I am wondering if it is possible for the tool to enable a company with Exchange 2007 migrate directly to Exchange 2016 whilst using the same domain and AD structure and not to another forest?
It would be great if such was possible; sadly it is not.
The issue here is not so much about Priasoft being able to move data, but is due to the fact that the Exchange 2016 installer will check to see if Exchange 2007 or earlier already exists in the forest. If the installer finds objects in Active Directory that appear to be for Exchange 2007, the installer will stop.
There is a subtle, but very important aspect of the statement above as it relates to “…will check to see if Exchange 2007 exists…”. The installer is not querying live Exchange servers in its inspection. It is simply looking in the Configuration partition of Active Directory for Exchange Server objects and checking the version stamps on those objects.
A horrible issue can arise if an Exchange 2007 server, in the past, was physically removed from the environment, but was not properly removed from Active Directory. The orphaned object will prevent the install of Exchange 2016 even if a working Exchange 2010/2013 environment exists.
Priasoft recommends to all customers to fully weigh the benefits of deploying a new version of Exchange in a new environment. Doing so provides the following benefits:
- No impact to the current production environment
- No “take over” of key roles like mail-flow, gateways, etc.
- No requirement to update or apply service packs to the source
- An ability to fully test the new environment without affecting production users
- An ability to make changes or do a complete reset of the new environment without impacting the current production environment
- A true separation of roles and responsibilities. Exchange admins will work in the new environment will full control without need for full control in the source.
- An ability to architect the OU structure of the new environment to support how Exchange will be managed, not how users are managed.
- Easier support for mergers, divestitures, and acquisitions.
The above model is typically called a “Resource Forest”.
However, one of the reasons it is not talked about much, or is cast with a negative point of view, is because few tools do a good job of preserving the end user experience in such a transition, especially the Microsoft tools.
Priasoft excels in supporting a Resource Forest model and such comes from over 15 years of experience with migrations.
