Network World: Windows Server 2008 potholes snag Exchange, in-place upgrades

February 26 2008

Yet another chapter in the tale of Microsoft products tied too tightly together...here comes the next fork lift...

Users planning to run Microsoft Exchange on Windows Server 2008 and those contemplating in-place upgrades of the new server operating system coming out next week may face installation problems unless they heed specific advice from Microsoft.

The vendor is already warning users that the RTM version of Exchange 2007 cannot be installed on Windows Server 2008 and that it is impossible to do an in-place upgrade to Windows Server 2008 on a server running Exchange 2007 SP1.

Microsoft also has said "rolling upgrades" of failover clusters for Exchange are impossible.  

Microsoft has published three migration options, including one long set of steps around off-loading data, uninstalling and reinstalling numerous Exchange components.
OK, let me get this straight.  We have to uninstall server applications, upgrade the server OS, and then reinstall those applications.  Is there a way to roll back the server upgrade and go back to previous state?  Words in brackets added by me:
Microsoft officials say in-place upgrades are not considered a best practice [for Microsoft products]  and that most large IT shops do thorough testing before deployment. ...

In addition, Hinrichs said Windows Server 2008 installs will likely [hopefully] be done on new hardware or hardware wiped clean for new installs.
Sounds like much fun.

Link: Network World: Windows Server 2008 potholes snag Exchange, in-place upgrades >

Ed Brill München, Bayern, Deutschland Category:  Microsoft  Add/View Comments [25]

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  1. 1  Colin Williams  | 2/26/2008 5:48:36 PM

    Stop it Ed, you'll give me nightmares!!! (as I sit here seriously contemplating a change in job and subsequent

    switch to running an entirely Exchange environment).

  1. 2  Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 2/26/2008 6:07:59 PM

    Remember the eWeek article, Exchange Equals Profit?

    { Link }

    Here ya go, haven't Microsoft just proven that article true?

    So, if a customer has recently 'upgraded' (in the loose sense of the word) to Exchange 2007, they've already moved data from one server to another (times x number of servers). And now if they want to upgrade to Windows 2008, they have to move stuff again, x times.

    Now, we all know that Microsoft keep fairly quiet about Exchange Next (anyone wanna clear this up?) - the smart money is on a SQL Server version. Will that be a straight in-place upgrade. I'd stick £100 on "no". So that will be another rip-and-replace. Anyone counting? I'm running out of fingers on this hand.

  1. 3  Jim Casale  | 2/26/2008 7:02:25 PM

    I will have to bring this tidbit of information up at our next "Exchange Migration Feasibility Meeting".

    So far to match the clustering abilities of Domino we have looked at

    Windows Clusters (Manual Failover)

    Doubletake/Neverfail (Difficult manual Failback?)

    Windows 2008 GeoClustering (Do I trust it? - still active passive?)

    Teneros (Oh Pleeeasse. A Linux box running 2 virtualized Windows servers - still not automatic failover to DR site)

    The best way I can describe Teneros (which at this point is considered the front runner to replace Domino) - It's like buying a new car and having a tow truck hooked up to your front end while you drive so that, when the engine dies, you can still drive the car)

  1. 4  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 2/26/2008 9:29:23 PM

    Mmmmmmm... "feeding frenzy"

  1. 5  Keith Brooks http://lotustech.blogspot.com | 2/26/2008 9:58:09 PM

    Excellent news. I should have added this to my list in linkedin { Link }

  1. 6  Stuart McIntyre http://blog.collaborationmatters.com | 2/26/2008 11:18:22 PM

    And there was I thinking that many customers consider it a benefit that Microsoft own both the application and OS stacks, and thus have the ability to integrate the two in a seamless manner...

    You really do have to wonder when customers will finally get the message regarding the rip'n'replace attitude that pervades the Redmond portfolio?

  1. 7  Lars Olufsen http://www.olufsphere.com | 2/27/2008 2:39:26 AM

    It's a steady job with a steady income running Exchange!

    But what an effect this will have on any business case, not to mention risk reports.

  1. 8  Lars Olufsen http://www.olufsphere.com | 2/27/2008 2:39:27 AM

    It's a steady job with a steady income running Exchange!

    But what an effect this will have on any business case, not to mention risk reports.

  1. 9  Flemming Riis  | 2/27/2008 3:31:10 AM

    -Microsoft officials say in-place upgrades are not considered a best practice [for Microsoft products] and that most large IT shops do thorough testing before deployment. ...

    Bingo.

  1. 10  Ed Brill http://pwww.edbrill.com | 2/27/2008 3:44:31 AM

    Flemming, I am not suggesting incompetence, just that MS shops have to work harder to do this kind of stuff.

