XADM: Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Merge Program (Exmerge.exe) Information

• Microsoft Exchange Server, versions 4.0, 5.0, 5.5

SUMMARY

The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Merge Program (Exmerge.exe) is included in the Microsoft BackOffice Resource Kit, Second Edition. The program allows a Microsoft Exchange Server administrator to extract data from mailboxes on an Exchange Server computer and then merge this data into the same mailboxes on another computer running Exchange Server.

Exmerge.exe copies data from the source server into personal folder (PST) files and then merges the data in the personal folders into the mailboxes on the destination server.

The program has two modes of operation: One Step and Two Step.

In One Step mode, the program copies data from the source mailbox to a PST file and then merge the data in the PST file into the same mailbox on the destination server. In this case, the mailbox on the destination server must have the same mailbox name and the same container path. The Distinguished Name (DN) of the mailbox on the destination server is obtained by replacing the Organization and Site names in the DN of the mailbox on the source server with the Organization and Sites names of the destination server.

In Two Step mode, the user has the option of only copying data to PST files or merging data from PST files into a server.

For this program to successfully work, the user must be logged on to Microsoft Windows NT with the Exchange Service account. If this is not possible, then the current Windows NT account must have permissions on all mailboxes selected to be merged.

The program creates a log file called C:\Exmerge.log, which contains any errors encountered during operation.

This program only runs on Windows NT 4.0 or later.

Before you run this program, make sure that the Microsoft Exchange Client and the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program are installed on the computer that Exmerge.exe is being run on.

To start the program, double-click on the Exmerge.exe program from the Windows NT Explorer.

This version of Exmerge.exe only merges user folders and messages. It does not support Inbox Rules, forms, and Schedule+ data. Exmerge.exe merges Outlook Calendars and Contacts.

Messages copied lose their single instance storage and this may result in the size of the Exchange private information store increasing significantly.

MORE INFORMATION

To use Exmerge.exe when the information store won't start, perform the following steps:

NOTE: Assume the production server is called SERVERP and another test server is called SERVERT.

1. Create a new (blank) information store on SERVERP by moving out all the files in the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata directory. This allows the information store service to start.



2. Restore or recover the old information store onto SERVERT.



3. Stop the information store service on SERVERP.



4. Stop the information store service on SERVERT.



5. On SERVERT, rename the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata directory to Mdbdata.old.



6. On SERVERT, create a new directory called Exchsrvr\Mdbdata.



7. On SERVERP, rename the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata directory to Mdbdata.new.



8. On SERVERP create a new directory called Exchsrvr\Mdbdata.



9. On SERVERP, from the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata.new directory copy the Priv.edb and the Pub.edb files to the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata directory on SERVERT.



10. On SERVERT, from the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata.old directory copy the Priv.edb and the Pub.edb files to the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata directory on SERVERP. Hence, you have swapped the Priv.edb and Pub.edb files on the two servers.



11. On SERVERP, run Isinteg -patch.



12. On SERVERT, run Isinteg -patch.



13. Run the Exmerge program to now merge all data from SERVERT into SERVERP.

1. Check server name.



2. Check Organization and Site names.



3. Verify that the directory and information store are running on the server. The Exmerge program gets the list of mailboxes from the information store, because it also gets the mailbox size.



4. Sometimes the list displayed may not contain all the mailboxes on the Exchange Server computer. Mailboxes that have never been logged on to have no Information Store object. Therefore, these mailboxes are not detected. This behavior is also noticed in the Exchange Server Administrator program when you view the mailbox resources of the private information store. The workaround to this problem is to log on to the Exchange client and send an e-mail message to all mailboxes on that server. This creates mailbox objects in the information store for all mailboxes.

Error Messages

Error configuring message service (MSEMS)

Error opening message store (MSEMS). Verify you have the correct permissions to log on.

Error creating Message Service (MSPST MS)

Q163589 XCLN: Restoring from an OST after Deleting the Mailbox

Version Information

Error creating MAPI profile

Additional query words:

Keywords : XADM exc4 exc5 exc55
Version : winnt:4.0,5.0,5.5
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbinfo