Now that we have upgraded CAS HUB servers and the Passive Mailbox server we are ready to upgrade the Cluster Mailbox server.

4. Upgrade MBXCM01 (Clustered Mailbox server):

Once the passive server gets restarted and is back online, it will be running Exchange 2007 SP2. Do note that the active node is still online and serving the users. We need to upgrade the Clustered Mailbox Server (CMS) now, before we upgrade the present active node.

Before upgrading the CMS, we need to stop the CMS that is running on the active node and then move it to the passive node (upgraded server). This step will result in exchange server becoming unavailable for CMS users and hence has to be done out of hours.

Log into the passive node, launch the exchange shell and run the following command to stop the CMS. You can also do it from the console if you prefer to do so.

Stop-ClusteredMailboxServer MBXCM01 -StopReason "SP2 Upgrade"

Confirm the step by pressing "Y".

Make sure that the cluster status is Offline.

If you execute a cluster group command you should see the following.

Once the cluster is stopped, move the CMS to the passive node from the console or by running the following command from the shell.

Move-ClusteredMailboxServer MBXCM01 -TargetMachine MBX02 -MoveComment "SP2 Upgrade"

Confirm the step as well.

After the move is completed if you execute a cluster group command you should see the following.

Now we will move the Cluster Group to MBX02.

Execute the command : Cluster Group "Cluster Group" /move:MBX02

Once the move is done execute the cluster group command to check you Cluster Group points to MBX02.

Navigate to the exchange 2007 sp2 installation folder /dvd and upgrade the CMS by running the following command. You can't use the console for this step.

Setup.com /UpgradeCMS

Setup runs a pre-requisite check before upgrading the CMS.

Once the setup was completely successfully, it brought the stopped cluster online & now we have an upgraded CCR running on one node.

A cluster group command should give you the following output now.

As you can see users will be connecting to the online Clustered Mailbox server and the operation is now been serviced by MBX02.

We are now ready to upgrade MBX01.

5. Upgrade MBX01 :

Execute steps 1a and 1b as above.

As you can only upgrade CCR nodes by using commad line.

Launch a command prompt window and navigate to the exchange 2007 sp2 installation directory. Run the command

Setup.com /Mode:Upgrade

Setup will process the required steps and will display the below message after successful completion.

Once completed restart MBX01 server.

To bring back cluster group and cluster mailbox box on to MBX01 server execute the below commands from the Exchange Management Shell in the same sequence.

a. Stop-ClusteredMailboxServer MBXCM01 -StopReason "SP2 Upgrade"

b. Move-ClusteredMailboxServer MBXCM01 -TargetMachine MBX01 -MoveComment "SP2 Upgrade"

c. Cluster Group "Cluster Group" /move:MBX01

After successful completion of the above commads execute the "Cluster Group" command to check the status.

6. Testing After upgrade

Its a good practive to do some basic testing after the upgrade. Following are a few important areas that you can test.

1. OWA can be accessed from internet.

2. Autodiscovery for Outlook Clients is working.

3. Sending and Receving Emails Internally/Externally.

4. If you have ISA server ,test the Rules are working.

5. Cluster Replication. Take note of Status: Healthy for storage groups.

6. Windows Services of all the Exchange server are started corrrectly.

7. OAB download for Outlook Clients is working.

8. Active Sync.

9. If you have any Blackberry Servers test lookup and mail routing from devices.

10. Any other applications tied to Exchange.

Summary

Hopefully you have seen within the two part of this article how to upgrade from Exchange 2007 SP1 to SP2. There is no doubt that many organizations will be looking to upgrade to Exchange 2007 SP2 if they have not done so already to prepare migration to Exchange 2010 in the near future.

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