I'm hoping some BES expert can point me in the right direction. I apologise in advance for the length of this message.

We have two clustered BES servers (ie. 4 servers in 2 pairs) for Exchange 2003. We are currently upgrading to Exchange 2010 and we need to consider the BES environment.

Currently BES supports are 5000 users but this will decrease to around 500 users in the next few weeks as the majority of people move to Android / iPhone devices and therefore ActiveSync.

I have read a lot about migrating the BES mailbox from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 and some of the pitfalls involved. I'd like to avoid this by doing the following:

* Creating a new pair of clustered BES servers;
* Configure those servers to work with Exchange 2010 ONLY;

This effectively gives us two BES environments - 1 for Exchange 2003 and 1 for Exchange 2010.

Once the migration of Exchange 2003 users starts, I would like to:

* Deactivate the handset on Exchange 2003 for the Blackberry user;
* Move the users mailbox from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010;
* Activate the users handset on Exchange 2010.

Can anybody tell me if this will basically work??!! And is there any potential pitfalls with doing it that they can see?

Any help at all greatly appreciated.

use transporter to move users over to the new BES, its way to easy

I will check BES Transporter out. Sounds like exactly what we are looking for!

I used it here, worked great for my migration in April.

I am researching it just now as I am writing a migration process for the entire Exchange 2010 migration. When I come to actually doing it, I will no doubt have many more questions!!

Hi,

For migrating purpose make sure you have adequate permission for the migration.
First make the new users and the respective mailboxes in the new environment using exchange tool for 2010. Then you can migrate the mailboxes to respective users.
Make sure that the new mailboxes created are based for 2010. You are just making a replica of all these mailboxes of the Exchange 2003 in the new Exchange 2010. Also make sure that the server configuration supports your migration.

Thanks

Charles, you dont have to make new users if not going to a new exchange org. you move mail boxes is all

Hi,

Thanks for the information.