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andyinet4

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Exchange-Exchange Migration

Is it possible to move an existing Exchange 5.5 mail server in it's own organisation to a different organisation??

As far as i know this cannot be done...

I really dont want to download everyones mail to pst files.. any suggestions on how to do this??
Avatar of jbunting
jbunting

Sorry, don't know if that can be done, but if you do go the .pst route then MS has a utility called ExMerge that will let you export everone's mail to pst files and reimport them.  It can take quite a while to do though, depending on the size of the information store.

There is a moveserver utility that does just this. It was installed as part of SP3; I believe it is called mvsrvr.exe. Be sure to read the documentation fully.
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ASKER

This only works if the server is to be moved to a different site within the same organisation.

Any other ideas... is there some form of Organisation connector for exchange??
Avatar of Tim Holman
Q. Is it possible to replicate users between two different organizations?

A. Yes. there is currently a utility call Interorg Relication Tool provided with the Microsoft Backoffice Resource Kit, BORK for short, that will perform automatic replication of user's SMTP addresses between two different organizations. However, because it uses SMTP addresses it requires the Internet Mail Connector to be configured.

(exchangefaq.com)

Alternatively, look at MS's forklifting article, although why someone would ever search MSKB for forklifting is beyond me :

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q199/9/54.ASP



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Geoff137

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ExMerge is intended to be used on an empty or new system. The user seems to imply the new organisation exists already. This is neater maybe?

Verify your recent backup is good or create a new back up both old and new organisations.

If you are a large organisation (many sites) consider connecting the two organisations using the Inter Org Synchronisation tool in Back office 4.5

Other wise complete the convertion quickly so the users do not have trouble locating mailboxes on the other organisation.

Create a new set of mail boxes on the new organisation using Bulk Import / Export (Q155414 on MS knowledge base) Use the header tool to compare headers on the two orgs. using the 'new org headers populate the non Server specific data from the exported csv of old org. Import to new org. You now have a complete set of mail boxes.
If you set up the connector above hide newly created mailboxes in new org (so that users do not see both.

Using the migrate.exe utility from Back office resource kit (Q177778 MS KB or help file on BORK)

Procedure to Migrate Users
--------------------------
 
1. Create mailboxes (see above) and profiles on the destination server for the recipients you are moving.
 
2. Verify that your workstation is logged on using an account with at least
  Administrator permissions at the Site, Organization, and Configuration levels in the Exchange Administrator program.
 
3. Create a profile on the workstation that can be modified by the Mailbox
  Migration tool.
 
4. On the Start menu, click Run.
 
5. Click Browser to locate the Migrate.exe file and double-click the file name.
 
6. In the Control File box, type the path name and file name of the recipient's
  list file (.csv file) that contains the recipient's name and server. This is
  the structure of the recipient's file:
 
   <Display Name>,<Alias Name>,<Pilot Server
  Name>,<Production Server Name><CRLF>
 
   An example:
 
   John Doe,JohnD,GW-PILOT1,GW-PROD1 Mary Smith,MarySm,GW-PILOT1,GW-PROD1
 
   The file can contain any number of recipients and any combination of servers.
 
7. Click Start.
 
When the file is found, the Mailbox Migration tool begins processing the first
recipient in the file.
 
Functions
---------
 
For each recipient in the .csv file, the Mailbox Migration tool performs the
following functions:
 
 - Modifies the migration profile so it can open your mailbox and create a new
  .pst file on the workstation, and then logs on to this profile.
 
 - Copies all the messages and all subfolder trees in the mailbox Inbox folder
  to the .pst Inbox folder.
 
 - Copies all the messages in the mailbox Sent Items folder to the .pst Sent
  Items folder. You can ignore any subfolders, unless it is easier to copy
  everything.
 
 - Copies all the other folders, subfolders, and messages that you have created
  from the mailbox to the .pst file. Note that Custom Views, Filters, Rules,
  and Permissions are not copied.
 
 - Logs off the profile.
 
 - Copies the folders and messages from the .pst to your mailbox on the
  production server. Note that the Inbox of the new server is checked. If there
  are any messages in this folder, the mailbox is not migrated and an error
  message is generated. The Inbox is always the first folder migrated.
 
 - Deletes the .pst file.
 
 - If you click Stop, the Mailbox Migration tool continues to process the
  current mailbox and then stops processing after the mailbox has been
  migrated, or after the mailbox migration attempt fails because of errors.
 
 - Any errors that are generated in the process are written to an error log.
  This error log is specified through the Mailbox Migration user interface.
 
 - When all mailboxes in the recipient list have been migrated, a message
  appears stating that the system has completed the migration.
 
The .csv file will look similar to this at the completion of the process:
 
   SUCCESS,John Doe,JohnD,GW-PILOT1,GW-PROD1,Migrated No
  Errors,5/10/96 10:05:00
 
   -or-
 
   FAILURE,Mary Smith,MarySm,GW-PILOT1,GW-PROD1,Error Copying
  Messages,5/10/96 10:09:10
 
If the Migration Mailbox tool fails for any reason, you can restart the tool from
the same point by using the same recipient list. Each successful migration
causes the entry to be deleted, therefore no duplication will occur.
 
