Upgrade From Exchange 2013 To Exchange 2019

Question

dears,

I'm planning to upgrade our mail system from 2013 to 2019, so I need your help to set a plan to perform this upgrade depend on our existing environment as below :

1- Domain Server 2012 R2 .

2 - Exchange 2013 with CU22 (2 Mail Box Server with DAG) .

3 - 2 Cas Server (With Zen Load Balance ) .

4 - 1 Archiving Server for mail box.

so I need your help to perform this upgrade without stopping the existing mail system .

Answer 1

Hello,

You can see that:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/282b6f06-8831-4dfd-978a-24540c67dc6d/migrate-exchange-2013-to-2019?forum=Exch2019

Answer 2

Hi,

1. Verify the active directory forest and domain functional level - minimum windows server 2012 R2
2. Make sure, CAS servers are also in the same CU22, as the minimum CU required for coexistence is Exchange 2013 CU21 & above
3. Install the Exchange 2019 latest CU
4. Configure the certificates, URL's, connectors
5. Create a test mailbox in Exchange 2019 and test the client connectivity and mail flow (internal/external/exchange 2013)
6. Point the DNS records to the Exchange 2019 - For load balancer, both exchange 2013 & 2019 can be in the same load balanced namespace
7. Move the mailboxes in batches
8. Turn off exchange 2013 and monitor for a week - if all good, then perform the uninstallation

Please also use the Exchange deployment assistant https://assistants.microsoft.com/

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/client-connectivity-in-an-exchange-2016-coexistence-environment/ba-p/603925

For Archiving server, if its exchange, then archive mailbox can be moved along with the primary mailbox. If this a different product, then please check the supportability with Exchange 2019 and integrate accordingly

Answer 3

@Ameen Abu Saif
Hi,
In addition to Ashok’s answer,

1. Exchange 2019 doesn’t support Outlook 2010 or previous versions. Please also check this document for more information in case there are other issues: Exchange Server supportability matrix
2. You can move the mailboxes directly and don’t need to remove the Exchange 2013 DAG before and after migration.
3. It is always recommended to backup to avoid data loss before migration.

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Answer 4

Thx for your help,

-For the installation of Exchange 2019, does it need one server or two server (i mean for the role), or just two server and for DAG ?

• can i add the exchange servers 2019 on the DAG and copy the Database for the Exchange 2013 then move the mailboxes .

best regards

Answer 5

Hi Ameen,

"one server or two server "
It depends on the number of resources and users, but you can start with one and upgrade your infrastructure. But, I advise you to start with a final infrastructure before making your migrations. This way, you can do the tests (example: high availability) before migrating your users.

"can i add the exchange servers 2019 on the DAG".
Good question :) I don't know whith Exchange 2013 but 2016 yes:
https://support.microsoft.com/fr-fr/help/4488079/exchange-server-2016-allows-adding-exchange-server-2019-mailbox-server
BUT, I prefer to start with clean installation with new DAG.

Best
jmb