Hi guys,
I've tried googling all over for this scenario, but it is tough to get a straight answer online, so I thought I'd reach out and see if any of you has some thoughts on what we are trying to do.
We have a large client that is using SBS 2008 as their one and only Exchange server, and also using it for remote access, file services, and a bunch of other apps. They have long since overgrown SBS (almost 200 users now), so we are forcing them into a migration since they are non-compliant in terms of licensing. The problem is that there is so much work to decommission the SBS server that they want everything broken into several small subprojects to spread out the cost. I am fine with that in principle, but the issue is that they want to do the Exchange migration first to address horrendously slow email performance, and redesign remote access later. However, in true SBS fashion, all services (RWW, TS Gateway, MAPI, ActiveSync, etc) all use the same DNS name (remote.domain.com in this case).
The long-term plan is to migrate to Office 365, but we first want to setup a new, more powerful Exchange 2010 server on-premise (they actually bought a license a while ago that they never used), move mailboxes over, and then perform a hybrid mode Office 365 migration at a later date (that's why we are intending to combine CAS/MB etc on one box for now - a more scalable setup isn't worth the effort). I understand that you cannot access Ex2010 mailboxes using an Ex2007 CAS, but because all clients including activesync use the same DNS name as remote access, and the client does not want to engage in the project to redesign remote access until later, I cannot simply redirect that DNS name to the Exchange 2010 CAS.
My thought is that I could put the Ex2010 CAS/MB server on a separate public IP with its own DNS name (let's say mail.domain.com) and AutoDiscover should take care of Outlook clients (both internally and Outlook Anywhere clients, but correct me if I'm wrong), but I am not sure about ActiveSync clients like iOS and Android. If at all possible, I would like to do this without having to touch every single activesync device and re-enter the server name. Yes, I could send out instructions to all the users to do it themselves (and I will do that if I have to), but this is an oilfield company with a ton of very non-savvy field users, and I know from experience that this will be painful.
So, we question is this: When I add the new CAS server, will autodiscover handle updating the server name on Android and iOS clients?
Thanks in advance!