My torn data pages - Migration

I've been holding this one off for quite some time, but finally bit the bullet... migrate the server.Coming from Windows Small Business Server 2003 (32-bit) going to Windows Server 2008 with Exchange 2007 (both x64), including transferring the web site. There were a few nasty pieces in the process and I didn't have/take the time/resources to test it all though before jumping in... so I got a disruption of about one hour for the blog and inbound smtp.

First issue I encountered was the installation of the server, which I ordered from Dell without operating system. I am a Microsoft Action Pack subscriber, so I slammed the 64-bit Windows Server from the Action Pack on the system, entered the Product Key and then went on to phone based activation. After putting in the last confirmation code and pushing the next button... my activation wasn't accepted!!! ... to cut a long story short, after dozens of voice menu selections and 4 persons, I found the guy who could help me out: Philip. Though it still toke Philip and me about 20 minutes to find the actual problem... I wasn't an Action Pack subscriber anymore!!! Technical story here, but it happened when Action Pack was integrated more tightly with the Partner Program. Somehow I didn't complete the Action Pack renewal transaction completely in February, but the partner site didn't show that (it only showed I'm still good for the Partner Program).

Couple of days later, I could go ahead with the migration process. It turned out to be easier than I expected after I found a very useful document about Upgrading Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2007. Some pointers on using the document though;

• Transferring the the other FSMO's (Schema Master is described); Determining FSMO Role Holders
• With Windows Server 2008 you NEED the Exchange 2007 SP1 DVD, Exchange 2007 without SP1 will not pass installation checks.
• Section Migrate mail send does not cover migrate mail receive. This caused me a bit of downtime... The issue was
  SMTP error from remote mail server after MAIL FROM:<abcd@efg.hi> SIZE=2703:
  host abcdef.ghi [10.10.10.10]: 530 5.7.1 Client was not authenticated
  And can be solved in the following manner in Exchange Management Console:
  • Go to the Server Configuration, Hub Transport. Select your server and add Anonymous to the Default SERVERNAME Receive Connector. While you're there, you can increase receiving message size here too.

And there were parts I did different;

• I continue to rely on Vamsoft's ORF for the anti-spam. Version 4.3 is fully compatible with Windows Server 2008 and Exchange 2007 and an ease to configure.
• Since I will continue the same DNS name for OWA and Windows mobile Active Sync, I transferred the Self-signed certificate from the SBS2003 (find it in your IIS, web site, directory security tab) to the new server.

My other bit of downtime was the blog... simply copy from the old server to the new one didn't cut it. So I downloaded the latest release of dasBlog from Codeplex, copied it into the virtual director of new server. Next I had to;

• Copy my own theme
• Compare (and adjust) the \SiteConfig files
• Transfer \Content files and \Logs files
• Make sure the account running the Application Pool has read on all dasBlog folders and change on \SiteConfig, \Content and \Logs.
• The Application Pool is running in Classic Managed Pipeline Mode

Guess I can say I didn't plan for the blog to be upgraded... that just had to happen.