How to Remove the Last Exchange 5.5 Server

As organizations upgrade their Exchange Server 5.5 infrastructures to Exchange 2000 Server, they need to remove and upgrade Exchange 5.5 servers. Deleting the server from the organization means removing the Exchange 5.5 server's directory entries that a mixed-mode Exchange 2000 administrative group includes in both the Exchange 5.5 directory and Active Directory (AD). However, you need to avoid some pitfalls in the process.

The lessons I learned from deleting the last Exchange 5.5 server in an administrative group in my company's Exchange organization will be useful to administrators involved in planning and performing migrations to Exchange 2000. "Related Reading," page 6, lists Microsoft articles that provide more detailed information about some of the steps.

In my organization, three servers were in the administrative group NSIS European Messaging Team: DBOIST-MSXCL (running Exchange 5.5), DBOEXCVS1 (running Exchange 2000), and VBEEXCPS01 (running Exchange 2000 with Site Replication Service—SRS). My objective was to remove DBOIST-MSXCL from the administrative group with minimum disruption to service.

Action Plan
Before you begin deactivating the server, you need an action plan. The action plan includes who's responsible for moving each component and the order in which the changes should occur. An action plan for removing the last Exchange 5.5 server should include the following steps:

1. Back up the server.
2. Survey the server's configuration.
3. Move the messaging connectors.
4. Move the directory replication connectors (DRCs).
5. Rehome the public folders.
6. Delete or move user mailboxes from the server.
7. Delete or move application or service mailboxes from the server.
8. Check the site folders.
9. Uninstall the Exchange Event Service.
10. Check the routing calculation server.
11. Update the Active Directory Connector (ADC) connection agreements (CAs).
12. Check the distribution lists' (DLs') expansion servers.
13. Back up the server again.
14. Conduct a power-down test.
15. Delete the server.
16. Disable the service account.
17. Update the documentation.
18. Redeploy the hardware.

To understand what these steps entail, let's look more closely at each step.

Back Up the Server
Back up the Directory Store and the Information Store (IS) on the server you're removing. Retiring a server makes many changes to your Exchange configuration. For example, you might rehome public folders, change messaging-connector settings, and remove mailboxes from the server. Taking a full backup at this stage gives you a back-out option in case anything goes wrong. Store the backup tape in a safe place.

Survey the Server's Configuration
To be sure that you account for all the decommissioned server's functions, you need to know what roles the server performs. For example, a server might not host active user mailboxes, but it might host critical public folders such as the site's Schedule+ Free/Busy folder. Document how the server is configured, including the following components:

• OS and service packs
• third-party software
• DRCs
• messaging connectors
• ADC settings
• public-folder instances
• user and application mailboxes
• site folders homed on the server
• routing-calculation server settings
• service account details

The Exchange 5.5 server I was decommissioning had been my group's production Exchange server for several years. The server hosted mailboxes, public folders, DRCs, X.400 connectors, and an Internet Mail Service (IMS) connector. Over the past year, I transferred user mailboxes and these server roles to a new Exchange 2000 server.

If you can, remove the server over a few days to let the transfer of server roles take place with the lowest risk. Let replication finish after each change to facilitate assessing the impact of each change. Performing all the changes at the same time can lead to problems such as incomplete transfer of roles, stranded public folders, and incomplete directory replication.

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