Can't move Exchange Public Folders to new server

check this

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchangesvrdeploy/thread/a2a68948-aa08-44a9-872f-dca9f77ba635

Does all the databases on the Exchange 2003 are mounted?

The problem might be the fact that, in the exchange 2003 server where you have the public folder database, the database that has the system attendant mailbox and the other systems mailboxes must be pointing to the her public folder database and not to other public folder database. So if you have SBS2003 server, with PF1 (public folder database where you are moving the replicas) and with MBX1 (mailbox database on SBS2003 server that has the system mailboxes), go to MBX1 properties and see to what public folder is it pointing and if it's not to PF1 change it and try moving the replicas again.
was i clear? please check and post.

Valutus: Thanks. Here's the error in the Application Viewer:
The description for Event ID ( 9175 ) in Source ( EXAdmin ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: OpenMsgStore, The information store could not be opened.
The logon to the Microsoft Exchange Server computer failed.
MAPI 1.0
ID no: 80040111-0286-00000000.

shreedhar: Yes, they are mounted (1 mailbox and 1 Public Folder).

MPECSInc: I used the Microsoft Migration Guide. There were no errors after the SBS 2008 installation completeted and the mailbox and PF stores are both mounted on the dest. server. All seems OK.

GreatVargas: Not sure I followed you. If I click properties on the PF store, the Associated PF tree says: "first administrative group/Public Folders". Is that what you were interested in?

Does anyone know if the error message says it can't logon to the source information server or destination?

Also, I changed the administrator password before I started the migration and the answer file had the new password in it. I checked all the services and rebooted the source server to see if there were any services dependent on the administrator password and there weren't.

you need to go to the properties on the MAILBOX store on sbs2003 and see what public folder that maibox store is using. It must be using the public folder store on the same server. Assuming that you only have one server with exchange 2003.

So if you have 1 mailbox and 1 public folder on 2003 check the properties of that mailbox store. it must be associated with the public folder on the same server.

Common misconfigurations that will cause this error:
1) Transferring of public folders is done via SMTP. If you've changed the default SMTP connectors on SBS 2003 *or* 2008, that can cause problems. The migration guide expects defaults. One specific example that I see often is when the 2003 connectors were configured to use a smarthost. They must be reconfigured to not use a smarthost (default) during this part of the migration, or they will, of course, fail since they will attempt to deliver the PF's via the smarthost instead of directly.
2) For machines that have multiple network adapters, the LAN adapters *must* be first in the adapter binding order on both machines *EVEN IF OTHER ADAPTERS ARE ALREADY DISABLED!* Binding order still matters and can really throw off Exchange if it doesn't find what it expects.
Hope that helps,
-Cliff
 

GreatVargas: The source 'Default Public Store' is pointing to the source server.

cgaliher: The source SMTP connector was set to use DNS. Part of the steps during migration had me delete the SMTP connector on the source server. The source server has 1 NIC and the destination server has 4 NICS. The cable is plugged into NIC 1.

Don't know if this makes a difference, but part of configuring SBS 2008 is to move the data folder locations. I moved all of them to the E: drive from C.

Did you delete the SBS SMTP Connector only?

Philip

Yes and it looks like it created  a new connector SOURCE-DESTINATION. Source and Destination are actually the two server names. Under Connectors, I also have the 'POP3 Connector Manager'. The POP3 for mailboxes service has been stopped and disabled.

I haven't reconfigured the router to point to the destination server yet. From the guide: "Ensure that the following ports are open and are directed to the IP address of the Destination Server:
•      Port 25 – SMTP e-mail". I doubt this would be causing it, but I'm unable to change the router right now.

It absolutely could be causing it. As I said, public folder migration *RELIES* on proper SMTP flow between both servers. By proper SMTP flow, I mean properly configured SMTP connectors, proper DNS lookup, proper routing. There is a reason the migration guide was written to have tasks done in the order they were.
-Cliff
 

It's easy to test whats cqaliher is saying. create a mailbox on the new server and test mailfow between servers sending a message from one old mailbox of the old server  to the new one. Test mail like this in both directions. Anyway i think that if the problem was mail flow, because public folder go by smtp, the queue should be filling and the error you are getting shouldnt be appearing. anyway test and post the result.

I'll try it later. Also, the source server was set up to not receive outside e-mail directly. All outside mail was delivered to the ISP and then the Exchange server used POP3 to retrieve it. There are about 15 mailboxes.

I had created a new admin account earlier on the dest server, so I logged into owa on the dest server and sent an e-mail to an existing account. I logged into owa on the source server and the e-mail was there. I replied to the e-mail and the recipient on the new server received it.

In summary, I can send e-mail back and forth between the dest and source servers.

Also, this is probably normal, but all the users mailboxes show up in the 'Recipient Configuration' section on the dest server and the mailbox type says Legacy Mailbox.

Is it possible to continue migrating everything else and come back and do Exchange later. I have to start thinking about Plan B. Is it possible to try to migrate Exchange data except the Public Folders (there isn't much in there, so it could be re-created). BTW, this is not a test environment.


Thanks for all your input so far.

Nothing I did got me past this error. I wasn't able to install the Exchange Product Key, since the Microsoft Licensing site was down this weekend (DOH!)

I continued with the migration and everything else seemed to run OK, except for a few things I still need to clean up. I ended up with several issues that the Migration Guide didn't even mention.

MPECSInc: Thanks for your guide. I used it periodically to double-check things.

GreatVargas: I will try your last suggestion if I feel I need to.