Project Coconut: An Exchange Server 2000 to 2007 Transition – Introduction

Did you say Project Coconut!?!

Yes I did. The name came about basically like this:

Paul: Hey Steve, I need a good codename for this Exchange project. What do you think?

Steve: Project Coconut.

Paul: …. okay then.

Considering who I asked it could have been much worse.

Project Coconut… what is it?

Project Coconut is the piece of work currently occupying most of my time. It is a project to transition an Exchange 2000 Server organisation to Exchange Server 2007. The organisation is about 1000 users, has a few special bits and pieces requiring some close attention, and is the first (except our in-house upgrade) production deployment of Exchange Server 2007 SP1 I’ll be doing (we’ve done several Exchange Server 2007 RTM deployments to date).

The release of SP1 was well timed as this particular customer wants to implement some site resiliency. Knowing that Standby Continuous Replication was coming with SP1 and having labbed it throughout the beta program we knew this would be a good fit.

The project work will involve some good stuff like bringing the Active Directory up to meet the minimum requirements of Exchange Server 2007, introducing Exchange Server 2007 into the organisation, implementing the Standby Continuous Replication features and testing the DR processes around that, migrating all of the mailboxes to the new server, integrating third party applications into the new messaging environment, removing the legacy Exchange 2000 servers, and bringing the IT staff up to speed on the new administrative features of Exchange Server 2007.

Aaron kept an interesting diary of one of his Exchange Server 2007 projects so I will do my best to write about Project Coconut and the things that others might find useful along the way.

Project Coconut Entries:

• Part 1 – Getting the environment up to scratch
• Part 2 – Sizing the Exchange Server 2007 servers
• Part 3 – Deploying the first Exchange Server 2007 server
• Part 4 – Configuring Standby Continuous Replication
• Part 5 – Its mailbox migration time!
• Part 6 – Finishing the job