Azure Hybrid & Cloud Migration Blog

Exchange Server public folder migration is one of the area where people get stuck with or see problem while transition to newer Exchange Server version. This type of migration usually get performed from migrating from legacy Exchange version like Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010 to Exchange 20103. In Exchange Server 2013 by default there is no need of public folder to run Exchange Server with any out-of-box features. It is solely dependent on customer whether he wants it or don’t want use it.

In this blog post we will discuss the public folder migration steps from Exchange 2007 Server to Exchange Server 2010, but because the concept of migrating public folder data from one Exchange version to another so we can use them anywhere it best fits.

To allow readers to get most from this post in less time, we will jump straight and discuss the steps in the bullet-points.

Step 1: Setting up public folder replication

In the first step we will configure the replica for the legacy Exchange 2007 public folders to replicate all its data to the Exchange 2010 public folder database. We can do this step by visiting each public folder through Exchange 2007 Public Folder Management Console through tools area and add the Exchange 2010 public folder database server. Or alternatively we can use “PFDAVAdmin” for Exchange 2007 and “ExFolder” for Exchange 2010 public folder bulk-administrative tasks.

Public folder database replication can be longer and is dependent on the size of your legacy Exchange public folder database size. While Exchange 2007 server is replicating public folder database contents to target Exchange 2010 public folder database, you can see the data coming and going from source to destination in the queue viewer at the Exchange Server 2007.

Note:
 In order to send the replication from source to destination server, you have to make sure that both servers can talk to each other by means of having network access and message communication. If you try sending an email from Exchange 2007 HUB transport server then it should reaches to the mailbox located on Exchange 2010 Server. If there is any problem you can also try creating a send connector from your Exchange 2007 Server to send e-mail or other traffic to Exchange 2010 Server (HUB).
Step 2: Verifying public folder replication:

Before we go ahead and perform the other steps lets first see how we can verify that our public folder database and its content have been replicated to the destination public folder store.

To verify that public folder hierarchy and its contents are being replicated on Exchange 2010 Server, you can run the below Exchange Management Shell CMD-Let on your Exchange 2010 Server:

We can also see statistics on Exchange 2010 Server for its replication contents by running the below CMD-Let:

Step 3: Moving all public folder replicas from Exchange 2007 Server to Exchange 2010 Public Folder Database

For moving all public folder replicas from source to destination, we have to run “Moveallreplicas.ps1” built-in default PowerShell script available in your Exchange 2007 /2010 installation directory.

Tip:
If you see errors while running Moveallreplicas.ps1 on Exchange 2007 Server, you can try running it on Exchange 2010 will be smooth.

As we stated above as a tip, we will try to run the “moveallreplicas.ps1” script from Exchange 2010 Server by specifying source and destination server as follows:

Note:
You can find the “moveallreplicas.ps1” under “C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Scripts” or a similar location which you specified for your Exchange 2010 installation directory.

After running “moveallreplicas.ps1” it may take time to move the entire public folder database content from Exchange 2007 public folder database to Exchange 2010 public folder.

After sometime you can verify the available public folder content on Exchange 2007 Server by running the below CMD-Let:

Technically after successful move of all public folder replicas to Exchange 2010, this command of seeing the public folder statistics on Exchange 2007 should give you empty results. If the results are empty them it means we can go ahead and delete the public folder database.

Step 4: Removing public folder database on Exchange 2007 Server

As se said above if everything went fine so we can delete the public folder database and public folder storage from Exchange 2007 Server, but if it is not allowing you and we have already moved everything to Exchange 2010. So with having confidence we can go ahead and either perform the following two steps to delete public folder database forcefully.

• Using ADSIEDIT.MSC we can delete the Public Folder Database from the Active Directory configuration partition.
• Or dismount the public folder database, change the name of public folder database and remount the database on Exchange 2007. This will force you to create a new public folder database and then you can delete this public folder database which will work out just like CHARM. :)

I hope this will help you to migrate your public folder stuff from legacy Exchange version to newer Exchange messaging organization.