Mailbox import and export requests

Applies to: Exchange Server 2013

Using the MailboxImportRequest or MailboxExportRequest cmdlet sets in the Exchange Management Shell, you can import data from or export data to .pst files. After you initiate a mailbox import or export request, the process is completed asynchronously by the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service (MRS). MRS resides on all Exchange 2010 Client Access servers and is the service responsible for moving mailboxes and importing and exporting .pst files.

Reasons to import or export mailbox data

You may want to import or export mailbox data for the following reasons:

• Satisfy compliance requirements: You can export mailbox content to a .pst file for legal discovery purposes. After the export is complete, you can import the content to a mailbox used specifically for compliance purposes.

• Create a point-in-time snapshot of a mailbox: By creating a snapshot of specific mailboxes, you avoid having to retain an entire backup set for a mailbox database.

• Move a user's .pst file into his or her mailbox or personal archive: Microsoft Outlook users can save their email locally as .pst files. Using the New-MailboxImportRequest cmdlet, you can move data from a user's .pst file to his or her mailbox or personal archive. This is an easy method for transferring email from a user's local computer to Exchange servers.

Advantages to using import and export requests

Advantages to using import and export requests in Exchange 2013 include the following reasons:

• A .pst provider is included in Exchange 2013 that can read and write .pst files.
• Import and export requests are asynchronous. The process is performed by MRS, which takes advantage of the queuing and throttling frameworks.
• The .pst files can be imported directly to a user's personal archive.
• Multiple .pst files can be imported or exported at the same time.
• The .pst files can reside on any shared network drive accessible by your Exchange servers.
• Exchange 2013 supports these .pst files: Unicode files created by Office Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010

Considerations

Before you import or export mailbox data, consider the following items:

• To import or export mailbox data, a network shared folder accessible by your Exchange servers must be set up. You must also grant read/write permissions to the Exchange Trusted Subsystem group so that the group can access the network share where you import and export mailbox data. If you don't grant this permission, you will receive an error message stating that Exchange is unable to establish a connection to the target mailbox.

• The maximum .pst file size supported by Outlook is 50 gigabytes (GB). Therefore, we recommend that you don't import a .pst file larger than 50 GB. You can create multiple .pst files for mailboxes larger than 50 GB by specifying specific folders to include or exclude or by using a content filter.

• Import and export requests are performed by MRS, which also processes move requests and mailbox restore requests. All requests are queued and throttled by MRS.

• Importing and exporting mailbox data may take several hours depending on file size, network bandwidth, and MRS throttling.

• Data can't be imported to a public folder or public folder database.

Importing mailbox data

Use the MailboxImportRequest cmdlet set to import data from a .pst file to a mailbox or personal archive. The following is a list of options you can specify when importing mailbox data from a .pst file:

• You can import data to a different user account than the one from which it was exported. For example, you can export data from john@contoso.com and import it to legaldiscovery@contoso.com.

• You can import items to only the user's personal archive by specifying the IsArchive parameter.

• If associated folder messages exist in the .pst file, you can import them using the AssociatedMessagesCopyOption parameter. Associated messages contain hidden data with information about rules, views, and forms. If they exist in the .pst file, all messages from the safety net are imported.

• You can include or exclude specific folders using the IncludeFolders or ExcludeFolders parameter.

• You can exclude the Recoverable Items folder using the ExcludeDumpster parameter. By default, an import request includes the user's Recoverable Items folder if it's present in the .pst file.

Mailbox import request cmdlets

Use the following cmdlets for mailbox import requests.

Exporting mailbox data

Use the MailboxExportRequest cmdlet set to export mailbox data to a .pst file. You can export one mailbox or several mailboxes, but only one request is written to each .pst file at a time. The following is a list of options you can specify when exporting mailbox data to a .pst file:

• You can export personal archive data using the IsArchive parameter.

• You can filter the messages that are exported using the ContentFilter parameter. You can filter by message content, attachment, senders, recipients, Inbox category, importance, message type, message size, and when the message was sent, received, or expired.

• You can specify folders to include or exclude using the IncludeFolders or ExcludeFolders parameter. If exporting data from an Exchange 2013 mailbox, you can also exclude the Recoverable Items folder using the ExcludeDumpster parameter.

• You can export associated messages using the AssociatedMessagesCopyOption parameter. Associated messages contain hidden data with information about rules, views, and forms. By default, associated items aren't copied to the .pst file.

Mailbox export request cmdlets

Use the following cmdlets for mailbox export requests.