Consolidating Sites in Exchange 2003

Site consolidation entails moving Microsoft® Exchange out of remote sites and into a larger central site and allowing users in remote offices to access their mailboxes and public folders over the network. The main justifications for site consolidation are to make the Exchange Server 2003 topology simpler and to make Exchange more cost-effective to administer.

If your organization contains servers running Exchange Server 5.5, the site consolidation process requires additional tools to ensure that mailboxes, distribution lists, recipients, and public folders are moved properly and with the least disruption in service. The goal is to ensure that after users and Exchange data are moved to the central site, mail continues to flow properly. There are several new tools and features in Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) that help with the site consolidation process.

This topic discusses the steps you should take to ensure that your environment is ready for site consolidation. After you perform these steps, you can use the Exchange Server Deployment Tools to begin the site consolidation process. For more information about planning your Exchange 2003 site consolidation, see "Planning for Site Consolidation" in the guide Planning an Exchange Server 2003 Messaging System (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=21766).

Exchange Server Deployment Tools

For complete instructions about how to consolidate your sites, download the latest Exchange Server Deployment Tools, available from the Downloads for Exchange 2003 Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=25097). The SP1 version of the Exchange Server Deployment Tools contains information and tools that help you during your site consolidation process.

The procedures referenced in this topic guide you through the processes you must complete before you use the Exchange Server Deployment Tools.

Site Consolidation Tools

During site consolidation, many mailboxes, distribution lists, contacts, and public folders may need to be moved across administrative groups. In addition, the legacy Exchange distinguished name (legacyExchangeDN) for an object changes after the object moves across administrative groups, which affects the services that depend on this attribute. The following Exchange 2003 SP1 features and tools address these concerns:

• Move Mailbox Wizard in Exchange 2003 SP1

• Exchange Profile Update tool (Exprofre.exe)

• Public Folder Migration tool (PFMigrate)

• Object Rehome tool

Move Mailbox Wizard in Exchange 2003 SP1

The Exchange 2003 SP1 version of the Move Mailbox Wizard gives you the option to move mailboxes across administrative groups. If your Exchange organization is in mixed mode, by default, Exchange 2003 displays one administrative group and one routing group for each Exchange 5.5 site. Previous to Exchange 2003 SP1, if your organization contained Exchange 5.5 servers, you could move mailboxes only within the same administrative group. This limitation meant that you could not easily consolidate remote Exchange 5.5 sites into a central Exchange site.

In Exchange 2003 SP1, you can move mailboxes across administrative groups by using either the Move Mailbox Wizard in Exchange System Manager or the Exchange Task Wizard in Active Directory Users and Computers.

Moving Exchange Mailboxes

After backing up your mailbox data, you can move your mailboxes across administrative groups. For more information about moving your mailboxes, see the SP1 version of the Exchange Server Deployment Tools.

Exchange Profile Update Tool

The Exchange Profile Update tool (Exprofre.exe) is a stand-alone executable file that automatically updates users' Microsoft Office Outlook® profiles, thereby allowing users to log onto their relocated mailboxes after the mailboxes have been moved across Exchange organizations or administrative groups. To reflect the new information, you must run Exprofre.exe on each client computer to update the default Outlook profile. It is recommended that you use a logon script to run this tool.

Download the Exchange Profile Update tool from the Downloads for Exchange 2003 Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=25097).

The Exchange Profile Update tool is supported when used in conjunction with the following operating systems and applications:

• Microsoft Windows® 2000 (all editions)

• Microsoft Windows XP (all editions)

• Windows Server™ 2003 (all editions)

• Outlook 2003 and all earlier versions of Outlook

Exprofre.exe uses information from Microsoft Active Directory® directory services and the current default Outlook profiles to perform the following steps:

• Back up the default profile

• Look for an X.500 e-mail address that indicates that the mailbox has been moved.

• Update the default profile with the new user and server properties

• Reconfigure the default profile with the new RPC/HTTP front-end server name

• Clear the user's nickname file

• If the version of Outlook is earlier than Outlook 2003, delete or rename the offline folder store (.ost) file

• Delete or rename the Favorites (.fav or .xml) file

If the tool does not complete successfully, Exprofre.exe creates a backup profile before it modifies the default profile. The backup profile name consists of the old profile name with "backup" added to the end. For example, if the default profile name is "Ted Bremer," the backup profile name is "Ted Bremer backup." If it is necessary to revert to the backup profile, you must ensure that any file name extensions that have been changed are changed back to their original extension and, if necessary, that the file name matches the backup profile name. For example, when the tool creates the backup profile, it renames Ted Bremer's Favorites file to "Ted Bremer.exprofre." To revert to Ted Bremer's backup profile, you must change the extension of the Favorites file back to .fav and the name of the file to "Ted Bremer backup.fav" to match the backup profile name.

Using the Exchange Profile Update Tool

Run Exprofre.exe after you move mailboxes from one Exchange organization to another or from one administrative group to another. You can use a logon script or group policy to run the tool for Outlook users.

Table 1 describes the options that are available whether you run exprofre.exe from a command prompt or from within a script, such as from the following script example:

exprofre.exe [/?] [/targetgc=<global catalog server>] [/logfile=<path\filename>] [/v] [/f] [/a] [/r] [/o] [/p=<RPC over HTTP Proxy server>] [/n] [/s] [/q]

Table 1 Exprofre.exe command options

Sample Command for Moves Across Exchange Organizations

If you are moving mailboxes across Exchange organizations (cross-forest moves), it is recommended that you use only the /v and /n command options. All other options should be omitted to enable the tool to use its default settings. Because the user is moving to a new forest, most of the Outlook information stored on the user's workstation will be obsolete and must be updated with information about the new forest. By default, the tool deletes most of this obsolete information.

The following is a sample command for a mailbox move across Exchange organizations:

Exprofre.exe /targetgc=<target global catalog server> /v /n /f

Sample Command for Moves Across Administrative Groups

If you are moving mailboxes across Exchange sites or administrative groups (within the same Exchange organization), much of the information stored on the user's computer is still valid because the mailbox has not moved to another forest. In this scenario, it is recommended that you keep the offline address book, favorites, and nickname files.

The following is a sample command for a mailbox move across administrative groups:

Exprofre.exe /targetgc=<target global catalog server> /v /f /a

Sample Log File

The following is sample output from Exprofre.exe:

[16:08:58] ************** Beginning exprofre run **************

[16:08:58] Starting exprofre on Windows 5.1.2600 at 16:08:58 11/20/03

Log File = "\\server1\shared\exprofre.log"

Read Only = "No"

OS version = 5.1.2600

Outlook 11 is installed.

Default profile name = "John"

Profile user = "/o=TIFOREST1/ou=First Administrative Group/cn=Recipients"

Properties for the provider were successfully updated

The default user profile and/or Outlook files were changed

[16:08:59] !!!!!!!!!! exprofre completed!

Public Folder Migration Tool

Before you run the Exchange Public Folder Migration tool (PFMigrate), it is recommended that you create replicas of Exchange 5.5 public folders on an Exchange 2003 server. By following this process, the user can still access public folders after the user is moved from the remote site to the central site. PFMigrate moves public folders from remote Exchange 5.5 servers to the central Exchange 2003 server. The latest version of PFMigrate contains a site consolidation command option (/sc) for moving public folders across administrative groups. Running PFMigrate with the /sc option moves only public folders. You should not move free and busy system folders during site consolidation because users' free and busy data is republished by using the new legacyExchangeDN attribute.

For more information about moving your mailboxes, see the Exchange Server Deployment Tools for SP1. The latest version of PFMigrate is available from the Downloads for Exchange 2003 Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=25097).

To verify that migrated public folders have been removed from your Exchange 5.5 servers, see How to Verify that Public Folders Have Been Removed in Exchange Server 5.5.

Object Rehome Tool

The Object Rehome tool moves distribution lists and contacts from remote Exchange 5.5 servers to the central Exchange 2003 server. The Object Rehome tool enables you to update the legacy distinguished name for distribution lists and custom recipients to reflect the central site during site consolidation. By updating these objects to reflect the central site, you ensure that these objects are not lost when you remove the remote site.

The Object Rehome tool also updates the distribution list expansion server to a specified server. If you want to clear the expansion server from all distribution lists, leave the target expansion server option blank so that the distribution lists use any expansion server. For more information about the Object Rehome tool, see the Exchange Server Deployment Tools for SP1.

Consolidating Sites in Mixed Mode

To consolidate a remote site that is running in Exchange mixed mode, you must remove Exchange 5.5, Exchange 2000, or Exchange 2003 before you begin the consolidation process.

Removing an Exchange 5.5 Server

Before you remove an Exchange 5.5 server from your site, verify that there are no mail connectors on the server. If there are, open a connector on another server in the site, and then verify mail flow. Next, remove the connectors on the server to be deleted. Retest message flow. For more information about removing your Exchange 5.5 connectors, see the Exchange 5.5 Help.

For detailed steps about how to remove Exchange Server 5.5, see How to Remove Exchange 5.5 Servers from Your Exchange 2003 Organization.

Removing the Last Exchange 5.5 Server

Before you can switch from mixed mode to native mode, you must remove all Exchange 5.5 servers in your organization. For detailed steps about how to remove the last Exchange 5.5 server in your organization, see How to Remove the Last Exchange 5.5 Server from Your Exchange 2003 Organization.

Removing Exchange 2000

Before you remove Exchange 2000 servers from a site that you want to consolidate, you must remove any connectors to foreign mail systems. For detailed steps, see How to Remove a Connector from Exchange 2000 Server.

To move the connector to another Exchange 2000 server or to your central site, reinstall the connector and reconfigure the connector tabs on your new Exchange 2000 server. For more information about setting up connectors to foreign mail systems for Exchange 2000, see the Exchange 2000 Server Help.

Removing Unsupported Components

The following components are not supported in Exchange Server 2003:

• Microsoft Mobile Information Server

• Instant Messaging Service

• Exchange Chat Service

• Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server

• Key Management Service

For more information about removing these unsupported components, see Exchange 2000 Server Help and Mobile Information Server Help.

Removing Exchange 2000 Servers

The first Exchange 2000 server installed in an administrative group has certain important roles. For example, the first server hosts the offline address book folder, the Schedule+ Free/Busy folder, the Events Root folder, and other system folders. Therefore, use caution when you remove this server from the administrative group to which it belongs. For more information about removing your first Exchange 2000 server, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 307917, "XADM: How to Remove the First Exchange 2000 Server Computer from the Site" (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=307917).

For detailed steps about how to remove Exchange 2000 Server, see How to Uninstall Exchange 2000 Server.

Removing Exchange 2003

After ensuring that your organization meets certain prerequisites, you can run Exchange Setup to uninstall Exchange 2003. For detailed steps, see How to Uninstall Exchange Server 2003.

Removing Site Replication Service (SRS)

Site Replication Service (SRS) is a component that exchanges configuration information between Active Directory and the directory in Exchange 5.5. In Exchange 5.5, SRS is necessary because Exchange 5.5 configuration information can only be exchanged between Exchange 5.5 servers and Exchange 5.5 directories—not with Active Directory. SRS mimics an Exchange 5.5 directory so that other Exchange 5.5 servers can replicate information to it. Using the configuration connection agreement created by Exchange Setup, Active Directory Connector replicates the configuration information in SRS into Active Directory.

SRS runs only in a mixed-mode Exchange administrative group. SRS also performs additional functions, such as detecting and reacting to directory replication topology changes. You cannot consolidate your Exchange site until you remove all instances of SRS.

For detailed steps about how to remove Exchange SRS, see How to Remove Exchange SRS.

SRS is enabled automatically in two situations:

• On the first Exchange 2003 server you install in an Exchange 5.5 organization.

• When you upgrade to Exchange 2000 from an Exchange 5.5 server that is the directory replication bridgehead server for an organization.

After all instances of SRS are deleted, remove the Active Directory Connector (ADC) Service.

After you complete these steps, you can use the latest Exchange Server Deployment Tools to further help you with your site consolidation process, available from the Downloads for Exchange 2003 Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=25097).