I recently migrated our 2007 Exchange Server to 2013. This is a single server setup. Everything seemed to go fairly well. I've been through many Exchange migrations in the past, but this is the first one that has been 2007 to 2013. This environment has also been migrated from 2003 to 2007 in the past (not me) and the Exchange 2003 server was never decommissioned properly. So... I've removed the 'first administrative group' from ADSI Edit which enabled me to install Exchange 2013 without it thinking there was a legacy 2003 server installed.
Once I got everything setup I moved all mailboxes have been moved to the new 2013 server, set all URLs to the respective domain names, installed the new cert. Pretty much followed a guide i found online for an Exchange 2007 to 2013 migration. Everything with 2013 seems to be functioning correctly. I have mailflow between 2007 and 2013, i have mailflow to external addresses, mailflow in from external. OWA functions properly, ActiveSync for all of my mobile devices seems to be working just fine.
Here's my one (major) issue:
My Outlook Clients are now asking for credentials upon launch and then about every 10 mins or so thereafter. At first i was testing with my account and Outlook Client (2013). Then decided to test with Outlook 2010. Same issue on both clients. After a lot of searching on this particular issue, I found a possible cause of the issue, but cannot for the life of me seem to fix it...
I've found multiple posts stating that this issue is related to the OAB connection. This was confirmed by noticing Outlook was trying to download the OAB everytime the authentication box would pop up under the Local Mailbox tab on the Connection Status option using the ctrl+rightclicking the outlook icon in the notification area.
Also, i've noticed if i hit 'cancel' to the authentication request, Outlook functions just fine. All folders are updated, however the request does come back. It also shows 'need password' in the bottom right of Outlook. It also doesn't matter how many times i enter the correct user and password it doesn't take it. (yes, password is correct and yes, i've entered user name as domain\username, just username and username@domain).
So, I started investigating the OAB issue.
The first thing i did was verify i have an OAB.. I did... There was the default one with 2007 and there was a new one for 2013. I did try and do a move-offlineaddressbook request during the migration process and it failed stating I couldn't move an old OAB to Exchange 2013 i had to create a new one. So i removed the (already new) exchange 2013 OAB, and created my own and made it default. Still no change in behavior. I verified the internal and external URLs for the virtual directory they are correct (https://mail.domain.com/oab) and the virtual directory is linked to the OAB.
One thing i did notice that was odd was when i do a get-offlineaddressbook | fl, on my new OAB i notice that there is a property called OriginatingServer and it was pointed to my old 2007 server FQDN, not the new 2013 one. I found that odd that it wouldn't originate from 2013 especially when I created the OAB from the 2013 server....
My next step was to just kill all services to the 2007 box... Essentially shutting down the old 2007 exchange server. Everything was moved so i should be able to use it solely off 2013. Once i did this, my Outlook 2010 clients seemed to function just fine, no long requiring username and password. Score! I then i tried Outlook 2013 thinking the issue would be remedied once i uninstall and decommission 2007.... WRONG. Outlook 2013 is now broken.. I get the following error when starting Outlook 2013:
Cannot Start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. The attempt to login to Microsoft Exchange has failed.
I started all 2007 services up again and Outlook 2013 is still jacked up. Outlook 2010 is back to asking for credentials. My worry is this: SOMETHING is still tied to Exchange 2007. I'm guessing it's with OAB, but no clue if that's it.
Oh I also looked for the arbitration mailboxes for OAB, they are on the new server and i have none on the old 2007 server. I'm at such a loss at this point. Can anyone help me??
Thanks!
-Jeff