Developer Forum

If migrating from Exchange 2003 to 2007 the cas server is the first
recommended server to be upgraded. Could the 2007 CAS server be used with
exchange 2003 for a few months/year to provide users with the new OWA
interface and exchange 2003 compatible functionality? We are not intersted
in moving our company to exchange 2007 until next year but would like the
ability to offer the new OWA site to our users. We will purchase an exchange
2007 license for this role but would like to keep our current 2003 cal's
since 3/4 still use a regular outlook client to connect and 2003 is working
just fine for us, aside from the limited functionality in owa 2003.

Im sure this is not officially supported but is it possible, and does anyone
see any glaring issues?

An Exchange 2007 CAS role server is supposed to work with Exchange 2003, but
you won't get any new function from it until you have an Exchange 2007
mailbox server. I wouldn't rush into Exchange 2007 until you have a plan to
upgrade more than just the front-end.
--
Ed Crowley
MVP - Exchange
"Protecting the world from PSTs and brick backups!"

Why would Microsoft not allow an upgrade to the new OWA interface from
Exchange 2003 then? Its pretty much just the html, css and asp code that is
new, most of the backend linking and connectivity is the same minus the new
feature set in exchange 2007.

Thanks for the info though. I guess it something for the lab at least.

I think your going to be disapointed. From what I could tell doing some
quick testing is that if introducing an exchange cas to front-end an
exchange 2k3 box the web interface you are presented with is in fact the
owa 2003 front-end. I could not seem to get the servername/owa (exchange
2007 version) of the web interface to work, however using
servername/exchange (exchange 2003) web interface would appear and function
properly.

The error it would return stated something like: the mailbox resides on an
exchange 2000 or 2003 server and cannot be accessed. Or something, it was a
few lines anyways. So Im guessing on the 2k7 mail store there are pointers
specifiying certain functionality for the 2k7 frontend servers. My guess is
due to new functionality such as the intergrated messaging technologies like
vmail and what not.

Maybe you will have better luck then I did.

Take a look at this post on the MS Exchange Team blog if you haven't
already.

http://www.yqcomputer.com/

f anyone were to have better luck than you, it'd be a miracle because
Exchange 2007 CAS doesn't work that way, as I said in my original post. The
Exchange virtual server is for backward compatibility with Exchange 2003,
and it works pretty much like an Exchange 2003 front-end server, with OWA
rendering done by the Exchange 2003 back-end server. Therefore, the look
and feel will be strictly Exchange 2003 OWA. The OWA virtual directory
works only with an Exchange 2007 mailbox role server.
--
Ed Crowley
MVP - Exchange
"Protecting the world from PSTs and brick backups!"

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