Exchange 2003 to 2007 Public Folder Migration/Replication
Regarding a typical Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 migration (with a single Exchagne 2003 server, and a single Exchange 2007 server).
We have done a handful of Exchange 2003 to 2007 migrations. The mailbox migration portion seems to always work flawlessly. The public folder repliaction, though, sometimes has problems raning from incomplete replication to lack of Free/Busy data, etc.
In many cases our clients (who we do the migration for) have little or nothing in their public folders. When this is the case, the only thing that really needs to come over to the new PF is Free/Busy data, Offline Address Book, and possibly one or two other system folders.
My question is: In the case of no User public folders existing (IE: the users did not use PF at all), is it possible to just NOT replicate PF to the new Exchange 2007 server, and start from scratch? Meaning, create a new Top-Level Public folders, and tell the server to just create a new OAB and Free/Busy data from scratch?
Or--in the case of a very minimal set of user public folders (IE: maybe just a company contact list or shared calendar), it seems easier to just copy these items to a PST and manually copy to a newly created (non-replicated) set of public folders on the new server.
In both cases, can this be done? And, how do you tell Exchange to "create a new OAB and Free/Busy data from scratch" as if this was a brand new server.
Thanks in advance!
We have done a handful of Exchange 2003 to 2007 migrations. The mailbox migration portion seems to always work flawlessly. The public folder repliaction, though, sometimes has problems raning from incomplete replication to lack of Free/Busy data, etc.
In many cases our clients (who we do the migration for) have little or nothing in their public folders. When this is the case, the only thing that really needs to come over to the new PF is Free/Busy data, Offline Address Book, and possibly one or two other system folders.
My question is: In the case of no User public folders existing (IE: the users did not use PF at all), is it possible to just NOT replicate PF to the new Exchange 2007 server, and start from scratch? Meaning, create a new Top-Level Public folders, and tell the server to just create a new OAB and Free/Busy data from scratch?
Or--in the case of a very minimal set of user public folders (IE: maybe just a company contact list or shared calendar), it seems easier to just copy these items to a PST and manually copy to a newly created (non-replicated) set of public folders on the new server.
In both cases, can this be done? And, how do you tell Exchange to "create a new OAB and Free/Busy data from scratch" as if this was a brand new server.
Thanks in advance!
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"In the case of no User public folders existing (IE: the users did not use PF at all), is it possible to just NOT replicate PF to the new Exchange 2007 server, and start from scratch? Meaning, create a new Top-Level Public folders, and tell the server to just create a new OAB and Free/Busy data from scratch? "
==>If you wanna create NEW OAB, free busy and ORGANIZATIONNAL FORMS public folder, you will have to use the procedure.
If you wanna replicate them, you can replicate them :) You can add the exchange scripts AddReplicasToPFfolders.ps1
and after that : RemoveRelicasfromPFFolders
==>If you wanna create NEW OAB, free busy and ORGANIZATIONNAL FORMS public folder, you will have to use the procedure.
If you wanna replicate them, you can replicate them :) You can add the exchange scripts AddReplicasToPFfolders.ps1
and after that : RemoveRelicasfromPFFolders
ASKER
Thank you for the feedback.
Is the reason you have to go through this procedure to effectively delete and re-create the OAB Free/Busy, Forms, etc because if your joning an existing Windows Domain and existing Exchange Organization, these items already exist at the domain/organization level, and have nothing to do with the server being a new install?
Just want to understand the mechanics. Thanks again.
Is the reason you have to go through this procedure to effectively delete and re-create the OAB Free/Busy, Forms, etc because if your joning an existing Windows Domain and existing Exchange Organization, these items already exist at the domain/organization level, and have nothing to do with the server being a new install?
Just want to understand the mechanics. Thanks again.
Nope.
I understood that you could not/or would not use the replication mechanisms for any reasons and wanted to recreate these folders brand new. You also mentionned you'd done some other migrations, so it's not the first time you are faced to that problematic.
That process is the only one i know to recreate brand new system folders. Yes, these folders are mentionned in the organization level, more precisely into the public folder hierarchy. That's why subsequent exchange servers does not necessarly have to mount public folder stores, because somewhere in the organization the system public folders are available...
The first try to do is of course Public folder Replication. If that's not working, the reset system folders process is the only one you can use to have exchange recreate everything fine.
(sorry if something is sometimes not clear.. my native language is french)
I understood that you could not/or would not use the replication mechanisms for any reasons and wanted to recreate these folders brand new. You also mentionned you'd done some other migrations, so it's not the first time you are faced to that problematic.
That process is the only one i know to recreate brand new system folders. Yes, these folders are mentionned in the organization level, more precisely into the public folder hierarchy. That's why subsequent exchange servers does not necessarly have to mount public folder stores, because somewhere in the organization the system public folders are available...
The first try to do is of course Public folder Replication. If that's not working, the reset system folders process is the only one you can use to have exchange recreate everything fine.
(sorry if something is sometimes not clear.. my native language is french)
ASKER
That makes perfect sense. What I'm trying to determine is whether or not--on future migrations--to just default to using this procedure to make new a new PF hierarchy from scratch right out of the gate. IE--make this a standard procedure. Especially when the users are not using their public folders for anything outside of the system folders.
It depends also on the number of users.. imagine that your exchange server has to rebuild free/busy for 5000 users... according that the free/busy is only initiated when the user has for the first time a look on his meetings....
That can disturb your business...
My standard procedure is to always try at leat system folders replication. had luck, it always worked...
public folders are really difficult to manage..
That can disturb your business...
My standard procedure is to always try at leat system folders replication. had luck, it always worked...
public folders are really difficult to manage..
This all depends on the Outlook clients connecting to Exchange 2007 server. If we have outlook 2003 we should have the public folder replicated at least the hierarchy and then the move replica could be done.
The outlook 2003 relies on the Public folder distribution for the Free\Busy and OAB download. The legacyExchangeDN value is compare to the system folder under free\busy and OAB system folder to access these informations for Outlook 2003 users.
Outlook 2003 depends on the web distribution for the download of offline address book and the Mailbox Assistant service for the access to free\busy.
Hence this purely depends on the client connecting to Exchange 2007.
If we are not performing the replication the public folder store on the Exchange 2007 would not have the legacy system folders for OAB and Free\Busy. If in case we are facing this issue then we can create a new system public folder and would need to name it as /o=organization name/ou=administrative group name in the OAB and Schedule +Free\Busy system folder to resolve this issue.
Thanks,
x-sam
The outlook 2003 relies on the Public folder distribution for the Free\Busy and OAB download. The legacyExchangeDN value is compare to the system folder under free\busy and OAB system folder to access these informations for Outlook 2003 users.
Outlook 2003 depends on the web distribution for the download of offline address book and the Mailbox Assistant service for the access to free\busy.
Hence this purely depends on the client connecting to Exchange 2007.
If we are not performing the replication the public folder store on the Exchange 2007 would not have the legacy system folders for OAB and Free\Busy. If in case we are facing this issue then we can create a new system public folder and would need to name it as /o=organization name/ou=administrative group name in the OAB and Schedule +Free\Busy system folder to resolve this issue.
Thanks,
x-sam
ASKER
After a vanilla install of Exchange 2007, though, would I have to go through this procedure? Couldn't I just NOT setup replication? Don't the OAB, Free/Busy, Etc. folders get created at install?
Thanks again.