  1. 11  Henny Breijer  | 2/27/2008 3:45:05 AM

    Is also blogged on the MS-Exchange Team Blog ->

    { Link }

    -Henny

  1. 12  Debbie Farley  | 2/27/2008 7:14:30 AM

    We are in the middle of evaluating our email platform and our CIO is seriously considering moving away from Domino to an all Microsoft platform. (To make things easier) This information has gone into my presentation for our review meeting this week.

  1. 13  Philip Storry http://www.not-so-rapid.com | 2/27/2008 7:34:49 AM

    Um...

    What the heck does thorough testing have to do with in-place upgrading?

    Are they suggesting that for products that can be in-place upgraded, nobody bothers testing?

    That's the lamest attempt at mitigation/misdirection I've ever seen...

  1. 14  Bill Brown  | 2/27/2008 8:04:17 AM

    @13 Agreed. We have testing servers. We test there. We test our custom applications. We test for integration with our portal. Once we know that there are no issues, we upgrade the production servers.

    Maybe the Microsoft way it to buy new servers to test on, and then just declare them as the new production servers. Must be nice to have that kind of money... Oh yeah, you're already sending several limbs to Redmond to pay for licensing, what's a few more dollars/euros/pesos for new servers for testing/migrating.

    Our test servers are all equipment that had seen prior service in production and was replaced. Our team has a habit of snarfing other teams' surplus for our test environment. We even managed to snarf a rack to house our test servers.

    We used to have an Associate Director whose loved using the phrase "Squeeze a nickel until the buffalo farts."

  1. 15  Danny Lawrence  | 2/27/2008 8:58:43 AM

    @14 My feeling is that your situation is the more common one in IT shops, and in fact several IT management types (not of the pointy-hair variety) that I've worked for/with insist on it, the assumption being that the test environment should be less powerful than the real one because it doesn't have the load generated by real users.

  1. 16  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 2/27/2008 9:26:28 AM

    @11 - The link you want to the Exchange Team's write up on this issue, including links to documentation to work around the problem, is here: { Link } .

  1. 17  Mark Hughes  | 2/27/2008 10:07:22 AM

    RSS Feeds from your site no longer update in the notes 8.0.1 client. They did for about a week then stopped yesterday. I have removed it and added it back, still nothing. Now i will try subscribing from the new subscribe to feed button in Notes.

    Any Ideas?

  1. 18  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 2/27/2008 10:30:02 AM

    @17 I broke the feed myself last week when I used the accents in the title of the last blog entry from my Mexican vacation. I have removed those, though, and thought things were working again. Anyone?

  1. 19  Bill Geimer  | 2/27/2008 11:08:08 AM

    @18 no, I give up. I unsubscribed from your blog, changed proxy servers, added it new, but that only got me as far as 92 Feb and Lotus Notes and Domino 8.0.1 channel announcement. Notes 8.0.1 RSS uses the same proxy that firefox uses from the same PC but gets different results. I wonder what the Shift - Ctrl Refresh button is in Notes 8?

  1. 20  Kevin Mort  | 2/27/2008 11:08:09 AM

    @18 - Seems to work...it hasn't yet picked up the Munich entry but this one shows up.

  1. 21  Mark Hughes  | 2/27/2008 1:57:19 PM

    What Munich entry? ;-)

  1. 22  Bill Geimer  | 2/27/2008 2:22:59 PM

    19 redo: 18 Feb 2008: Lotus Notes and Domino 8.0.1 channel announcement. When I press the Refresh Feeds icon, the display on the bottom line shows the replication display, but nothing newer comes out. Four other RSS blog feeds work correctly though. Something must be amiss on my workstation. I wonder if there is a notes.ini parm like DelayBrillBlog=9?

  1. 23  Mike Brown  | 2/27/2008 8:55:53 PM

    A related (Microsoft publicity piece that is passed of as a) story PC Pro, concerning the release of Windows Server 2008, opens with this paragraph:

    "Microsoft has launched Windows Server 2008 with a warning that IT managers are currently spending most of their time running to stand still."

    Without a trace of irony, the Microsoft boy goes on to bemoan that "80% of IT spend is on maintaining existing systems".

    No s**t?

    As somebody points out on the comments thread, it really should say "80% of IT spend is on maintaining existing Microsoft based systems".

    { Link }

  1. 24  Tony S Lee  | 2/28/2008 6:10:47 AM

    @23 That "article" is why I rarely go to "news" sources to get info anymore. They seem to be opinion pieces by the vendor.

  1. 25  Kevin Mort  | 2/28/2008 10:11:24 AM

    @23 - Exactly Mike. That's too funny. Someone hit the dude with the Mr. Obvious stick.

    Every day I find more reasons not to use their stuff if I can avoid it, as well as finding more reasons why I could make a bundle supporting/consulting on it. ; )