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We currently have a domain with two AD sites. Site A has one Exchange 2010 server which currently holds all the mailboxes. I set up the new site, Site B, and it is connected via site-to-site VPN. Site B has one new Exchange 2010 server and zero mailbox databases as of now.

I did set up a mailbox database on Site B server and moved a test user's mailbox from Site A server to make sure that the mailbox move feature works, and then quickly deleted it after verifying that.

The goal is to keep the same DNS info (autodiscover, MX, OWA, etc) but to migrate the mailboxes and public folders from Site A server to Site B server, and then decommission the Site A server.

What would be the best way to achieve this without causing interruption in mail service?

EDIT: The current plan is to switch DNS to point to the new Site B server and then slowly migrate the mailboxes over to it as well. The main concern is that the server in Site A will continue trying to send mail for clients and will be rejected because the DNS will no longer be configured correctly for it. The second concern is that Outlook clients will need to be reconfigured to point to the new server's hostname.

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Steps to move Exchange 2010 servers to the new AD Site:

  • Open the AD Sites & Services console and select the Subnets folder.
  • Right click the Subnets folder and select New Subnet. Add the individual IP addresses of the Exchange 2010 servers with a /32 prefix. Assign the IP addresses to the RTL AD site.
  • Add the individual IP addresses of the Exchange 2010 DAG with a /32 prefix. Assign the IP addresses to the new AD site.
  • Add the Exchange 2010 DAG IP Addresses with a /32 prefix and assign to the new AD Site.

Foe more refer to this blog

Best practices on how to move Exchange Server Safely with minimum downtime. http://msexchangeteam.in/moving-exchange-server-2010-from-an-active-directory-site/

Moreover, you may also get help from this Exchange migration solution to move user mailboxes and public folders between exchange server environment.

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What I ended up doing was:

  1. Configure AD sites for Site A and Site B.
  2. Installed Exchange 2010 SP1 on Windows 2008 R2 machine in Site B. Applied SP2 and SP3.
  3. Site A server is configured with mail.domain.com so I configured site B server with mail2.domain.com.
  4. Added MX record with lower priority for mail2.domain.com. Ensured that my SPF record contained the mx parameter.
  5. Enabled Site B server's receive connectors. Created new send connectors and associated only Site B server to those (in addition to existing ones). Ensured connectivity between the two Exchange servers.
  6. Created a mailbox on Site A server, added account to Outlook. Moved mailbox to Site B, continued working with it and ensuring it could send/receive internally/externally. Ensured that outgoing mails were routed through the Site B server and that SPF checks passed.
  7. Ran connectivity tests at https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/
  8. Moved all mailboxes to Site B server and decommissioned Site A server.
  9. Changed CAS and Transport URLs back to mail.domain.com and restarted Site B server.

Zero downtime and the only thing users had to do was restart Outlook after their mailbox was moved. In my case, over a site-to-site VPN tunnel between NY (Site A) and Virginia (Azure East US/Site B), it took about 15-16 hours to move two 21 GB mailboxes.

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