Forum Discussion
Upgrade from Exchange 2013 CU23 to Exchange 2019 CU14
Hi all,
I'm in the process of upgrading or Exchange infrastructure from 2013 CU23 (Hybrid) to 2019 CU 14. A really long time without making Exchange Upgrades... so just want to confirm some things.
Doing just the initial Setup/installing of Exchange Server 2019 on our AD does not break anything with the current Exchange 2013 config and connections from users right? to that point there are no changes for the users and it's safe? just confirming.
I'm using the 'Exchange Deployment Assistant' for this upgrade, and I assume that installing exchange 2019 doesn't brake anything of the current config because everything will still be pointing out to EX2013 until I change it, but want to make sure.
Any additional tips, is welcomed for the upgrade process.
Thanks in advance.
4 Replies
- How did you go with this?
I am in the unfortunate position of needing to do this also.
I just discovered the delayed mail issue the hard way; I had no idea it was coming.
I have activated the pause for the full 90 days.
we have.
- MS365 hosting user mailboxes.
- 2 x MB servers both 2013 exchange on 2012r2 - onprem / vmware
These transit all traffic from MS365 to and from an external agency.
- 2 x edge servers both are 2013 exchange on 2012r2 – Azure.
- 2012r2 schema
- an old virtual load balancer – onprem / vmware
- a physical cisco mail security appliance
and just for fun all mail is routed through an external agency which I don’t have eyes on, they have firewall rules in place and possibly a load balancer that redirects our public facing edge ip's over to on prem - this part I am not sure about yet.
The plan was to
- insert 2 new DC’s and deco the old ones,
- Uplift the schema.
- Build 4 new exchange servers in Azure 2 x MB and 2 x Edge
- Build a new virtual LB in Azure (~ Kemp)
I was in the process of upgrading the schema first, the last DC that is on 2012r2 refuses to go quietly, when offline all external mail stops, but I have not yet found out why, possibly that external agencies DNS is pointing only to the old DC.
There are a lot of grey areas that I am not sure about, building the new VM’s in Azure is the easy part, making everything talk is where I expect issues.HIiDeman30 ,
I'm still in the process of documenting and preparing all for the upgrade, trying to take my time to make things the right way, with best practices and without downtime or at least with any meaningful impact, I'll let you know how it when when finished, probably in the next 1 or 2 weeks.
About your infrastructure, I see you have a lot of things to consider, so plan well in advance.
By the way. Exchange 2019 support your DCs on 2012R2 in case you don't want to mix so many things, you can do it later. Your Forest and Domain Level should be at least at 2012 R2 too and you Exchange 2013 version should be CU23.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/plan-and-deploy/system-requirements?preserve-view=true&view=exchserver-2019#network-and-directory-server-requirements-for-exchange-2019
We don't have a Edge Server, we have a 3rd party appliance, but I'm considering installing one right now because Microsoft does not support/recommend having anything between OnPre and M365.
helloRicardoGDR ,
We are about doing exactly the same, the only difference is we have installed exchange 2019 CU13.
Installing exchange 2019 doesn't Brake anything from your exchange 2013 config. We have already installed two 2019s and everything continues to work.
We have moved two mailboxes to the 2019s and the only thing is not working is outlook anywhere. I believe outlook anywhere is still pointing to the old 2013s . Apart from that I can access my Mailbox ( I moved mine to 2019) send and receive mails is fine.
Regards!
Thanks for the information Frankie380 , exactly what I need it to hear.
Thanks for the detailes information about your tests.
Have a great day.
