Microsoft Exchange Server allows you to distribute and synchronize shared information. The process of keeping public folder replicas synchronized is called public folder replication. In other words, you can take a public folder and replicate it to different Microsoft Exchange Server computers. These folders are called public folder replicas. Replicas contain the same information as the originating public folder but reside on other Microsoft Exchange Server computers as well as on the originating server.
Public folder replication ensures that each copy of a public folder contains the same information as the corresponding replicas on other Microsoft Exchange Server computers. You can specify replication at regularly scheduled intervals.
To replicate public folders, a Microsoft Exchange Server computer sends messages to all other servers on the replica list and updates those replicas. The remote replicas are updated with new messages, attachments, and any other folder contents that have been added, deleted, or modified locally.
The only distinct member of the replica list is the replica on the public folder server with the Home-MDB attribute. The server with the Home-MDB attribute in the public folder directory entry is the delivery location for items mailed to the folder.
For more information about setting a schedule for public folder replication, see Microsoft Exchange Server Getting Started.
Public folder replication results in the following benefits: