Migrating from Exchange 5.5 to 2003

[Robert Floyd]

We've finally got our Exchange 2003 Server installed and I'm going to be one
of the guinea pigs for the migration. I'm currently accessing Exchange 5.5
on Entourage 2004 (on the latest Tiger SP) as an IMAP account. What gotchas
are in store when I switch to Exchange 2003? I'm planning on going through
OWA.

I know my old Exchange server side rules won't migrate, but I have most of
those duplicated in Entourage, so I'm not too concerned about that. What
does concern me is possibly duplicating a ton of messages on my PowerBook.
I'm downloading message bodies so I can do Spotlight searches. Am I going to
wind up doing a very large download when I turn on the new Exchange account?

Any hints from others who have gone through this process?

TIA,
Robert Floyd
Durham, NC

 

[Barry Wainwright [MVP]]

We've finally got our Exchange 2003 Server installed and I'm going to be one
of the guinea pigs for the migration. I'm currently accessing Exchange 5.5
on Entourage 2004 (on the latest Tiger SP) as an IMAP account. What gotchas
are in store when I switch to Exchange 2003? I'm planning on going through
OWA.

I presume by this you mean you will be connecting through WebDav - this is
the only option for Exchange accounts in entourage 2004.

I know my old Exchange server side rules won't migrate, but I have most of
those duplicated in Entourage, so I'm not too concerned about that. What
does concern me is possibly duplicating a ton of messages on my PowerBook.
I'm downloading message bodies so I can do Spotlight searches. Am I going to
wind up doing a very large download when I turn on the new Exchange account?

Yes - sort of.

Since you will be switching from an IMAP account to a new Exchange account
the mail must be downloaded again. Please note that any edits you have made
in entourage (such as changing text in a message, removing attachments etc)
do not affect the server side copy, so they will be downloaded in the
original form.

However, I have found that the syncing takes place fairly quickly - even
with pretty large exchange mailboxes - you are, after all, running over a
local network, not through the internet.