leedesmond’s blog

There are a few notable challenges in the move to Exchange Server 2007. Namely, no in-place upgrade from any previous versions is possible (legacy Exchange 5.5 or below, Exchange 2000 or 2003) due mostly to platform architectural differences*, even though it may already be 64-bit capable.

To move off from Exchange 5.5 to 2007, this scenario is supported only by first migrating data to 2000/2003 as an interim stage, switch Exchange organization to native mode, and then transition (to the same Exchange organization) or migrate (to a new Exchange organization) to 2007. Moving from a non Microsoft messaging system over to Exchange 2007 is also described as migration. These terms now carry clearer and distinct descriptions of how Microsoft views the various means of moving over to the new messaging platform.

All the DCs (and Global Catalogs) must be running Windows Server 2003 SP1 or higher in Windows 2000 native mode domain functional level or higher (default is Windows 2000 mixed). The forest functional level can remain at the default of Windows 2000.

* 64-bit vs. 32-bit

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