How to Perform a Clean Upgrade of an Exchange 2000 Cluster to Exchange Server 2003
To perform a clean upgrade of an Exchange 2000 cluster to Exchange Server 2003, you must evict and rebuild each node one node at a time. On a cluster, your existing Exchange Virtual Server(s) can be preserved and upgraded even if you need to clean install Windows Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003. It is recommended that you read and understand all of the steps and issues thoroughly before beginning this upgrade process.
Before You Begin
It is recommended that you have a full and complete backup of the entire cluster, including the System State and the Exchange data, before performing the following procedures. In the following example, an Active/Passive cluster is being upgraded, where Node1 is the passive node and Node2 is the active node. Before performing this procedure, please be aware of the following issues:
This procedure can only be used to upgrade Active/Passive clusters. It cannot be used to upgrade Active/Active clusters.
After an upgraded Exchange Virtual Server and other cluster resources come online, a full population will begin on all full-text indexes and the indexes will be disabled for searching. To avoid this you can manually start, and then pause, a full or incremental population on all full-text indexes on the server prior to upgrading the Exchange Virtual Server. If the indexes are already paused when you upgrade, they will remain paused and the upgrade will finish normally. After you have finished upgrading, you can manually resume building the indexes when it is convenient to do so. Once the indexes have been built, you can enable searching on the newly built indexes.
Once an Exchange Virtual Server is upgraded it cannot be run on a node with older versions of Windows and/or Exchange. If anything happens to the upgraded node during this time, it has no passive node to fail to. To reduce the risk of downtime, upgrade the second node soon as possible after upgrading the first. The risk of downtime is increased the longer the Exchange Virtual Server has only one node available to run on.
Workflow, virus scanning, event sinks, and any other applications that are installed on the existing server will need to be reinstalled and re-configured. Make sure all applications you are planning to bring forward are compatible with the newer versions of Windows and Exchange.
Any feature that is enabled by setting a registry key (such as journaling) will not be carried forward with this upgrade procedure. Any customization, performance tuning, or manually set or altered registry key will not be persisted using this upgrade method. These will need to be manually reset.
Procedure
To perform a clean upgrade of an Exchange 2000 cluster to Exchange Server 2003
Evict the passive node and rebuild it. To do this:
Make sure the Exchange Virtual Server and all cluster resource groups are running on Node2.
From Node2, use Cluster Administrator to stop the Cluster service on Node1 and then evict Node1 from the cluster.
On Node1, format the local disk and perform a clean install of Windows Server 2003. Then install the latest Service Pack for Windows Server 2003, and any additional updates from Windows Update.
Rejoin Node1 to the cluster.
On Node1, perform a clean install of Exchange Server 2003. Then install the latest Service Pack for Exchange Server 2003, and any additional updates.
Configure the Windows services for running in a cluster. To do this:
On Node1, set the Distributed Transaction Service startup type to Manual.
If you are using POP3 or IMAP4, set the startup type for these services to Manual. If you are not using these services consider setting the startup type for these services to Disabled.
If you are using Microsoft Search please see the note above for special instructions.
On Node2, take the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant resource offline, which will take all other Exchange resources offline.
Upgrade the Exchange Virtual Server. To do this:
Move the offline Exchange Virtual Server to the newly rebuilt Node1.
On Node1, right click the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant resource and select Upgrade Exchange Virtual Server.
Because the upgraded Exchange Virtual Server cannot be failed over to run on the older version node (Node2), you should remove Node2 from the Possible Owners for the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant resource.
Bring the upgraded Exchange Virtual Server online.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the passive node (Node2). Running Exchange setup on Node2 should add Node2 back as a possible owner for the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant resource. After both nodes have been upgraded to Windows Server 2003, additional nodes can be added to the cluster.