((MXECHO))

It is rather common for people to experience problems after their mailbox has been moved between Exchange Servers. This is usually due to something else playing a part in the move, for example maybe Anti_Virus on the server has not been configured properly (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823166 and http://www.msexchange.org/articles/Properly-Configure-file-system-antivirus-Exchange.html) or maybe something else is hooked into the mailbox when trying to move, 3rd party archiver or indexer…whatever. What can you do to help verify that your mailbox moves will go as planned? Well of course you can test on a small subset prior to your whole org, but you can also turn up diagnostic logging on the Exchange Server to get more information about the mailbox moves during the move, so should something go wrong you can go back and review.

In Exchange 2003 – Navigate in Exchange System Manager to the Exchange Server, right-click and choose Properties, open the Diagnostic Logging tab and choose MSExchangeIS\System\Move Mailbox – turn this up to Maximum. This will generate a lot of events in the application log on your server (so be mindful of space) but will also give you much more information about how the procedure went and if there were any errors in the process.

In Exchange 2007 you will use the Management Shell

set-eventloglevel –id “MSExchangeIS\9002 System\Move Mailbox” –level expert

and to turn it back down

set-eventloglevel –id “MSExchangeIS\9002 System\Move Mailbox” –level lowest

Hope this helps in troubleshooting Move Mailbox operations.

If you ever find your self in a position where you need to run a hard repair against an Exchange database, it is important you understand the entire procedure. First I should say that running the /p against your database should never be your first choice, it is always your last resort. You have no backup, and no other options.

So here is your procedure

1. eseutil /p <path to edb>
   1. this process will take a long time, usually deleting the unicode table takes the longest and you should be careful not to click in the black command prompt window, this can pause eseutil. If you do pause, you can resume by clicking the top cmd promt title bar and pressing F5. This procedure will take a while.
   2. this process deletes data that is corrupt or incomplete so the database can be brought back to a consistent state.
2. eseutil /d <path to edb>
   1. this process will defrag the repaired database and must be run after the /p.
   2. you must have at least 110% free space, relative to the database size in order to run this command. You can redirect to another temp location using the /t switch (eseutil /d <full path to edb> /tX:\tempdfg.edb)
   3. again do not click the command prompt screen, it may pause eseutil
3. isinteg –fix <servername> –test alltests
   1. Before you can run isinteg –fix you will have to mount and dismount the database. To do this,
      1. move all logs from the original storage group location, stop smtp so no new mail is delivered to the database, mount the DB and then dismount, you can then restart SMTP.
   2. isinteg will create a log file named isinteg.pri, check this log when finished, at the bottom of the log you will see how many errors and fixes were encountered. Run this test until you see 0 errors and 0 fixes. You may need to run this 2 or 3 times.

Once you have run EACH of the steps above you can then mount your Database and allow your clients to connect. Each is very important to the stability of your database in the future. It is even recommended that you eventually move all your mailboxes from this database to a new database in the future.

The process of using eseutil /p can get you out of a bad situation but it is never something you want to use unless you are out of options. This will take a LONG time and you will lose data from your DB.

recap – process is

eseutil /p

eseutil /d

mount / dismount

isinteg –fix –s <servername> –test alltests

I ran across a situation the other day that I thought could use some additional explanation. In this case when users would open a Public Folder for the first time through Outlook the Outlook client would lock up or become unresponsive. If the user closed (end task) Outlook and went back into the same Public Folder then it opened quickly. If they waited (not ending task) then the Outlook client would “hang” for 40 seconds to 2 or 3 minutes – depending on how many items were in the Public Folder, but the folder would eventually open. The more items, the longer the wait time. As testing the Admin, created new profiles, and even restarted the computer several times to test. The issue ONLY occurs the first time they open the folder, after the first long pause, the folder opens fast each and every time. These clients were online clients. To clarify, this was for each folder in the Public Folder hierarchy. 

When we open a Public Folder in Outlook online mode the server creates the view for your client based on the view requested by the client. On most clients the view is standard, meaning they have not added any additional columns or modifications. In this standard scenario, the server has the general view already created as a table and can provide this view to the client quickly. However if your client is requesting a different view, then the server must create this view as a table in the store in order to present the view to the client. Once the view is created it is kept for a given amount of time (varies depending on Exchange version, but at least days) and is reused the next time it is requested. This is why the users would see the data quickly after the initial delay.

Do you have any control over these views or workarounds for the initial delay? There are two attributes on the public folder store that can control how many cached views are held and how long they are held for, msexchmaxcachedviews and msexchagingkeeptime. The biggest impact you can have on this initial delay is lowering the item count for the folders you are trying to access. The more items in the folder, the longer it will take to present the new view to your client. The other option you have is to reset your clients views back to default. You may  not even realize that you are using a view that is not common. The Outlook switch /cleanviews will reset your clients views back to default. This will NOT clear any views from the server, just the settings on the client.

This same type of behavior can be seen in mail folders as well, not just Public Folders. In fact many people may see this after a mailbox move as the views associated with the mailbox will needs to be recreated. Once the view is created, as long as it is accessed frequently enough the view will not be deleted from the server and the clients performance will remain quick. If the user goes on vacation….and doesn’t access their custom view for a given amount of time, then when they return they will also more than likely see some initial delays while those views are being created.

For additional information on this behavior see this TechNet article http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc535025.aspx