Well, we've migrated to Ex2003, and now I'm at a stage where we can finally remove the 5.5 box from the network. BUT, here's the problem:
When I try to delete the 5.5 box from the Exchange Org using Exchange Administrator (as outline in MS articles), I get an error that there are still 5 mailboxes on the 5.5 server. Well, there are no mailboxes under the Mailbox Store that I can see on the 5.5 box. All mailboxes were moved to the 2003 box, and all public folders have been rehomed to the 2003 box as well. Here is where things get funky.
When I launch Exchange Administrator on the 5.5 box, everything appears to be normal. Except, I see 2 Recipient containers I didn't see before. One is the USERS OU from Active Directory, and the second is another OU we have created within the AD (Company Users). Now, in our AD, we have our "Company Users" OU, under which we have several other OUs for each department. Get this, some of those OUs (not all) are listed under the Company Users OU in Exchange Administrator. Hmmm.... and things get better. In the 5 OUs listed in Exchange Administrator, there are mailboxes listed in them. But again, not all the mailboxes that would belong to users in those OUs, only 1 in most cases, and 4 in another. Most of the OUs in AD have atleast 5 users.
And now, the kicker. If I create a new user in one of the OUs listed under the Company Users OU, the mailbox appears visible in Exchange Administrator (even though the mailbox is created on and within the 2003 box). And, if I subsequently delete the user from Exchange Administrator, the mailbox is deleted altogether.
So, my question is this... how do I get eliminate the Exchange 5.5 box without deleting any users or user mailboxes? How do I remove this issue?
Thanks for you help.
When I try to delete the 5.5 box from the Exchange Org using Exchange Administrator (as outline in MS articles), I get an error that there are still 5 mailboxes on the 5.5 server. Well, there are no mailboxes under the Mailbox Store that I can see on the 5.5 box. All mailboxes were moved to the 2003 box, and all public folders have been rehomed to the 2003 box as well. Here is where things get funky.
When I launch Exchange Administrator on the 5.5 box, everything appears to be normal. Except, I see 2 Recipient containers I didn't see before. One is the USERS OU from Active Directory, and the second is another OU we have created within the AD (Company Users). Now, in our AD, we have our "Company Users" OU, under which we have several other OUs for each department. Get this, some of those OUs (not all) are listed under the Company Users OU in Exchange Administrator. Hmmm.... and things get better. In the 5 OUs listed in Exchange Administrator, there are mailboxes listed in them. But again, not all the mailboxes that would belong to users in those OUs, only 1 in most cases, and 4 in another. Most of the OUs in AD have atleast 5 users.
And now, the kicker. If I create a new user in one of the OUs listed under the Company Users OU, the mailbox appears visible in Exchange Administrator (even though the mailbox is created on and within the 2003 box). And, if I subsequently delete the user from Exchange Administrator, the mailbox is deleted altogether.
So, my question is this... how do I get eliminate the Exchange 5.5 box without deleting any users or user mailboxes? How do I remove this issue?
Thanks for you help.
