Many people view the ability to perform rolling upgrades as one of the main advantages of deploying Exchange Server clusters. However, if you're used to working with Exchange 2000 Server, you should be aware that changes in Exchange Server 2003 add some complexity to the procedures for upgrading Exchange 2000 clusters to Exchange 2003, upgrading Exchange 2003 clusters to Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later, or applying hotfixes that change the build number of the exsetdata.dll file. Understanding these changes, what sort of planning you should perform before the upgrade, the upgrade process itself, and a few troubleshooting ideas will send you well on your way to success. (This article requires a basic understanding of Microsoft clustering technology and how a clustered Exchange deployment differs from a standalone deployment. The sidebar "Rolling Upgrades" addresses a few of these points.)
Changes to Note
Microsoft made some changes to the rolling upgrade model with the release of Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2003 SP1. When you upgrade Exchange 2000, you only need to upgrade the binaries on each node. Upgrading Exchange 2003 to SP1 or later requires an additional task. After you've applied the upgrade to one node, you must use Cluster Administrator to take your Exchange Virtual Server (EVS) offline, move the EVS to the newly upgraded node, then right-click the System Attendant resource and select Upgrade Exchange Virtual Server. This process updates the metadata associated with the EVS in Active Directory (AD) to reflect the new Exchange version. . . .
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