Re: Exch 2003 -> Exch 2007 SP1 Public Folder Replication Problem

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On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:01:56 -0700, Mark Olbert
<ChairmanMAO@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Andy,

Thanks for the quick reply. I did as you suggested. BTW, the message tracking logs and utilities are really useful and I didn't know
before how to access them (as I said, I'm a newbie at Exchange).

The logs show that replication is being attempted, but it fails with an error 554 5.6.0, citing a property validation error. I
believe this means there's something wrong with the content of some field in each of those two non-replicating folders.

Do you have any idea how I can figure out just which field/data is causing the problem? Would upping the log level provide more
information?

If its what I think it is, its a bug. Sometimes those 2003 replication
messages also crash the transport service on the 2007 HTs. You could
open a case with Microsoft support, or ( I know this stinks) copy the
folde items on the 2003 side to a pst in Outlook. Then using a maibox
that has its default public store set to the 2007 pf server, copy the
items back into the pf folder. ( Does that make sense?)





- Mark

p.s. to any Microsoft employees hanging out here: I am continually amazed, as I deal with your products, that even after all these
years they still leave vital information out of logs. This current situation is a wonderful case in point: Exchange 2007 is doing a
great job of validating each and every field value being sent to it...but, given that error checking, the log report should indicate
which field is causing the problem! Ideally, it should also indicate the data value that caused the problem, but I know that can be
difficult to pin down. But I can't imagine the field isn't known when the exception is caught; the heterogenous nature of the fields
in a contact or calendar folder means the error checking is almost certainly being done on a field-by-field basis.

This "extra" information is particularly important in that this problem came into existence during my attempt to migrate from
Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007. There was no problem with the data under Exchange 2003. There obviously is under Exchange 2007. You
owe it to your customers, if you're going to enforce a tighter, or different, standard on data to let them know what previously good
data is now bad.

On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:38:03 -0400, Andy David {MVP} <adavid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:29:20 -0700, Mark Olbert
<ChairmanMAO@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Some further info. I don't know if it'll help point to a solution to the underlying replication problem, but here goes.

Just for fun, I took those two "empty" folders out of the replication list for the new Exchange 2007 SP1 server (i.e., they now
exist only on the original Exchange 2003 server and are not replicated to the new system).

After doing this, Outlook was able to see the content of the two folders. Which relieved me no end (I was a little concerned I'd
just demolished 15 years worth of contact information).

Yea, it was always there, just not replicated to the 2007 server.


Try replicating it again.
If it doesnt work after that, right click the folder in the 2003 ESM
and under tasks choose Resend Content. For number of days, choose
9999999 - something high like that and see if the items on the 2007
side now match the number of items on the 2003 side.
If that doesnt work, check the message tracking logs on the 2007 Hub
Transport.
Sort on all message that "FAIL" and see if any messages are public
folder replication messages and what the reason is.

Good Luck.



- Mark


On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:11:55 -0700, Mark Olbert <ChairmanMAO@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Apologies in advance for any silly questions here. I am pretty new at installing & administering Exchange.

I've built a Server 2008 box on which I've successfully installed Exchange 2007 SP1. It is destined to replace a Server
2003/Exchange 2003 box. Currently, both systems are running as DCs, but the Server 2008 system "owns" the FSMO roles (if I'm
remembering the acronym correctly). I know that running Exchange on a DC is not the most desirable configuration, but my wife gets
cranky if I have too many servers in the wine cellar :).

I was able to migrate mailboxes without any problems, and I was able to migrate most of public folders, too. However, the content of
two of the public folders did not migrate properly. One of those folders contains contact information, while the other contains
calendar information. BTW, the folder hierarchy replicated itself correctly (i.e., I can see the contact and calendar folders on the
Exchange 2007 server, but they're empty when I try to look into them from Outlook 2007 on a client machine).

In trying to figure out what's wrong I noticed that the two folders in question did not have their replication status set to "Use
default"; they were set to "Never" replicate. I don't remember configuring them that way, so I'm guessing that that's how they were
initialized when the hierarchy was replicated (but I'm not sure; maybe I did muck around with them). However, correcting that
problem did not get the two folders to replicate. I also went back to the Server 2003 system and set the replication to "Urgent",
"Run always", but that didn't seem to have any effect either.

I then tried using the Exchange 2007 Shell and the Update-PublicFolder cmdlet to force replication on the calendar folder (I'd
previously tried selecting the folder in the GUI and doing an Update Content on it, but that didn't work). I got back what appeared
to be an error message saying the source folder was running on an Exchange 2003/Windows 2003 server (which it is).

I'd appreciate getting suggestions on how to resolve this situation, particularly as currently I don't have access to that contact
and calendar information, which is going to get me in hot water Real Soon Now. If nothing else, I wouldn't mind some tips on how I
go about spelunking in the replication logs to see if I can track down the problem.

- Mark
.

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