExchangeDN property when a user delegates access to folders by using the Outlook client. If you delete the legacy administrative group that the LegacyExchangeDN property references, Outlook will not be able to find the assigned delegated user.

Now clear the application log and system from all the servers and take reboot of all DC and exchange server to see any possible event occur. If possible run Exbpa tool to check the status.

Related Article:
Transition from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 : Upgrading Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 Part-1
Transition from Exchange 2003 to 2007: Installation of Exchange 2007-Part2
Transition from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 : Moving the Public Folders, Mailboxes

Reference:
Upgrading to Exchange 2007
Transitioning from Exchange 2000/2003 to Exchange Server 2007


            I hope that transition from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 article has provided you with brief idea how the transition should go in a clear and smooth way. Thank you for sharing your time for reading these articles. Any feedback, comment or if you feel nee to improve in the documentation that is any step which i missed out please feel free to contact me at any given point. It will be my honor to take a suggestion from all your experts and of course from new learner.

For any comments : just click on Add comment.
For any modification : mail me on mohammed.ismail@gmail.com