Recovering Exchange 2003 backup to Exchange 2010 server

exchange-2003exchange-2010

Our old 2003 mail server has died, and we are hastily setting up a new one based on Exchange 2010.

We looking for a way to recover the 2003 data into 2010, any idea if possible?

Thanks.

Best Answer

Edit: Woah there! You say you've lost your Active Directory. That changes things considerably. I would still look long and hard at restoring a System State Backup (if you've got one) because you'll get back your AD in the process (and won't have to rejoin all your client computers to the domain, deal with user profiles, etc).

If you can't get AD back then I'd proceed with a "dialtone" strategy-- building a new environment and importing the old mail later. I'd try like heck to get AD back, though, first.

Doing the "same domain name, same server name" won't work to get Exchange 2003 to mount the databases. It needs to be the same AD in order to perform a disaster recovery Exchange installation.

Why not just do an orderly disaster recovery of your Exchange 2003 environment and then an orderly upgrade to Exchange 2010? It seems like you're buying yourself years of future nightmares (with mismatched legacyExchangeDN values) by not just approaching this in an orderly, stable manner.

You can bring up another Exchange 2003 machine with the same computer name as the failed server (running Exchange 2003 "setup /DisasterRecovery" and "update /DisasterRecovery" on your applicable Exchange service pack) and then restore the database backups you have (or copy EDB and STM files over from the failed machine into the same drive-letter / path on the recovery server) and have Exchange 2003 back up and running ASAP and ready to migrate to E2K10.

Here's a link from Microsoft to help: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998965(EXCHG.65).aspx

If you've got the Active Directory that hosted the failed Exchange organization then really it's just a matter of:

  • Spin up a Windows Server 2003 machine (w/ service packs, etc) with the same computer name as the failed server computer
  • Partition the disks to allow the same drive letter / path that the current STM / EDB files are stored in to be accessible (not required but makes life easier)
  • Install Exchange 2003 in "/DisasterRecovery" mode
  • Apply the same Exchange service packs and hot fixes (in "/DisasterRecovery" mode for service packs, as well) to the new Exchange 2003 machine
  • Copy in the EDB / STM files from the failed Exchange installation (the entire "mdbdata" folder, if you were storing everything together) or restore your last backup to the new server

Whine: It puzzles me why people act rashly during a crisis and make a bigger mess than they already have.

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