Public Folders Empty After Move

[FloDiggs]

I need a little help. I tried to migrate public folder data from my old Exchange 2003 server to my new 2007 server using the following instructions:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb331970.aspx

I used the PowerShell script "MoveAllReplicas.ps1 -Server Server01 -NewServer Server02" like it suggests; however, it did not work. The folder hierarchy was created on the new server, but none of the content came with it. Any suggestions?

 

[58sniper]

How long have you waited? Replication can take quite a while.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[FloDiggs]

It has been 24 hours and the folder is DB on the old server is only 50 MB.

 

[FloDiggs]

Well, the data never ended up synchronizing on its own. I think I caused the problem by using the MoveAllReplicas.ps1 script before all of the data had synchronized correctly between the old and new server. That caused the new server to be only replica for the data, but all the data actually resided on the old server. Here is what I ended up doing to fix it:

1. I used the PFDAVAdmin tool to view both servers. I could see the data on the old server and that it was missing on the new server. The problem was that the new server was the only replica listed.

2. Once I saw that the data was on the old server and that the old server wasn't listed as a replica anymore, I added the old server back as a replica for all of the public folders.

3. Until the data synchronized, I went into the Exchange 2007 Management Console, under Server Configuration --> Mailbox, I right clicked on the Mailbox Database and selected Properties. On the Client Settings tab, I changed the default Public Folder Database to the old server. This allowed the Outlook clients to see and use that data until I could get it migrated.

4. Back on the old 2003 server, I forced Synchronization by using the Synchronize Now option under the Public Folders folder structure, on the Status tab, and right clicking on the servers listed, and selecting Synchronize Now.

5. I then used the Get-PublicFolderStatistics command in 2007 and compared the item counts to that listed in the 2003 Management Console under status tab of each folder in Public Folders to verify that data was migrating to the new PF database.

6. Once I could see that all of the data had synchronized, I used the Move All Replicas options by right clicking on the Public Folder Store in Exchange 2003.

7. Finally, I went back into the mailbox Database on 2007 and changed the default Public Folder Database back to the new server. Once the clients closed out Outlook and reopened it, they were seeing the data on the new server.

Hopefully this will help save someone else some time if they run into the same problem.