((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.

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

I have noticed a lot of questions come up regarding the severity of the 8275 error on an Exchange 2003 Server.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeFBPublish
Event Category: General
Event ID: 8275
Date: <date>
Time: <time>
User: N/A
Computer: <server>
Description:
SchedulePlusFreeBusy folder could not be opened for duplicate message deletion on virtual machine <server name>. The error number is 0×80040115.
For more information, click http://www.microsoft.com/contentredirect.asp.

This error normally can be resolved by restarting the System Attendant, if this error is being logged on a cluster failing over to the other node (and then back if desired) would also resolve the error.

Keep in mind that restarting the SA will restart your Information Store service as well so you should schedule this during a maintenance window.

When you look up another users Free Busy you may see ////// hash marks. Many Administrators know these hash marks, they can sometimes be frustrating. But, before immediately thinking you have a problem with Free Busy, it is important to know some, valid reasons for seeing these hash marks //////

For example, lets say there is a free busy message in the public folder but no meetings are scheduled in the calendar. You may see hash marks, not just a blank schedule when looking up the user. Below are the different mailbox/client scenarios and what they produce in this type of situation.

Free Busy message exists in Public Folder, but no meetings are scheduled during the clients publishing period (generally 2 months)

MB = Mailbox, CL = Client

MB Exchange 2003 with CL Outlook 2003 or 2007 = ////////////

MB Exchange 2007 with CL Outlook 2007 = <nothing>

MB Exchane 2007 with Outlook 2003 = /////////////

So you can see the only time we will actually see a blank calendar when there are no appointments or meetings scheduled in the users calendar is when we are using Outlook 2007 and Exchange 2007. Otherwise if the users calendar is blank for the entire publishing period we would see hash marks.

So, easy test. Next time you are fighting a ////// Free Busy battle, see if posting a meeting to the users calendar has any affect. Remember to give the entry time to publish and replicate if using multiple Public Folder Shed + Free Busy replicas.