Mailbox Moves – 2003, 2007 & 2010 Exchange Servers…

I have seen a number of questions in discussion forums regarding the tools to move mailboxes from different versions of Exchange to 2010 and what the pros & cons are. Below is a snapshot of the points to be considered while thinking about moving mailboxes.

Exchange 2003 to 2010

• You need to use “move request” cmdlets in 2010 shell to move the mailboxes.
• You can’t use 2003 System Manager.
• The mailbox move is offline, which means that the users can’t access the emails while it is moved.
• You can’t move mailboxes from Exchange 2003 SP1 or earlier, the source should run 2003 SP2+

Exchange 2007 to 2010

• You can use 2010 console or “move request” cmdlets in 2010 shell to move the mailboxes.
• You can’t use “move-mailbox” cmdlet in 2007 shell.
• The mailbox move is online, which means that the users can be online while the move happens.
• You can’t move mailboxes from 2007 SP1 or earlier, the source should run 2007 SP2+

Exchange 2010 to 2003

• You need to use “move request” cmdlets in 2010 shell to move the mailboxes.
• You can’t use 2003 System Manager.
• The mailbox move is offline, which means that the users can’t access the emails while it is moved.
• If the mailbox on 2010 has an archive mailbox attached, it should be disabled before the mailbox move.

Exchange 2010 to 2007

• You need to use “move request” cmdlets in 2010 shell to move the mailboxes.
• You can’t use “move-mailbox” cmdlet in 2007 shell.
• The mailbox move is offline, which means that the users can’t access the emails while it is moved.
• You can’t move mailboxes to 2007 SP1 or earlier, the target should run 2007 SP2+
• If the mailbox on 2010 has an archive mailbox attached, it should be disabled before the mailbox move.

In short, always use Exchange 2010 tools to move the mailboxes irrespective of the source and target.