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Forcing Exchange (2010) to Sync with Active Directory User Database (manually)--Can it be Done?

I'm a new Jr. Network Administrator attempting to determine if one may force Exchange to Sync with Active Directory (in this case when a new user is added) as opposed to waiting for them to automatically sync. The version of Exchange is 2010, although most of our servers are MS Server 08 R2 we are running in 2000 compatibility mode. The issue is not by any means urgent because the problem has since been resolved naturally; however, the issue has interested me enough to try and find out if there's a more effective way in the future.

The scenario we encountered was this, and I'm sorry if it contains superfluous data, I'm still learning what's relevant:
An actual human-being user (not an account) was moved from a property we own to our primary location. Users (AD accounts) in these locations are typically split into two domains (a central domain, and a 2nd domain for all our additional properties, both domains hang off an empty root domain). We disconnected the mailbox, ran the mailbox cleanup command-let and the disconnected box appeared in the "disconnected mailbox" area of the exchange management console after we connected to our exchange server (rclick > connect to server...). At this point we had renamed the old user (just in case something went wrong, I'm new so I'm probably overly cautious) and created a new user account by the original name. The account showed up in AD right away but not in the Exchange console, I'm told this is normal--and it makes sense. But it would be nice to FORCE Exchange to look for new user accounts in AD to minimize downtime.

I've been told that a user account may be moved across domains, but our Sr. Network Admin doesn't want to pursue it because he feels our help desk would have difficulty learning a completely new GUI tool or command line tool.

Thanks for your assistance

(Please excuse me if I select the wrong number of points for this question, I'm not terribly familiar with this system)

SOLUTION

Glen Knight

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yladmin

ASKER

I apologize, I incorrectly recalled our compatibility level. I double checked and discovered that our functional level is 2003. Once again, my apologies.

Concerning the 2nd half of your post, I was given the impression that Exchange managed its own database that it pulled from Active Directory, if I'm reading your post correctly you are saying this assumption is inaccurate. If this is the case, then will changes made to AD normally appear in the Exchange Management Console near-instantly? For whatever reason it took a number of hours in our particular case and Help Desk tells me this is typically what they experience.

Thanks for your assistance, I will edit me post to reflect that the compatibility level is 2003.

yladmin

ASKER

Apparently one cannot edit their original inquiry (or perhaps I cannot find the button), so any future respondents please note that the functionality level is 2003, not 2000.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Glen Knight

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yladmin

ASKER

Thanks for your help, I appreciate you catching my mistake in the post and showing me the best practice for adding new users.

I think that this link will help elucidate the rest of my questions next time the issue comes up.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb738148.aspx
Update-Recipient seems to be what I was looking for when the auto-update is not as quick as I would like. I'll find out in the next couple weeks.

Thanks again!