Migrating Email to SBS2003

[440sixpack]

I am looking for some advice/direction on migrating my company to SBS2003 (I am hoping RebateMonger pops in here as he writes such descriptive and helpful posts on the subject 😀).

After posting this thread, I wound up buying a Dell Poweredge 830 server, and I am now getting around to installing the trial version of SBS2003 Premium.

The part I am most concerned about is email - specifically, hosting it ourselves as opposed to using the POP3 Connector (which I don't hear too much good about around the web, except as an interim solution). I want to avoid screwing this up as, with most businesses, our email is rather critical and if something goes wrong and emails aren't getting sent, or vanishing into the ether from an outsiders point of view, well, that would be bad. 🙂

The current setup is that we have two domains registered through GoDaddy, and email/website for both domains is currently hosted by MidPhase. My business's ISP is Comcast Business, 8Mb/1Mb, Static IP. Firewall/DHCP handled by a Netgear FVS318v3 router.

What (if anything) do I need to do before beginning the SBS2003 installation? If I want to do our own email hosting using SMTP, what settings/information do I need to get/provide from our ISP or current email host? I have tried using the system installation disk Dell provides to install SBS2003, but I am having some trouble figuring out what data to pre-fill in through their interface.

I am not going to cut this server into the actual network until I am sure I have it set up right. I know some will say I should hire an expert to do this install/config, but financially that is not an option for our little business right now. 🙂 Plus I want to learn this stuff myself anyway. Thanks in advance.

 

[Genx87]

A. Are you currently running an active directory in your office? If you are, you are required to give the SBS server primary duties.
B. You will need to register your IP with the MX record of the people handling your domain.
C. I would suggest using IMAP instead of pop for primary email delivery. Allows for better sharing and keeps the emails on the server vs downloading to the client.
D. Eventually you are going to want to enable RPC over HTTPs. This can be done in a single exchange server enviornment, I would read up on it before trying.

 

[Tsaico]

Originally posted by: Genx87
A. Are you currently running an active directory in your office? If you are, you are required to give the SBS server primary duties.
B. You will need to register your IP with the MX record of the people handling your domain.
C. I would suggest using IMAP instead of pop for primary email delivery. Allows for better sharing and keeps the emails on the server vs downloading to the client.
D. Eventually you are going to want to enable RPC over HTTPs. This can be done in a single exchange server enviornment, I would read up on it before trying.

This is all correct, if a little vague.

A. AD is required to have all master roles that is transferred to the server running SBS. You can read up on how to do this at microsoft's SBS pages and knowledge base.

B. You don't NEED to register (assuming he is talking about SPF records) your server but while not required, it is a good idea to do it. As for general MX, I would suggest this, in your DNS have your 10 record poitning to your new server, the 20 pointing to the old one at the hosted site. Then make a pop3 connector to that hosted site and set it to download messages every hour or so. This will help you out, in the case your primary exchange server goes down, the hosted site will pick up the email, then when you go back on line, the connectors will down load all the mail you missed.

C. I would not suggest outlook 2003 and IMAP. If you do a search on the web, you will find lots of people have sporatic performance on IMAP and outlook 2003, including this guy here... But otherwise, I would also agree with IMAP is better than POP3. You can tell the client to not delete the file until deleted in client, but people tend to hold onto emails forever, so this isn't always a good idea. Otherwise, the standard protocol Outlook grabs info from the local exchange is fine. As as for remote users, train them to use Outlook web access.

D. RPC over https is a great thing. It is especially good for laptop clients, so they can use the same outlook2003 client like they are used to even while on the road. It can be sometimes a little tricky, and it is the suggested method of connection, but it can be really easy to mess up certificates, and it also won't work for outlook 2000 clients or workstations. It must be XP, it must be outlook 2003, and it must be sp2. Something to know if you need to support older legacy machines.

