Mailbox Move

[Boondy]

I have succesfully moved 100 mailboxes from and Exchange 2000 to an Exchange 2003 server, on the same domain. The problem is that everyone's Outlook settings are still pointing to the old server. Is there any way to change this one setting automatically accross all PC's on the network? I have looked through Group Policies, and all through Exchange 2003, and i can't seem to find anything.

 

[xmsre]

If the new server is in the same org, the client will redirect the next time the user opens outlook. If you used exmerge, you'll need to set them yourself. You'll also notice that the client hangs on autoresolve. This happens because the mapi profile still points to the old PR_ENTRYID for the users' contact folder.

MCS once wrote a thing called clprflpr. I used it a few times in some large [45K+ seat] migrations. You'll need to contact MS and ask for it.

 

[bsingin64]

xmsre is right. If the old server is still online, but has no mailboxes left on it. then it will automatically change the users settings onto the new server. However, if the original server is no longer available (server crash n' burn) then this wont occur. I've found one little cheat that works however. If the old server is a dead boat, Put a DNS / WINS record on your network that has the same name as the old server but has your new servers ip. Outlook clients will use naming resolution to find the exchange server, and it will pop over to the new server. It may give the user a note mentioning that the location of objects has changed, but once they click ok. they're up and running (minus shortcuts on the left shortcut bar). Only problem is, if you want to restore the old server back online, you'll have to name it differently and note the fact that your new server has 2 DNS/WINS entries, one for its real name, and one to satisfy the outlook clients.

 

[xmsre]

I've done that a few times, but it's unsupported and there's no gaurantee it will work with all versions. It's worth a try through.

 

[bsingin64]

worked for me last week when we had a server meltdown with about 100 clients at 3 remote locations. Exchange 2k3 'n all. Only problem is, it never switches to the new name, it keeps the old one unless you go into the profile and recheck the name. When ya do that it finds the actual exchange name and underlines, etc, etc,... I was thinking about sending a mass email to my users to tell them how to do it, but it didnt take much to change my mind.

 

[xmsre]

You could use modprof for just the server name. The problem is the Outlook address book. Because it points to the PR_ENTRYID for the contacts folder on the user's old server, auto resolve hangs. You'd need to script removing and adding the service back to the outlook profile.

 

[bsingin64]

Good point, we have been runing into that situation. Our Address books have all needed to be removed and readded. I figured it was because of GUIDs changing after restore of the new mailboxes.

"modprof", whats this?

 

[xmsre]

It's in the outlook resource kit. It's sort of like newprof or profgen, but let's you modify an existing profile.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;271786

 

[phantom911]

Does anybody have a script that can be used to R&R the address book? I seem to have run into this issue too....