Exmerge Exchange 2003

I was just troubleshooting this a bit and checked the permissions in the Exchange Systems Administrator program for the root.  I see the group I am a member of in there already under delegation, but when I proceeded I am told that this group cannot be granted the permissions being applied?

Yes, you will have to change the ownership.  There should be a security option in there to allow it. Conceptually the same as change ownership on a folder.  You want to post a screenshot of where you are in the process?

This is not making any sense to me?  I am told that exmerge has been run using this group numerous times without any difficulty?  What could be different now?  I don't see any option to take ownership in the Exchange Systems Administrator program for the root.

The only place I see to take ownership would be on the actual administrative groups.

Are you able to access other mailboxes from the exmerge user?

Not sure how to test that?

I think I got it.  I was using my account, which is in the correct group, but it just wasn't working.  I am using the specific account setup for exmerge and it seems to be working.  Do we have a ballpark timeframe for completion on a 500 meg mail file?  Something I see that is a bit concerning in the "Process Status" window is the "Copying from Server Mailbox to Personal Folders" text next to Performing Step.  Would this be normal?  It's been running for almost 10 minutes now.

Hey, what do you know, it completed successfully!  Thank you datadrew.

Once again, thank you for your help.

That's about normal.  Just remember when doing this, exmerge won't go over 2GB.  If it does, it will fail.  If you have mailboxes bigger than 2GB, you'll need to break them down by date (yes, I know.. it sucks).  There is no real way to figure out how big the date ranges are..  I've had to export 30GB mailboxes before, and I've had up to 50 PST files.  Absolute nightmare.

Good luck with your endeavor!

Yeah, I saw that.  How do you break them up?

Ah, click on Options I presume.

During the setup for the user, there is a tab (I haven't used exmerge in about 2 years so forgive me) that I think says Folders... In there you can export by date range.  Take copious notes so you can import them into your new system.

Do you know if the 2GB threshold has gone away in newer versions of Exchange or not?

That's a 2003 limitation.  There are other export rules in later versions of exchange, but I haven't worried about them.  Due to the limitations of moving off the 2003 platform, this is the only instance I worry about it.  Going from 2007-->2010-->2013-->2016 can be done from your phone while on spring break.  Going from 2003-->2010, 2013, 2016 is a huge PITA.  Later versions, you just move the mailboxes.  With good planning, it is one of the easiest things to do.