Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2
Topic Last Modified: 2012-07-23
You can remove the last computer running Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 or Exchange Server 2003 from an organization that also has Exchange Server 2010 servers. First, you prepare your Exchange organization for removal of the last Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2003 server. Next, you remove the last Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2003 server. To successfully remove the Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2003 server from your organization, you must complete both steps.
Looking for other management tasks related to installing Exchange 2010? Check out Managing Deployment of Exchange 2010.
Remove the last Exchange 2003 server
Removal of the last Exchange 2003 server requires that you satisfy some prerequisites and then complete a two-step process.
Prerequisites for removing the last Exchange 2003 server
- You installed one or more Exchange 2010 servers in the
organization.
- If you're removing the last Exchange 2003 server, confirm that
you don't plan to use any of the Exchange 2003 features that have
been removed in Exchange 2010. The following are some of the
features that aren't supported in Exchange 2010:
- Novell GroupWise connector
- Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
- Routing groups
- Lotus Notes connector
- Novell GroupWise connector
For a complete list of the features discontinued in Exchange 2010, see Discontinued Features.
Step 1: Prepare the Exchange 2003 organization to remove legacy Exchange servers
To perform the following procedure, the account you use must be delegated membership in the Exchange Full Administrator role on Exchange 2003 servers.
- Move all mailboxes to an Exchange 2010 server in the
organization. For more information, see Create a Local Move
Request.
- Move all content from the public folder database on the legacy
Exchange 2003 server to a public folder database on an Exchange
2010 server in the organization. For detailed steps, see Move Public Folder
Content from One Public Folder Database to Another Public Folder
Database.
- On Exchange 2003 servers, for each offline address book (OAB),
move the generation process to an Exchange 2010 server. For
detailed steps, see Move the Offline Address
Book Generation Process to Another Server.
- To remove the public folder mailbox and stores on the Exchange
2003 server, see How to Dismount and Delete the Mailbox and Public Folder
Stores.
- Verify that Internet mail flow is configured to route through
your Exchange 2010 transport servers. For more information, see the
following topics:
- To verify that all inbound protocol services (Microsoft
Exchange ActiveSync, Microsoft Office Outlook Web App, Outlook
Anywhere, POP3, IMAP4, Autodiscover service, and any other Exchange
Web service) are configured for Exchange 2010, see Managing Client Access
Servers.
- Delete the routing group connectors that connect the Exchange
2003 routing groups. You can do this from Exchange 2003 System
Manager, or you can use the Remove-RoutingGroupConnector
cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell.
- If you have Exchange 2003 recipient policies that are only
Mailbox Manager policies and don't define e-mail addresses (they
don't have an E-mail Addresses (Policy) tab), perform the
following steps to delete the policies:
- In Exchange System Manager, expand Recipients, and then
select Recipient Policies.
- To verify that a policy is only a Mailbox Manager policy,
right-click the policy, and then select Properties. The
Properties page must not have an E-Mail Addresses
(Policy) tab.
- To delete the policy, right-click the policy, and then select
Delete. Click OK, and then click Yes.
- In Exchange System Manager, expand Recipients, and then
select Recipient Policies.
- If you have Exchange 2003 policies that are both E-mail
Addresses and Mailbox Manager policies (they have both the
Mailbox Manager Settings (Policy) tab and the E-mail
Addresses (Policy) tab), perform the following steps to remove
the mailbox manager portion of the policy:
- In Exchange System Manager, expand Recipients, and then
select Recipient Policies.
- Right-click the policy, and then select Change property
pages.
- Clear the Mailbox Manager Settings check box, and then
click OK.
Note: Don't delete any e-mail address recipient policies that have e-mail addresses that you still want defined in your organization. Exchange 2010 will use those policies when provisioning new recipients. - In Exchange System Manager, expand Recipients, and then
select Recipient Policies.
Step 2: Remove the last Exchange 2003 server from an Exchange 2010 organization
To perform the following procedure, the account you use must be delegated membership in the Exchange Full Administrator role on Exchange 2003 servers.
- Perform the following steps to delete the domain Recipient
Update Service:
- In Exchange 2003 System Manager, expand Recipients, and
then select Recipient Update Service.
- Right-click each domain Recipient Update Service, and then
select Delete.
- Click Yes.
- In Exchange 2003 System Manager, expand Recipients, and
then select Recipient Update Service.
