I have a failing Exchange 2007 SP 2 that I need to upgrade to Exchange 2013. Yes, I do have consistent mail box backups to disk (Backup Exec 2014).
I have several failed attempts on creating a VMWare 5 machine out of this EX 7 server. We are out of hard drive space and unable to do the service pack 3. The new server (EX 13) will have a 300 gig root directory and data drive of over 1 terabyte.
I am looking for suggestions for the cleanest solutions to upgrading this server to 2013 since doing a migration with coexistence has been ruled out . I work for a small company without funds to allow me to purchase some really good software to assist with this problem. I cannot have the email server down for more than over night unless I do it over the weekend.