How to migrate Exchange 2010 to 2013 – Part 1

• Author
• Recent Posts

Krishna Kumar

Krishna Kumar specializes in PowerShell, Exchange and Active Directory. Follow his blog SMTP Port 25.

Latest posts by Krishna Kumar (see all)

• Review of Stellar Phoenix Mailbox Exchange Recovery - Wed, Jul 22 2015
• Configure Exchange 2013 Internet mail flow during migration - Fri, Dec 27 2013
• Exchange 2013 DAG recovery in a stretched AD site – Part 2 - Wed, Dec 25 2013

Microsoft has reduced the number of server roles from its previous version of Exchange Server to just the Client Access (CAS) and Mailbox server roles. This development has made upgrades and deployment simpler and easier.

Exchange Server 2013 supports direct upgrades only from Exchange Server 2007 SP3 Rollup 10 and Exchange Server 2010 SP3. Direct upgrade from legacy Exchange Server 2003 is not supported and upgrade from exchange Server 2003 requires a two-step process: first upgrade to either Exchange Server 2007 or 2010 and then migrate to Exchange Server 2013.

Let’s understand the steps to prepare the environment for migrating from Exchange Server 2010 to 2013. (We will not cover the sizing of servers as that is beyond the scope of this article.)

Prepare Active Directory and Windows Server 2012 for Exchange Server 2013 installation as follows:

1. Upgrade all the Exchange 2010 servers to the latest service pack (SP3) and rollups.
2. Make sure the AD forest functional level, schema master, global catalog server, and domain controllers have at least Windows Server 2003.
3. To prepare Active Directory and domains for Exchange Server 2013 installation, download the latest version of Exchange Server 2013 on the Windows member server. Log in with an account that has permission to the schema, domain, and enterprise. Execute setup.exe with the parameters specified below:
   1. Prepare the schema:

      Setup.exe /prepareschema /IAcceptExchangeserverlicenseterms

      

   2. Prepare Active Directory:

      Setup.exe /prepareAD /IAcceptExchangeServerlicenseterms

      

   3. Prepare the domain:

      Setup.exe /preparedomain /IAcceptExchangeServerlicenseterms

      

4. Prepare Windows Server 2012 on 64-bit hardware for CAS and Mailbox server role installation as follows:
   1. Install Windows Server 2012 on 64-bit hardware with a minimum memory of 4 GB and 8 GB for CAS and Mailbox server roles, respectively.
   2. Make sure that the server has a minimum disk space of 50 GB.
   3. Join the server to the domain and log in with admin permission.
   4. Access the Windows shell and execute the following cmdlet to install the required Windows components:

      Install- WindowsFeature AS-HTTP-Activation, Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface, RSAT-Clustering-Mgmt, RSAT-Clustering-PowerShell, Web-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-Metabase, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-Net-Ext45, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI &Windows-Identity-Foundation

   5. Download and install Office 2010 Filter Pack 64-bit and Office 2010 Filter Pack 64-bit SP1 for the CAS role only.
   6. Download and install Unified Communications Managed API 4.0 Runtime (this is required even if you do not plan to use Unified communication).

It is recommended to introduce Exchange Server 2013 on an Internet-facing site and then on a non-Internet–facing site. We have prepared our Exchange Server 2010 with an Active Directory environment for installing Exchange Server 2013 on Windows Server 2012.

I’ll cover the installation and configuration of Exchange Server 2013 in Part 2.

Also read: Configure Exchange 2013 Internet mail flow during migration