 

[RebateMonger]

I think the Dell 830 is a good choice for the organization that you described in your previous post. I have a couple of clients with them and they're working nicely.

One really simple way to get your email set up is to register a new Domain for your SBS Server. Having a separate Domain name dedicated to the SBS Server makes the initial setup much simpler for those without DNS setup experience. Having a separate SBS Domain name also allows testing without interfering with your public domains.

Note: having a different domain name just for your SBS Server has NO effect on the email addresses that you can host on that SBS Server.

1) Register a new public Domain name with Godaddy.

2) Go into GoDaddy's DNS setup screens and point all the DNS records to the IP address of your SBS Server. Then delete all of Godaddy's default host records and just leave one:
---- mydomain.com
Then point your MX record for the Domain to "mydomain.com".
This will allow you to access your Remote Web Workplace and Outlook Web Access by just typing: http://mydomain.com/remote or http://mydomain.com/exchange

3) Create a Reverse DNS record for your IP address. Your ISP normally does this for you. You can use "mydomain.com" as the record name. If you don't have some sort of RDNS entry, then some mailservers will reject your emails.

4) When setting up SBS 2003, use "mydomain.com" as the Fully Qualified Domain Name of your SBS Server.

5) Run the "Connect to the Internet Connection Wizard" on SBS to enable the firewall and to start Internet connectivity.

You now should be able to send and receive email to your Exchange Server. Note that, by default, all email addresses will be "xxxxx@mydomain.com". You can test things and make sure mail is flowing in and out before you actually enable your REAL email Domain.

If you have problems, go to http://dnsreport.com and check your domain, looking for problems with the settings.

Play with things, like the CompanyWeb, Exchange, and the other playthings. Now, ERASE the hard drive and start over with a re-install, because, by now, you have probably messed something up. Now RE-INSTALL and reconfigure SBS and do it right this time. 😉

Blog on SBS 2003 setup.

Once you are happy with Exchange, you can now divert your real mail to it:

1) Go into the "Default Recipient Policy" of Exchange and create new smtp addresses:
@domain1.com
@domain2.com
Depending on your default email naming conventions, you may want to modify those new policies to automatically create email addresses like:
firstname+lastname@mydomain1.com
firstinitial+lastname@mydomain1.com
Also, set ONE of these SMTP email templates to be the DEFAULT return address for your users. You can only have ONE return address in Outlook when using an Exchange Server.

2) Create any additional, special, email addresses needed for each user. Do this in the "Users" properties Email panel.

3) Finally, go to Godaddy.com and change the MX records for your other two domains to "mydomain.com". Within a few hours, email addressed to "xxxx@mydomain1.com" and "xxxx@mydomain2.com" will be flowing into your Exchange Server.

Migrating your old mail is really easy. Dump it into a .PST format and then just load it into your Outlook 2003 Exchange profile. It'll be automatically transferred to your Exchange mailbox on the Server. If you have more than 200MB of mail to transfer, you'll want to go into Exchange and turn OFF the mailbox size limits, at least temporarily. You can check out the Exchange Help area on SBS to see how to do this.

Also, don't forget to update Exchange to Service Pack 2, to take advantage of many improvements. It's great with the new WM5 SmartPhones.

 

[netsysadmin]

440sixpack.....what are the specs of that Dell 830? Unless you are running some form of RAID (Prefferably Hardware) and a reliable tape backup I would not try to host your own email. If that server fails you will have no email for a while. For some reason that seems to be the one thing that a company does not want to lose!! I am not saying dont do it, just be sure you have some redundant systems that will keep you from going down.

John

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: netsysadmin
I am not saying dont do it, just be sure you have some redundant systems that will keep you from going down.

As netsysadmin notes, make sure you have good, ongoing backups of your Server. Once you get your trial version working would be a good time to see if you can do a total restore of the system from your backups. If you can't do that, now's the time to learn!

