I am going to buy Windows Small Business Server 2008 to replace Small Business Server 2003. I don't have many applications on there to worry about migrating but we do use Exchange quite heavily. I was going to use ExMerge to dump all mailboxes to PST files and then import them back in on the new server, but somebody told me I can't do that and have to use PowerShell instead. Can anyone help me understand what I need to do? I've not heard of PowerShell before.

Thanks,
Don

Were you hoping to upgrade SBS or start with a fresh installation? In case you don't know there is no 32bit version of SBS 2008 and there was no 64bit version of SBS 2003, so you can't do an inplace upgrade. You have no choice but to start with a fresh installation.

Hi Cocker. It will be a fresh install on new hardware (all 64bit). I wasn't aware there isn't a 32bit version of SBS 2008 though.

DPL,

Have a look at this TechNet article that explains how to use the Exchange Management Shell to import data from a PST file.

How to Import Mailbox Data: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb691363.aspx

Basically you can export to a PST file using ExMerge with Exchange 2003 then use the EMS to import it in Exchange 2007.

HTH
Dave

Now is time for the Import-Mailbox command. The Import-Mailbox command has a couple of parameters that we are especially interested in.

-Identity

As the name suggests, this is where you specify the mailbox you would like to use for the destination of the import routine.

-PSTFolderPath

This will point the Import routine to look in the path for the PST files we are interested in. If you have only ONE PST file to import for a specific user, you can reference the exact PST file here and it will import the PST file. However be careful that you do not specify an explicit PST file and pipe multiple Mailboxes to the command, otherwise it will import the same PST file for all users which could have some embarrassing results!

-MaxThreads

This is the number of mailboxes to move at any one time. Now, this will largely depend on the resources that you have available. The typical value is 4, and this is normally more or less acceptable for this operation unless you have thousands of mailboxes, then you may want to increase this. Just remember ultimately you will have hardware bottlenecks.
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The release of Server 2008 marks one of the most significant upgrades Microsoft has made to its server line of software. Perhaps only the release of Windows 2000 was a more significant advance to the product line. Before the release of Windows 2000, only NT 4.0 was available for servers.

The new technologies present within Server 2008 will prove to be more beneficial to businesses than previous releases.

There are only some programs with required characteristics for working out problems related to ms exchange. I luckily caught sight one of them several days ago and to my way of thinking this tool would become the best determination for other exchange problems - software package to retrive pst files from exchange server to outlook.