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Exchange 2010 Upgrade Project Scope

Background
UNCC ITS has been operating Exchange 2003 since 2004 and the customer base has since grown to over 30,000 mailboxes. As the number and size of the mailboxes increase, so do the demands on hardware. Email clients and standards change over time. Current clients are starting to have issues fully supporting Exchange 2003. With both physical servers , an enterprise virtual server service in place (VMware ESX 3.5), virtual networks and infrastructure ready to go at MCNC, ITS is in an excellent position to take advantage of the many benefits of upgrading to Exchange 2010 at MCNC. Exchange 2010 offers numerous advantages over Exchange 2003. Most of these changes are on the back-end and are designed to improve stability, performance, increase scalability, and security. Outlook Web App has been greatly enhanced to provide a richer user interface. The upgrade to Exchange 2010 will address the following items: Performance, stability and scalability Exchange 2010 backend improvements (64-bit OS, more memory, etc) promise significant performance gains. The current Exchange 2003 environment is approaching capacity and cannot be expanded without additional physical servers. Lifecycle maintenance The Exchange 2003 hardware is at end of life after running for over 5 years. Virtualizing the Exchange infrastructure ITS Virtual Server Service (VMware ESX 3.5) is now able to satisfy the virtual server requirements of Exchange 2010. Microsoft and VMware now officially support Exchange 2010 in a virtual VMware environment.

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Project Benefits
The project benefits are as follows: Improved Scalability: The specs (CPU cores, RAM and storage) can be modified in the virtual environment for the CAS, Hub, and Forefront TMG servers as the user base grows. High Availability: If a virtual server encounters an issue, the VMware interface will automatically resurrect the Exchange images on another server resulting in minimal downtime. Improved Performance: Exchange 2010 will be running on the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2008. The 64-bit environment allows the application to access more than 4GB of RAM. This will result in significant performance improvements and will have a positive impact on mailbox access times and search response times. Outlook Web App Improvements: There are a number of usability and performance improvements to the web interface including a new scheduling assistant, a document viewer (locally installed applications not required), improved security features and improved search functionality. Outlook Web App will now run on an assortment of browsers without users losing functionality. Compatibility with Latest Mac OS: Those who upgraded to the latest Mac OS X operating system which became available in August 2009 will be able to use the Mail.app application to access Exchange email. Exchange 2010 is required for this functionality.

Project Deliverables
The ITS project team will deliver: A virtual network, virtual firewall and virtual load balancer for the Exchange service. Virtual servers for the Exchange test and production environments. An Exchange 2010 and BlackBerry test environment. An Exchange 2010 and BlackBerry production environment. Application, migration and failover testing results. Any updates required on end-users computers as a result of this upgrade. Local IT may need to provide their constituents with assistance if required. The migration of faculty and staff Exchange 2003 mailboxes to Exchange 2010. The decommissioning of the old Exchange 2003 hardware.

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The following is not included in the scope of this project: Performing load tests of Exchange 2010. These tests are often inaccurate and the virtual environment can be adjusted quickly to accommodate our CAS, Hub, and Forefront TMG requirements as we begin migrating mailboxes to Exchange 2010.

Project Approach
The project approach is broken down into the following activities (at a high level): Planning and Preparation Complete the architecture planning and approach Initiate requests for Test environment Build Test Infrastructure Develop Virtual Network and Firewall Create and Configure Virtual Servers and Storage Build the Test Exchange environment (includes Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2010) Install and Configure Exchange Server and its components (note Schema changes) Document installation and configuration process Validate the Test Exchange Environment Perform limited functionality testing Perform migration testing between 2003 and 2010. Validate in-house tools and 3rd party products Build the Production Exchange environment Install and Configure Exchange Server and its components Document installation and configuration process. Test the Production Exchange Environment Perform functionality testing Perform migration testing (ITS volunteers and early adopter volunteers) Perform failover and recovery testing

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Support Documentation and Training Update internal and external support documentation Develop communication guide outlining customer impact/change Mailbox Migrations for existing Exchange 2003 customers All remaining mailboxes based on migration schedule

Project Challenges
This project as with any other will have its share of challenges: New Technology: There will be a learning curve as ITS is dealing with a number of firsts in this implementation. Running Exchange on virtual servers in a virtual network, behind a virtual firewall and virtual load balancers is new and will require careful planning and research. Apart from the infrastructure, there are also many front-end changes including a new interface for self-administration that will need to be tested. Mailbox Migration Challenges: Unfortunately, it will be impossible to test all scenarios when migrating mailboxes from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010. ITS will attempt to minimize the end-user impact as much as possible. Some known issues are that Blackberry users will need to reactivate their phones after they are migrated, and apple users will need to update their clients after migration. Thus, migrations will need to be coordinated closely with our faculty and staff. Service Interruptions: During the migration process, the project teams goal is to minimize the customer impact as much as possible, particularly in regards to Email application settings. However, there may be a requirement during the migration that customers on Exchange 2010 connect to one website for Outlook Web Access and customers on Exchange 2003 connect to another site. The transition issues are expected to be identified while building our test environment. Mailbox migrations will most likely happen overnight and customers will be asked to avoid using their mailbox during the scheduled migration window.

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Dependency Linkage
Project Name Mail Archiving Trend Antivirus IDM Email Backup Live@edu Comment Needed to mitigate storage requirements Replaces Symantec Latest version of IDM may not be compatible with Exchange 10 Backup solution required prior to begin of migration Project timeline concurrent with Exchange 10 project timeline

Project Risk
Communite: Communite is the Universitys voicemail platform and we are currently running Communite version 2.4. Based on information obtained to date, integration of Communite version 2.4 with Exchange 2010 is not a supported platform. To mitigate the risk to the integration of our messaging center platform and Exchange, we are evaluating the option to upgrade our Communite messaging center platform to version 3.0. Storage: Exchange 2010 has lower performance requirements from its disks, but it also requires more disk space. Exchange 2010 does not have Single Instance Storage like Exchange 2003 does. This means that if a message is sent to 5 people, 5 copies of the message will be stored. Under Exchange 2010, there will be two copies of each mailstore. Thus the 3TB of faculty/staff storage today will grow to more than 6TB as soon as the users are migrated to Exchange 2010.

Project Milestones
Target Date 4/9 8/20 9/1 9/23 10/18 11/1 11/1 Activity Exchange 2010 Test Environment Installed Exchange 2010 Test Environment Validated MCNC Network, Security and Server Configured for Exchange 2010 Install/Configure First Exchange 2010 CAS, Hub, TMG, Mail servers Install/Configure Remaining Exchange 2010 servers Migration Testing Complete Begin Mailbox Migration from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010

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Mail Migration Schedule

Migration Dates Department

Project Success Criteria

The Exchange Migration project will be considered successfully complete when the project objectives have been met, project tasks have been completed, milestones have been achieved and sign-offs have been obtained. Examples of critical tasks and milestones to be completed included: All project deliverables, as defined in the Project Deliverable section have been satisfactorily completed; All faculty and staff legacy 2003 mailboxes have been converted, reviewed, and approved; All required interfaces have been tested and validated; All issues and action items have been completed and signed off; All user acceptance testing has been completed and signed off.

Project Team
Project Owner:... Project Manager: Application Manager:...... Communication Manager:.. Exchange Lead:.. Network Lead:.... Security Lead:. Server Admin Lead:.... Storage Lead:.. SMC Lead:.. Tom Lamb C.E. Pierce Laura Horsky Susan Wagoner Penny Stevens Brian Fruits Toby Andrews Tom Smith Tom Boardman Ron Hagler

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