We need to migrate our exchange data to an in-house server

We use 3rd part exchange hosting company.   On domain is on an
exchange 2000 server and has 10 mailboxes.   We are having major
problems with our exchange hosting company.   They have horrible
uptime, and are always making mistakes with end up costing us
thousands of dollars.

We want to migrate to an in-house exchange server, but we want to take
all the acct data and other data with us.

We are not ordinary exchange users.  We use public folder discussions,
custom views, assigning of tasks, and meeting invites very heavily.  
We use every little feature of exchange you can think of.

It would not work to just load the data into 10 PST files (we have 10
mailboxes) and upload it to a new server (in a new domain).

We would lost the link in these areas (and more)
-	The link between posters in conversation in the public folders
-	The link and permissions between post in various public folders
-	The link between Tasks that have been assigned and their assigners
-	The link between upcoming meetings and those people that have
accepted and those that haven’t yet.
-	Out users have built up extensive “.nk2” files. These are stored
locally in the users profile.  This is for the auto-filling of email
addresses.  Might be called auto-complete.  We will copy this file
over to the new profile, but we need to stick, i.e. any links need to
be maintained.  It might not use links, so this might not matter.

I was told that the proper way to do this was to connect to the Active
directory of the hosting company and suck down the acct info, and then
migrate the exchange data.  The hosting company will not let us do
this since it violates their security policy and since there are 4
other domains with users on that server.  One of those 4 is another
domain we control for a separate 4-person group in our organization,
but the others are other organizations.

Have 2 questions:

1 . How can we suck down our accts and exchange data onto an in-house
exchange 2000 server and maintain the links and make it an almost
seamless migration for our users.  We need to do this for our 2
domains (14 users total).  How can we do this given that the ISP won’t
let us do any high-level connections.

2 . How does exchange do it’s links?  Does a calendar event link to
it’s attendees by their exchange name, by their win NT name, by some
kind of serial number?  How about when you click on an email and see
that you have already replied to it?  How about other links?

3. We were thinking of migrating the accts and data to an exchange
2003 server and upgrading the clients to outlook 2003 (so we can
eventually do RPC over HTTP).   Is this bad idea?  Are there any known
problems with exchange 2003 server yet? Should we just migrate to
exchange 2000 and then upgrade it afterwards?  Would the migration
procedure be any different?


Thanks in advance,

Wow, what a mess eh? I'm hoping that someone who knows exchange better
than I do comes along and proves me wrong here, but at the same time,
I'm shaking in my boots that someone might actully be able to tell you
how to do this.

What you are asking, in a nut shell, is "how do I get the core data
from an Exchange server, with out that Exchange Server's permission."
Now, if there is an answer to that, I wouldn't understand why Exchange
server is still being sold, or why you would want to use it.

It is a good move to get away from hosting companies for services like
this that  you use a great deal, because they get you by the check
book sooner or later. All of them do.

Are they local to you? can you take your box to them and do the
transfer in house? What about shipping the box to them and having it
shipped back? Just the hard drive will do really.

webadept-ga

Uh...  Well, I don't know anything about exchange.  Except, well,
Isn't there an Exchange ODBC driver?  So you could use it as a
datasource..   If you know what I'm trying to say. =)

I've done this once before to dump the whole email address/phone
number directory from an exchange server.  I just used Access to
connect to the datasource and save the data as CSV, but, maybe you
could do something better than that..  .. Maybe it wouldn't work for
all the messages themselves, and such.

Hope this helps.  Hopefully you understand what I'm suggesting better
than I understand it myself. ;)

--Hobbes1220

It's true, there is an ODBC driver, but you have to have permission to
access the Exchange server to connect with your Access, or what ever.
Good suggestion, but if they won't install it, or give him access,
then, they are out of luck on that mark.

On a lighter, possible answer side, I was talking to some fellow
sysAdmin's today and one of them suggested possible a legal letter
demanding your data. An not just in a dump, but in a usable format. He
suggested that possibly a letter from your attorney would be enough.
Really it depends on the agreement you have with them. If the
agreement is that they own the software and server and you own your
data, then this might work. Just a thought.

webadept-ga