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| Toll Free: +44 800 088 5522 How to Tackle Exchange 2003 to 2010 Migration Routing Issues?
Exchange 2010 has come with complete different set of features providing the optimum experience for email communication. And thus many users are trying to upgrade to the advance version from Exchange 2003 and 2007. But to clarify the scene, the up-gradation is not as easy as it sounds. There is no way to simply enter a program installation DVD and upgrade the Exchange Server. In addition to this there are many Exchange 2003 to 2010 migration routing issues which are troublesome to overcome.
Microsoft has completely different way to upgrade the Exchange version and this process is known as “Transition”. And this implies that you need to prepare your available Windows domain and Exchange Organization for Exchange 2010 server migrate data to it and remove the old Exchange 2003 server.
Exchange 2003 to 2010 Coexistence:
“Software Assurance” by Microsoft is a must for the up-gradation and you will need to buy the Exchange 2010 Base product either Standard or Enterprise with a client access license. Let’s take a practical example, when certain enterprise is upgrading its Exchange server, the first challenge which arrives is what to do with old data and how to migrate it to Exchange 2010. And thus as a middle solution the decision of working with both the Exchange 2003 and 2010 is taken at least for some period of time.
However this coexistence has a major drawback of improper data exchange between two different servers. It has been noted that messages between Exchange 2003 and 2010 is not properly delivered. This might be result of many causes which can be probable reason for such kind of inconvenience but this section will talk about the most common and major reason.
Glitches for Exchange Coexistence
Negligence and malpractices on Exchange Server 2003 configuration results into the failure of message transfer. When you realize that there is some issue in message delivery, you should immediately check the queue in Exchange 2003 server. If it shows many messages with pending delivery with status “retry” then there is seriously some issue with the routing group connector which is automatically configured while adding advance version of Exchange to the existing one. These Exchange 2003 to 2010 migration routing issues dilute the connectivity between two platforms.
How Routing of Messages Occurs?: When you install the first Exchange 2010 hub transport server, the existing Exchange 2003 server is prompted by installation wizard. The new routing group connector uses it as bridgehead server. Entire Exchange 2010 servers are part of same routing group and uses AD sites for routing. As soon as the installation of first Exchange 2010 hub transport is done, mail can be transferred between Exchange 2003 and 2010 with this routing group connector.
What Blocks the Message Flow: For more secured internal Exchange environment these SMTP gateway devices is being used by many enterprises. In case of any usage of smart host like third party appliance, hosting solution, edge transport, etc. occurs; it can break the SMTP communication. This means that if while configuring Exchange 2003 server smart host were used to route mail, it can possibly break the SMTP communications with Exchange server 2010.
Work Around For Routing Issues
You can overcome this issue by creating a new SMTP connector with some configuration settings. This remedy process described below can allow your messages flow between Exchange Server 2003 to 2010 avoiding any Exchange 2003 to 2010 migration routing issues.
The first step is to create a new SMTP connector for the routing group
Step 1: Create a new SMTP connector for routing group. This can be done by going to Exchange System Manager;
Go to Administrative Groups>> Desired Administrative Group>> Routing Groups>> Connectors >> Right-click to New>> Click SMTP Connector
Note: Exchange organization must be configured to display routing groups and administrative group
Step 2: Go to General tab of the small window popped-up. Provide the name to connector. Enable the option of “Forward all mail through this connector to the following smart host” from the smart host value. Now add the default SMTP Virtual Server as local bridgehead for connector.
Step 3: Go to the Address Space tab and here SMTP address space should be provided as * with its cost. Also provide the connector scope as Entire organization or Routing Group.
You can also check for other settings if you require any other settings to be changed. Moreover, remove the smart host configuration and check if now the mail flow is now okay or not. One more thing is supposed to be done; you will have to ass Send Connector for Exchange 2010 hub transport. When Send Connector is working, you can remove the SMTP connector created by you. And thus mail flow for mail Exchange Server 2003 will go through routing group connector and out the Send Connector.
In case you are still having the Exchange 2003 to 2010 migration routing issues or in case you are not aware of the Exchange configuration settings, then you can go for a shorter and quicker online available third party tool like Exchange Recovery which is capable to migrate the databases from old versions to advance versions.