To migrate single users or groups of users that were not migrated because of
errors, you can create recipient list files (.csv) and run the Mailbox Migration
tool again.
 
The purpose of the tool is to make a complete copy of the mailbox content from
one server to another when these servers are in different sites and/or
organizations. The utility does not assume that there is direct network
connectivity between any two servers and its basic mechanism is to create a
personal folder file (.pst) which contains the structure and messages of the
mailbox to be copied. In addition, this tool is used to re-create rules and
directory information.
 
The Exchange Administrator Move Mailbox command allows you to move a mailbox only
between servers within the same site, whereas the Mailbox Migration tool allows
you to move mailboxes between sites and between recipient containers.
 
For more information about using the Exchange Mailbox Migration tool, refer to
the Microsoft Exchange Tools Help file (Exchtool.hlp), included with the
Microsoft BackOffice Resource Kit Part 2.

Unhide user mail boxes on new Org as you fill migrate them and hide them on old. Once complete close down Inter Org Synchronisation.  
As soon as i get the new server i will attempt all of the possible solutions given...
to dallings...

I've set up the source and destination exchange servers..recreated the accounts on the destination server using the directory import and export command in exchange.

I've gone through the setup procedures and set up Exchange service accounts on both source & destination. Created the .CSV file from the sample.csv file included with BORK.

i receive this error when i run the migration program..

Failed to reach Directory Services on server bs-nt-01 (error 124 Directory.cpp:47, MAPI error  [0xc00000b5]: Could not bind to the Microsoft Exchange Directory server bs-nt-01.  You do not have the permissions required to complete the operation.

How do i get around this...also i'm running the program from an NT workstation, logged in with exchange admin permissions...

hang on i havent given the account domain admins permissions... will edit question in a mo.. just logging off.
Got past the permission problem...

Is this program compatible with exchange 5.5?? not just 4.x and 5.0??

next error...
" an unknown exception occured"
Got past the permission problem...

Is this program compatible with exchange 5.5?? not just 4.x and 5.0??

next error...
" an unknown exception occured"
ExMerge is not for a new or empty system.  ExMerge is used to correct a corrupted Exchange Server by exporting the current data out of the existing IS into PSTs and importing those PSTs into a new system.  Thus, effectively doing what it was andyinet4 was asking for.  This feature is used by the Exchange Discussion group all the time because of the ease of use of the program.
Any luck with Interorg yet ?
As forklifting everything out of one org into another is a real pain, why not just connect the organisations ?
The permissions you need are those shown in Exchange. Exchange Admin, Tools Options, Permissions, tick show permissions page for all objects. Make sure then thast there is one account that has permissions to both servers. At the recipient container select permissions then add the admin account to have user permission. Do this on both servers and you will have access to all mailboxes on both servers. Don't forget to take this out.

Sorry about the delay I have picked too many questions to answer.
Update

Tim
havent tried the interorg tool as yet... i dont think with that tool can transfer the contents of the mailboxes from one site to the other... but not sure...(will try in my next experiment)

dallings

" an unknown exception occured"

Have'nt had any joy with this one, i get the above error.. i've got past the permissions problem.

Geoff37

Looks like this Exmerge tool is working...

Will give the points soon... now i'm off to do a bit of forklifting


Interorg just connects organizations - it won't transfer stuff over, so if that's what you want to do then ignore me !
points go to geoff137.

thanks for the answers given.. find my next question called registry importing.. this is the question anyway
as it's relevant to this migration.

I need to change this(see below) key in the registry to a different server name, which relates to exchange outlook settings for the server in which the mailbox resides.

However the key contains the unique SID of the user and i need to run this in a login script but it wont import because the key is unique to user... is there a tool/script that can be written to over come this or can some form of wildcard be used??

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-752253323-883622480-1221738049-1329\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\MS Exchange Settings\13dbb0c8aa05101a9bb000aa002fc45a]

"001e6608"="BS-NT-01"
points go to geoff137.

thanks for the answers given.. find my next question called registry importing.. this is the question anyway
as it's relevant to this migration.

I need to change this(see below) key in the registry to a different server name, which relates to exchange outlook settings for the server in which the mailbox resides.

However the key contains the unique SID of the user and i need to run this in a login script but it wont import because the key is unique to user... is there a tool/script that can be written to over come this or can some form of wildcard be used??

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-752253323-883622480-1221738049-1329\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\MS Exchange Settings\13dbb0c8aa05101a9bb000aa002fc45a]

"001e6608"="BS-NT-01"
Use GETSID from the resource kit, or something from www.sysinternals.com !
Is the user's new mail server in the same organization? If so, do nothing but leave the old server up. The profile will be changed automagically to point to the new server. If not, however, just changing the registry like this won't work.