Help Topics for the R3 to R4 Upgrade are Live!
As you've heard, in the fourth quarter 2009, the Microsoft Exchange data center will upgrade servers to the latest software and start to upgrade customer domains from the R3 version to the latest version (R4). After your upgrade has started, the mailboxes in your domain will start to move to the latest version. It doesn't happen all at once, so for a while, some of your users may have R3 mailboxes and others will have R4 mailboxes. We call this state "coexistence."
When the upgrade is complete, you and your users will all get some new features, and some functionality will change for the features that you already have.
Check out the latest help at Heads-Up: Managing Your Domain During the R3 to R4 Upgrade.
Here's a quick look at what you should keep an eye on during the upgrade.
How do I know we've been upgraded to R4?
· Sign in to Outlook Web App and check the color scheme. It's blue in R3 and yellow in R4. The first administrator account (the one created during enrollment) is always upgraded first. After that, end users can verify their upgrade by the change to yellow in Outlook Web App. Administrators currently can't track what percentage of their users have been upgraded, but users can easily tell by the change in color.
· Sign in to http://outlook.com/ecp. Do you see the new Administrator Roles tab? If so, you're on R4! Learn more about the new management functionality at What's New for Organizations.
What do I have to do during the upgrade?
You have to update some of the tools you use to manage Outlook Live. All domains have to update the version of Windows PowerShell that they're using, and schools that automate account management have to upgrade the Exchange Labs Management Agent (ELMA).
After you've verified that your upgrade is under way, perform the following required steps:
· Download Windows PowerShell v2 and start to use it to manage your domain. The Windows Management Framework contains the correct versions of Windows PowerShell v2 and WinRM 2.0. Although an immediate switch to this version isn't required, Windows PowerShell v2 provides the following advantages:
· During coexistence, you can use it to manage all mailboxes. It doesn't matter whether the mailbox is running R3 or R4.
· New mailboxes created by using Windows PowerShell v2 are created as version R4. If you use earlier versions of Windows PowerShell after the upgrade for your organization is initiated, they'll be R3 mailboxes and will be added to the queue for pending mailbox upgrades.
You have to upgrade your version of Windows PowerShell before the end of January 2010. After January 2010, older versions will be blocked from connecting. For more information, see Install and Configure Windows PowerShell.