Moving Exchange

Microsoft Exchange Server provides e-mail, groupware, and calendar services for your organization.

A key component of Exchange is the “mailbox store”. The mailbox store is a large database that contains all of the user mailboxes, group messages, and calendar information.

UMove can move the mailbox store (sometimes called the Exchange database) to your new computer. UMove is compatible with Exchange 2000, Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007, and Exchange 2010.

UMove is designed primarily to move Active Directory, and as such operates only on a domain controller. UMove moves Exchange as a courtesy as part of moving AD. It will not move Exchange on a non-domain controller.

To move Exchange use the following procedure:

1. Prepare the destination computer for Exchange
2. Create a dummy domain
3. Install Exchange
4. Apply the Exchange service pack
5. Move AD and the Exchange database
6. Mount the mailbox database

After you install Exchange, you may notice that your computer will delay an extra 10-15 minutes each time it shuts down. This is normal. See the KB article “Exchange Server 2003 Computer Takes Longer Than You Expect to Shut Down” (KB829361).

Background information

For background information on the steps for moving Exchange manually, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base and TechNet articles.

UMove automates the steps described in the articles.

• How to Move Exchange 2000 to New Hardware and Keep the Same Server Name (KB297289)
• How to Move Exchange 2003 to New Hardware and Keep the Same Server Name (KB822945)
• Moving Exchange 2007 Servers to New Hardware and Keeping the Same Server Name (TechNet article)

For information on Small Business Server see Moving Small Business Server.