Re: Migration from SBS to 2003 Enterprise Server - Exchange Disaster?
- From: "Jeff Middleton [SBS-MVP]" <jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 13:32:18 -0600
Hi Alan,
You have covered a lot of ground there, so that in itself is pretty
impressive. I find myself wondering why you didn't obtain support from MS on
this last bit of Exchange trouble, as it would appear to me that you
probably were within moments of being done several times. I not offering
that as a criticsm of you work ethic, just that you clearly were at the
point it should have worked and wasn't.
I'm thinking that at the point you had users and connected mailboxes from
the old domain, and only needed to get the mailboxes working on the users
from the new domain...this should have been pretty simple based upon this KB
(I'm offering this in case it still has value to you):
How to Recover a Deleted Mailbox in Exchange
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/274343/EN-US/
As I have read your post, I shudder to think that you are considering
reinstalling all of this again from scratch. And yet I'm also not sure how
clean a solution you accomplished there. I have the sense that you used ADMT
or mailbox moves at some point, but I'm also really not clear if you have
your users/computers from the original domain preserved, or if you have a
clean new domain, or if you have a a new domain with SIDhistory preserving
migrated users. Given that you don't (with good reason) know how the
original domain could have fostered a pair of SBS servers in one domain, I
understand why you might not be sure of the status either. :)
As for your solution from here, I read your post and began to ponder which
of the following circumstances best describes your condition now:
1. You performed all the steps as outlined correctly, and you have a well
configured server in a condition that needs a minor bit more of information
in order to declare it finished.
2. You perform most all the steps as outlined, but missed something along
the way and therefore we would need to troubleshoot the path to the current
condition to locate what was wrong in your process.
3. In the process of adds, removes and reconfigurations, you have created a
situation that sort of defies understanding.
I generally think of most any SBS server as being fixable, sort of an
attitude I have about these things. However, the thing that leads me to have
the most direction on what to do next is to ask what level of functionality
exists over all?
Are all the users working but only without email?
Are the workstations connected to the domain and the users are all content
with the changes to their profiles that have occured, if any?
I think I would like to understand better what the exact status in total is.
As I would like to leave you with some steps to try for progress as opposed
to just asking questions, I have this suggestion. Regardless of what
condition your Exchange Server installation and Information Store is in at
this time, you have the option to:
- stop all the Exchange Services
- make a copy of the MDBDATA folder contents (and the system logs if they
aren't in that folder as well)
- then restart the Exchange to create a new Information Store from scratch
when prompted.
With a clean and new Information Store, you could then see if you can make
the new user establish a new mailbox based upon the KB I provided above. If
you can, then you have an option in front of you to Exmerge the previous
Information Store to PSTs and import it back if that's a reasonable solution
for you.
If you don't want to do the PST process, rather you want to try to preserve
the mailboxes in the existing Information Store, at least if you confirm
that you can work with a new store with new mailboxes, you will be able to
confirm the functional condition of your Exchange Server configuration, if
nothing else.
Once you have confidence in the Exchange Server, you could then return to
look at the Information Store you dismounted with the mailboxes in it and
see if you can delete all the mailbox attachments for all the users while
running the new empty store, then mount the previous store full of mailboxes
and disconnect any user connections using the cleanup agent. From there,
reconnect the users to the correct mailboxes.
The remaining possibility is that in some manner, you have mailboxes in the
store that are not homed to the current Exchange Server at all, therefore
you might need to be using ADSiEdit to modify the attributes of the users or
go into the mailbox store in Exchange to edit those references.
I don't think you need to reinstall the servers to address the Exchange
problem, that determination would be only based upon other issues you didn't
cover in you original post.
I still see that your best option for a quick resolution in something as
complicated as this scenario is would be to establish direct support contact
to get this resolved, such as calling MS PSS for support. As an alternative,
I provide support to IT Pros directly for disaster recovery and migration
scenarios, and I could help you directly if you prefer that.
Jeff Middleton SBS MVP
YCST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Alan Schwartz" <AlanSchwartz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:05541C7A-DEEA-4471-AF73-C1E4EA1E7241@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> The company I've been working with has had a pair of servers running SBS
for
> several years. I am at a loss to understand how they got two SBS servers
> running on the same domain in the first place, but when I came into the
> picture that is how it was. One was the domain controller and file server
> while the other was the exchange server.
>
> A hard drive failed in the mail server and the system was physically
> unrecoverable.
>
> I immediately built a new server using the second SBS license creating a
new
> domain and hand recreating the user accounts...as an emergency way to get
> their email back in service. This worked with little difficulty for 2
months
> (minor inconveniences in terms of workstation configurations since
connecting
> to a second domain for email, and hand synchronizing password changes.)
>
> Meanwhile I had them buy and built a new domain controller using Win 2003
> Server Enterprise. I joined the new machine to the old domain as a
secondary
> DC, promoted to primary (transferrring the GC, etc.) and demoted the old
> domain server to a standard server.
>
> Next I had the damaged machine repaired and had the vendor install Win2003
> Server Enterprise as a standard server. I transfered all the user files
and
> shares to the rebuilt machine and powered down the old demoted DC.
>
> So far so good. Now I'm attempting to add the Exchange Server 2003
> functionality to the NEW PDC. The intention is that I will retire the
> temporary/emergency email server that I put together.
>
> As it stands the primary domain user accounts have exchange settings
> pointing to the long gone email server that failed (for example:
> OLDFAILEDSERVER/First Storage Group/Mailbox Store (OLDFAILEDSERVER)). So
I
> attempted to migrate the matching accounts from the working SBS server in
the
> other domain...I ended up with a set of new accounts complete with the
> from the working server, and mailbox stores on the new server (for
example:
> NEWPDC/First Storage Group/Mailbox Store (NEWPDC)). From reading the
> directions it seemed that it would be possible to map the migrating boxes
to
> existing user accounts, but THAT option was never presented by the
utility.
>
> I only have about a dozen email/user accounts, so after pulling my hair
out
> for days I decided to that I would simply create new accounts from scratch
if
> necessary. I attempted to create one new test account but when I go
through
> the new user dialog it forces me to use the 'olddeadserver' mailstore
> location. Likewise the mailstore field on the A/D user edit screen is
'VIEW
> ONLY'. I assume this is driven from some registry key / A/D value tucked
> away somewhere, and that even if I searched it out there would be multiple
> unhappy reprocutions from attempting to change it by hand.
>
> In exasperation, I decided to attempt uninstalling Exchange (AGAIN, tried
> this several times already and while it went through the motions without
> errors, major pieces were left in tact.) NOW I can not uninstall as it
tells
> me there are active email accounts. I must be careful as the machine I'm
> attempting to get the Exchange functionality working on is our live PDC.
>
> I know I've left out lots of details along the way...for instance, I've
> painstakingly stepped through measures at:
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=823159,
> and at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837285/ (even though I wasn't yet
> running windows firewall.)
>
> Given my level of knowledge, my next step is to start from scratch with
two
> new servers and never let them see the old servers...this seems a bit
> drastic. I'm hoping that the problem is imminently solvable by someone
more
> knowledable here...Please help.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Alan
.
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