- You won't be able to delete the Enterprise Recipient Update
Service by using Exchange 2003 System Manager. Instead, perform
the following steps to delete the Recipient Update Service
by using Active Directory Service Interfaces Editor (ADSI Edit or
AdsiEdit.msc). AdsiEdit.msc is included on the Windows Server 2003
CD in Support\Tools. For more information about ADSI Edit, see
ADSI Edit (adsiedit.msc).
- In ADSI Edit, navigate to Configuration >
CN=Configuration,CN=<domain> >
CN=Services > CN=Microsoft Exchange >
CN=<Exchange organization name> >
CN=Address Lists Container > CN=Recipient Update
Services.
- In the result pane, right-click Recipient Update Service
(Enterprise Configuration), click Delete, and then click
Yes to confirm the deletion.
- In ADSI Edit, navigate to Configuration >
CN=Configuration,CN=<domain> >
CN=Services > CN=Microsoft Exchange >
CN=<Exchange organization name> >
CN=Address Lists Container > CN=Recipient Update
Services.
- Uninstall Exchange 2003 by using Add or Remove Programs
from Control Panel. For more information, see How to Uninstall Exchange Server 2003.
Caution: Before you remove any Exchange 2003 administrative groups that contained mailboxes, verify that the public folder hierarchy has been moved to another administrative group. Also, verify that the Free/Busy public folder has replicated to the servers in other administrative groups.
The general process to create public folder replicas on servers in other administrative groups is to update the replica list for each public folder to specify the destination server. After you allow sufficient time for the data to be replicated to the destination server, verify that the public folder database is empty. To do this, use the Exchange System Manager Public Folder Instances node or use the Get-PublicFolderStatistics cmdlet. If the results are blank, the public folder database is empty. When you remove the public folder database, you may be prompted to select another public folder database to act as the site folder for administrative groups and OABs. You may also be prompted to select another public folder database to act as the default public folder database for some messaging databases. For these prompts, the site folder server represents the public folder database responsible for making sure that administrative group and OAB site folders exist. The site folder server may be any public folder database server in the organization. The site folder server doesn't delete site folders for missing administrative groups. However, the site folder server does remove site folders for missing OABs. - After the last Exchange 2003 server has been removed from the
Exchange 2010 organization, you can also remove the legacy Exchange
Domain Servers and Exchange Enterprise Servers security groups. For
more information, see Delete a group.
Caution: Before you delete either of these security groups, verify that each group is empty and isn't being used for any other purpose or process. If one or both of these groups has members, but if all members are shown as security identifiers (SIDs), the groups can be safely removed. If at least one group has members, and if the members are resolved to computer names, you should verify that the computers aren't functioning Exchange servers before you delete the groups.
Remove the last Exchange 2007 server
Removal of the last Exchange 2007 server requires that you satisfy some prerequisites and then complete a two-step process.
Prerequisites for removing the last Exchange 2007 server
- You installed one or more Exchange 2010 servers in the
organization.
- If you're removing the last Exchange 2007 server, confirm that
you don't plan to use any of the Exchange 2007 features that have
been removed in Exchange 2010. The following are some of the
features that aren't supported in Exchange 2010:
- Storage groups
- DSProxy
- Cluster continuous replication
- Single copy cluster
- Storage groups
For a complete list of the Exchange 2007 features discontinued in Exchange 2010, see Discontinued Features.
Step 1: Prepare the Exchange 2007 organization to remove legacy Exchange servers
To perform the following procedure, the account you use must be delegated membership in the Exchange Organization Administrator role on Exchange 2007 servers.
- Move all mailboxes to an Exchange 2010 server in the
organization. For more information, see Create a Local Move
Request.
- Move all content from the public folder database on the legacy
Exchange 2007 server to a public folder database on an Exchange
2010 server in the organization. For detailed steps, see Move Public Folder
Content from One Public Folder Database to Another Public Folder
Database.
- On Exchange 2007 servers, for each offline address book (OAB),
move the generation process to an Exchange 2010 server. For
detailed steps, see Move the Offline Address
Book Generation Process to Another Server.
- To remove the public folder mailbox and stores on the Exchange
2007 server, see the following topics:
- Verify that Internet mail flow is configured to route through
your Exchange 2010 transport servers. For more information, see the
following topics:
- To verify that all inbound protocol services (Microsoft
Exchange ActiveSync, Microsoft Office Outlook Web App, Outlook
Anywhere, POP3, IMAP4, Autodiscover service, and any other Exchange
Web service) are configured for Exchange 2010, see Managing Client Access
Servers.
Step 2: Remove the last Exchange 2007 server from an Exchange 2010 organization
Uninstall Exchange 2007 by using Add or Remove Programs from Control Panel. For more information, see the following topics: