How to Dismount and Delete the Mailbox and Public Folder Stores

 

Because a front-end server's role is to forward requests to the back-end servers, you may not need Microsoft® Exchange Server mailboxes or public folders on the front-end servers. The Exchange back-end server manages these databases.

If the front-end server is not an SMTP front-end server, you can dismount and delete the mailbox and public folder stores. If the front-end server is running SMTP, then the mailbox store must also be running. Therefore, it is recommended that you delete the public folder store and leave the mailbox store in a mounted state with circular logging enabled. Circular logging (which overwrites old log files) is recommended on the mailbox store because no user data is stored on the database.

Before You Begin

Before you perform the procedures in this topic, consider the following:

  • Before you delete the public folder store, make sure that you are running Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later on all computers that host public folders. Exchange Server 2003 SP2 includes improved functionality for managing and deleting public folders so that replication of public folder content is completed before the public folder store is deleted. The procedures in this topic assume that Exchange Server 2003 SP2 or later is installed. For information about the latest Exchange 2003 Service Packs, see the Downloads for Exchange 2003 Web site.

  • If you are not running SMTP on the front-end server, perform the first procedure in this topic. The first procedure explains how to dismount and then delete both the mailbox and public folder stores.

  • If you are running SMTP on the front-end server, perform the second procedure in this topic. The second procedure explains how to delete public folder stores and how to enable circular logging on the mailbox store. If you are running SMTP on the front-end server, you must leave the mailbox store in a mounted state.

  • If you already deployed the Exchange Group Policy Security Templates you must start the following services before you can perform the procedures in this topic:

    • Microsoft Exchange System Attendant

    • Microsoft Exchange Information Store

    • Microsoft Exchange MTA Stacks

    • Microsoft Exchange Routing Engine

    • IIS Admin Service

    • Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

    • World Wide Web Publishing Service

    • HTTP SSL

    Important

    Because both procedures in this topic require that you restart the server after you complete the procedure, the Exchange Group Policy Security Templates are enforced upon startup. Therefore, if you already deployed the Exchange Group Policy Security Templates, you do not have to manually disable the services after the restart.

Procedure

To delete the mailbox and public folder stores (SMTP is not running on the front-end server)

  1. Start Exchange System Manager on the front-end server.

  2. Make sure that the public folder store that you want to delete is mounted.

  3. To move the public folder replicas to another Exchange server that has a public folder store, right-click the public folder store you want, and then click Move All Replicas.

  4. In Move All Replicas, select the server to which you want to move the public folder replicas, and then click OK.

    Note

    Depending on network conditions and the size of the public folder replicas, it may take several hours to move the public folder replicas to other public folder stores.

  5. To confirm that all replicas have been moved, verify that there are no public folder instances in the public folder store.

  6. After all replicas are removed from the public folder store, right-click the public folder store, and then click Delete.

  7. A dialog box appears notifying you that the public folder store is acting as the default public folder hierarchy for one or more mailbox stores. Click OK, select a replacement public folder store on a back-end server, and then click OK again.

  8. For each mailbox store that is mounted, right-click the mailbox store instance, and then click Delete.

  9. After the mailbox store and public folder store are deleted, right-click the storage group, and then click Delete.

  10. To remove the files that were created and used by the mailbox store that you deleted, go to %Program Files%\exchsrvr\mdbdata and delete the .stm, .edb, .chk, and .log files.

  11. Restart the front-end server.

To delete the public folder store and enable circular logging on the mailbox store (SMTP is running on the front-end server)

  1. Start Exchange System Manager on the front-end server.

  2. Make sure that the public folder store that you want to delete is mounted.

  3. To move the public folder replicas to another Exchange server that has a public folder store, right-click the public folder store you want, and then click Move All Replicas,

  4. In Move All Replicas, select the server to which you want to move the public folder replicas, and then click OK.

    Note

    Depending on network conditions and the size of the public folder replicas, it may take several hours to move the public folder replicas to other public folder stores.

  5. To confirm that all replicas have been moved, verify that there are no public folder instances in the public folder store.

  6. After all replicas are removed from the public folder store, right-click the public folder store, and then click Delete.

  7. A dialog box appears notifying you that the public folder store is acting as the default public folder hierarchy for one or more mailbox stores or users. Click OK, select a replacement public folder store on a back-end server, and then click OK again.

  8. For each mailbox store that is mounted, right-click the storage group instance and then click Properties.

  9. In the storage group Properties, select the Enable circular logging check box, click OK, and then click Yes when you are prompted to continue.

  10. Restart the front-end server.