XADM: How to Prevent Logons during Move Mailbox

• Microsoft Exchange Server, versions 4.0, 5.0, 5.5

SUMMARY

This article explains how to move mailboxes between two Exchange Server computers in the same site while preventing users from logging on. This is useful in situations where you are approaching a disk space limit or a 16-GB database limit in Exchange Server versions 4.x and 5.x.

MORE INFORMATION

To restrict logons to the information store and still allow a move mailbox operation to complete, follow these steps:

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys And Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

1. Stop the Information Store Service on the Exchange Server computer.



2. Run Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).



3. From the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, go to the following key:




\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem

4. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and type Logon Only As in the Value Name text box. Type REG_MULTI_SZ in the Data Type text box.



5. Click OK. In the Data text box, type the entire Distinguished Name of both the System Attendant mailbox and the Directory Service mailbox of both the source and target servers on separate lines and then click OK. For example:

   
   /o=OrgName/ou=Site1/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=Server1/cn=Microsoft System Attendant
   /o=OrgName/ou=Site1/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=Server2/cn=Microsoft System Attendant
   /o=OrgName/ou=Site1/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=Server1/cn=Microsoft DSA
   /o=OrgName/ou=Site1/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=Server2/cn=Microsoft DSA 

   NOTE: To find out the Distinguished Name of the mailbox that you would like to add, you may need to start the Exchange Administrator program in raw mode. To do so, at a command prompt, type c:\exchsrvr\bin\admin.exe /R, where c: is the drive where the admin.exe file is installed.
   
   In raw mode, select the mailbox that you wish to allow to log on, and on the File menu, click Raw Properties. In this case, choose the System Attendant mailbox and the Directory Service mailbox. You can see the raw properties of these two mailboxes from Mailbox Resources. Next, look for the Object attribute that says Obj-Dist-Name; this is the entry that goes into the registry as mentioned in step 5. You may need to scroll to get the full path.



6. Click OK.



7. Close the Registry Editor.



8. You will need to restart the Information Store service in order for the change to be activated.
   
   This entry will only allow the mailboxes that have permission to log on, in this case, the System Attendant and Directory mailboxes. Leaving the Logon Only As value blank will prevent everyone from logging on.
   
   In order to allow all users to log on again, you must stop the Information Store service, then delete the Logon Only As value from the registry, and restart the Information Store service.

Additional query words:

Keywords :
Version : winnt:4.0,5.0,5.5
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbhowto