swapping from blackberry to windows mobile with exchange 2k3

[Trustmeimadoctor]

hi can anyone help we are swapping from blackberry with bes express to windows mobile but we are still stuck with exchange 2k3 and a 2k3 AD. is there any issues we will face with this setup ? also whats the best way to go about this ? we are talking roughly 900 devices

any help you can provide will be great

[Trustmeimadoctor]

just searching and it seems we can co exist 2003 and exchange 2010 and use 2010's owa and active sync while talking to the datastores provided by 2003.

whats the best way to go about this? how many machines are required to be setup ?

[randlemarcus]

Might be worth looking at Office365 - gets you completely off 2003, means service provision is someone elses problem, and device setup is a doddle. There's even a migration offer on at the minute, that reduces the pain involved in getting mailboxes up there.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

there is a project on at the moment to look at hosted solutions but it wont happen before we swap our devices (i hope not at all but thats a different matter !) i have about 4 weeks to get this done and working

[randlemarcus]

On the assumption that "I hope not at all" means you are the Exchange Admin, then do you have the budget/timeframe to push for either a Front-End server into the DMZ, or an upgrade to something that isn't end of life?

If my assumption is wrong, and it isn't just Exchange you are responsible for, then grasp the CLoudy opportunity to move away from creaky old configs, and into a nice cushy Service Management life

In terms of timescales, you could easily push for a migration to run in parallel with the device swaps - it's very very not difficult with tools, and reasonably easy without.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

I'm server/storage rather than exchange but exchange is now my responsibility too as its seen we will do better than the last team. I've been using 2k3 since 2004 roughly but I've no experience of anything newer at the moment. Any guidance would be great to implement an 2010/13 mail front end to our existing backend. I have a month roughly till our blackberry contract terminates so I need to be in and testing within 2 weeks really. It will be hosted on ESx I hoping if I can get this in and working we will prove our self's to the buisiness.

[benedwards64]

If you are enabling OWA please make sure you are licensed for User CALs for Exchange and Windows.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

We would need them anyway thankfully that's something that's not mine to worry about

[benedwards64]

Good-oh. Just checking, it's a very common (and often expensive) pitfall

[Trustmeimadoctor]

I agree ms licensing is very easy to make mistakes with and is sure as hell not cheap !

[Trustmeimadoctor]

anymore advice as im going to start on my voyage of discovery this morning

[WinstonWolf]

Make sure you've got the correct SSL certificates in place and your autodiscover address set up and it *should* be plain sailing.

Use split brain dns so you resolve the internal Exchange server address when on site and the external address when they're roaming.

http://windowsitpro.com/networking/split-brain-dns