On the positive side, I't be REALLY unusual for a properly-maintained SBS 2003 Server go down hard. I monitor the Yahoo SBS forums, where many SBS specialists hang out, and I don't remember EVER seeing anybody having a server just "go down hard". Pay attention to the daily Performance Reports, quickly fix any reported problems, use RAID 1 or RAID 5, keep good backups, and it's unlikely the SBS Server will ever be down for any significant time. Worst case, I can usually do a full restore on an SBS Server in 3 hours. IF I have a recent backup, that is.....

If you want, there are backup email servers which will grab your incoming email and store it until your Exchange Server goes back online. But, since most external mailservers will try to reach you for two or three days before giving up, it's pretty tough to lose email this way.

 

[440sixpack]

Wow, a lot to absorb here, thank you all for such thorough replies. 🙂 :beer: A little intimidating for a networking n00b like me but ya gotta start somewhere I guess.

Couple details I forgot/were requested:

Current network is just peer-to-peer, with a handful of workstations/laptops, a couple printers - the normal stuff for a small business. So it's a fresh start when we move to AD/Client-server setup.

Specs on the Dell:
3.0GHz Pentium D 930
2GB RAM
2 160GB drives in RAID 1 on the Dell CERC SATA RAID Card (turns out they're Maxtor drives, blech)
2 NICS
For backup we've got two external hard drives that will be alternately swapped out weekly.

RebateMonger, that's a GREAT idea to get a new domain to begin with - we were looking to register another one soon anyway, and it would be helpful to be able to figure this stuff out live, without interrupting current operations. Then by the time I've got this all figured out SBS2003 R2 should be ready, and maybe I can do the "real" build of the network on that.

I'm sure I'll have more specific questions as I start trying this stuff, but thank you again all of you for the help. 🙂

 

[alent1234]

what's the point of using POP or IMAP with Exchange unless you don't have the space to host the database

management is alot easier if all email stays in the database file and use MAPI to access email

 

[440sixpack]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

One really simple way to get your email set up is to register a new Domain for your SBS Server. Especially if you won't be hosting your company's public web site on SBS.

How does hosting our own website affect this? For now I do plan to leave our website (very low traffic) on a hosting service, but I would like to move it in house eventually. Both (or all three, in the future) domains will be pointing to the same website.

2) Go into GoDaddy's DNS setup screens and point all the DNS records to the IP address of your SBS Server.

Okay here's another thing I have seen a couple places, and I am a bit confused by. We do have a static IP, and right now the setup is internet-->Cisco uBR900 cable modem-->Netgear FVS318v3 router. The router is assigned the static IP.

Even through I plan on using ISA 2004, I would like to keep the router between the modem and the server, just for another layer of protection. From what I've read, a server with a two NIC setup should have the static IP assigned to the external NIC. What IP address do I assign to the router in this case? They can't both have the same IP address, can they?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: 440sixpack
How does hosting our own website affect this? For now I do plan to leave our website (very low traffic) on a hosting service, but I would like to move it in house eventually. Both (or all three, in the future) domains will be pointing to the same website.

That's not a problem. Just point your web site DNS records, "mydomain1.com", "www.mydomain1.com", "mydomain2.com" and "www.mydomain2.com", to your SBS Server's public IP address.

From what I've read, a server with a two NIC setup should have the static IP assigned to the external NIC. What IP address do I assign to the router in this case? They can't both have the same IP address, can they?

Example:
Assign the LAN side of your Router IP address: 10.0.0.1/255.255.255.0
Assign the "Internet" NIC of your SBS Server IP address: 10.0.0.2/255.255.255.0
That puts the on the same subnet.

Now, plug the SBS Server's "Internet NIC" into the router's LAN port. Then "port forward" all the critical SBS ports (TCP Ports 25, 80, 443, 444, 1723, 3389, 4125) to the SBS NIC at 10.0.0.2

 

[440sixpack]

Got it. Thanks RM, you rock. :beer: