September 3, 2010

Public Folders Not Replicating Between Exchange 2007 and 2010

During a migration from Exchange Server 2007 to Exchange Server 2010 you may encounter a problem with the replication of public folders.

In this situation neither the public folder hierarchy or content will replicate from Exchange Server 2007 to a public folder database on Exchange Server 2010. This will usually occur in Exchange organizations that have previously run versions of Exchange Server 2003 or below.

No PF Hierarchy

The Exchange Server 2010 Application Event Log will have this error:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        MSExchange Store Driver
Date:          13/06/2010 2:08:36 PM
Event ID:      1020
Task Category: MSExchangeStoreDriver
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      SERVER
Description:
The store driver couldn't deliver the public folder replication message "Status Request (PublicFolders@domain.com)" because the following error occurred: The Active Directory user wasn't found..

The cause of this error is a legacy container in Active Directory for the Exchange 2003 (or earlier) server objects.

Note: this only applies to organizations that no longer run any Exchange 2003 or earlier servers. Do not follow these steps if you still have Exchange 2003 or earlier versions running in your organization.

Launch ADSIEdit.msc and navigate to CN=Configuration <your domain>, CN=Services, CN=Microsoft Exchange, CN=<your org name>, CN=Administrative Groups, CN=<your legacy administrative group>, CN=Servers.

Navigate to the CN=Servers container

If you no longer operate any Exchange 2003 or earlier servers and the Servers container is empty then you can delete the container.

You should now be able to replicate the public folder hierarchy and content from Exchange Server 2007 to 2010.

Comments

  1. Didier Van Hoye says:

    Indeed. Also when you have multpile legacy server container that are empty and even when the default one has been renamend you can delete them. This was verified by the Exchange team en MS Support. Using exFolders you can find out if you are affected before even trying PF replication. See more infor + screenshot on http://workinghardinit.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/exchange-2007-2010-public-folders-issues-the-active-directory-user-wasnt-found/

    Cheers

  2. Nelson says:

    a lot clearer instructions!!! i finally made it to work. thanks!

  3. RobertSeattle says:

    I had same issue, but still have Exchange 2007 Exchange 2010 Public folder replication issues.

    Error -1404 occurred while generating an outgoing replication message.
    Type: 0×4
    Folder:
    Arg.

  4. Robert, I also encountered issues with an infinite loop detected in the routing topology. Public Folder replication messages were visible in the Queue Viewer with a “loop detected” error so that one wasn’t hard to find.

    I’ve also encountered replication problems when public folders have invalid attributes, such as names with trailing whitespaces. This would be noticeable if you ran “get-publicfolderstatistics” and it returned warning messages.

    Aside from that I haven’t encountered any other specific issues.

  5. RobertSeattle says:

    Paul,

    Thanks. Nothing “interesting” in the Queue. I fixed all the trialing white space issues when I moved to Exchange 2007. I’ll probably have to call in a SR for this when i have the time. Perhaps the new repair tools in SP1 will help.

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