Thought long and hard about letting this go, but where is the fun in that? First, to answer the migration piece of this. The only option I can think of at this time would be to treat the SBS Exchange system as a foreign mail system, meaning export and import mailbox data to migrate. Migration costs will be 10-20 times what it would be to simply put another server in place and move users. But, if is your only option...
Now on to the fun... SBS License: $1,499.00 (5 clients) Real W2K Server license: $1,199.00 (10 clients) E2K Standard Edition: $1,299.00 (can always be upgraded to Enterprise if needed) Now, realistically, if you are a small little shop, this is all the Microsoft products that you need and so for 1.67 times the amount you eliminate all of the limitations of SBS and have actual, real products versus cripple-ware. But what about ISA? Don't need it. Go get a Linksys box for $100 for your firewall and it is wide open outbound. But what about SQL Server? IF you need it, then it's $1,499.00. Otherwise, you don't need it. If you are a small business, you can get cripple-ware for $1.5K or actual software to run your business for $2-4K. Under the first scenario you are setting yourself up for failure and under the second, you have invested just a little more money but have primed your business for growth. And if you are such a cash-strapped business that you cannot afford the extra grand or two, then you should probably be looking at free software. Put a Linux box up, done. It's cost $0.00. And, just for fun, 2 MCP exams, ~$250 and an MCSP license ~$2000.00. So again, for just a few extra (hundreds) of dollars you get lots and lots and lots of actual software versus cripple-ware. So where is the business case for SBS? There isn't one. It is for closed-minded, all I know is Microsoft, lazy people that do not think far enough ahead to keep them from running into closed doors. Installing SBS is setting yourself up for failure, period. I have seen it time and time again. It is Microsoft cripple-ware, plain and simple. You get what you pay for and you get what you deserve when you don't plan ahead. I am more than willing to admit I am wrong, so show me a business case where SBS is the RIGHT solution. And by that, I do not mean the lowest cost solution, because Linux has that one well in hand. I mean, when all the pros and cons are analyzed, that SBS is the winner. I honestly have never encountered it. > You know what they say: opinions are like, well never mind... > > Personally, I think SBS is a fantastic product, provided you keep it's > limitations in mind up front. Yes, it would be a pain to upgrade, but my > guess is that the vast majority of SBS installations would never face that > task. > > Most small companies (10-15 employees) could never afford to buy Win2k, E2K, > and ISA server, let alone SQLServer. SBS gives them all this for the price > of Win2K server alone! > > -----Original Message----- > From: Greg Deckler [mailto:greg@;infonition.com] > Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 1:22 PM > To: Exchange Discussions > Subject: Re: Moving E2k storage group to new Server > > > Well, the easiest way to do this is to install another E2K server and simply > move the mailboxes to the new server. Now, the only thing that might throw a > wrench into this for you is running sbs2k. And, I have repeatedly stated > this and let me go on record as stating that SBS is a terrible product that > should never be installed anywhere in the entire world because of the > serious limitations that it imposes on organizations. This is a perfect > example as to why an organization should NEVER install SBS. And if there are > any companies out there that have consultants recommending SBS, fire them > immediately and get somebody competant. > > One of the big problems with SBS is that it uses the Standard Edition of > Microsoft Exchange, which has the nasty limitation of not being able to > support multiple Exchange servers. > > From Microsoft docs: > "Exchange 2000 on a Small Business Server installation is restricted from > being part of a larger Exchange server organization. Because Small Business > Server 2000 is installed as the root of the Active Directory forest, you > cannot install the Exchange 2000 component into an existing organization." > > Also from Microsoft docs: > "Full installation of Windows 2000 is required. It is not possible to > upgrade Microsoft BackOffice Small Business Server to the Windows 2000 > operating system; however, if your hardware meets the system requirements > (http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/advancedserver/evaluation/sysreqs/) > for Windows 2000, you can install the full product. > > The current plan for the next release of Small Business Server is to base > the product on the Windows 2000 operating system. For more information about > Small Business Server, see the Small Business Server Web site > (http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusinessserver/default.htm)." > > What this means in a nutshell is that I don't have a solution for you. I > have searched Technet and have not been able to find an acceptable upgrade > path from SBS to anything useable. Essentially, since you are running SBS, > you cannot install a new E2K server into the organization and simply move > the user mailboxes. And, in all honesty, I have not found an acceptable way > to upgrade SBS to W2K enterprise. > > If anyone has a solution out there for upgrading SBS to enterprise versions, > I'd love to see it. There HAS to be a way, Microsoft could not have been > THAT bone-headed. On the other hand, they released SBS so I guess I wouldn't > put anything past them. > > One thing you might try is backing up your stores, installing a new non-SBS > server with full W2K and E2K and restoring to that server. > > Avoid SBS like the plague, it is a terrible, terrible product and Microsoft, > in good conscience, should NEVER have released it upon an unsuspecting > public. > > > Exchange is working fine on the server its just that the raid set on > > this dodgy ibm server keeps going critical after a reboot(keep getting > > the runaround from ibm) and we want the customer to purchase a better > > server but there is a lot of mail stored on it and i was just > > wondering how easy/hard would it be to move the mail to another > > server. Also is their any repercussions moving mail from sbs2k to a > > win2k o/s. > > > > Thanks > > > > Damian. > > _________________________________________________________________ > List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm > Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp > To unsubscribe: mailto:leave-exchange@;ls.swynk.com > Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:leave-exchange@;ls.swynk.com Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
