Common errors upgrading from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 Server

Being an Exchange Server user a person knows the importance of EDB file since it work as a store house for the information that is sent and received via Exchange Server side application. And the corruption in this file may lead to a big halt in the fluency of the email communication of the whole organization.

EDB file gets corrupted because of issues and corruptions that occur due to sudden shutdown of MS Exchange Server, JET engine error, device failure, malicious attack, server downtime, virus attack etc.

Here we are going to discuss some error messages that are encountered usually in Exchange 2010 version when it is upgrade along with Exchange 2003 server version.

Exchange 2010 is installed for coexistence with Exchange 2003 using the tried and tested script:

setup.com /mode:Install /roles:CA,HT,MB /EnableLegacyOutlook /LegacyRoutingServer:exch03.ad.priv /ExternalCASServerDomain:mail.ad.com

After this installation process is completed and the server is rebooted the first error is encountered.

First Possible Error:-

The Public Folder Database created by the Exchange 2010 coexistence install is dismounted and then if you try to mount the Public Folder Database it will result this error:

The database action failed. Operation failed with message: MapiExceptionNotFound: Unable to mount database

Second Possible Error:-

There is no need to worry about the database, if you have taken backup. Now when you try to delete it from the Exchange Management Console (EMC), following error message will appear on your computer screen:-

Unexpected error … while executing command ‘remove-PublicFolderDatabase’. Additional information: at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.MonadDataProvider.MonadPipelineProxy.ClosePipeline(MonadAsyncResult asyncResult) …

You can use ADSI Edit connected to the Configuration Naming Context, for example:-

CN=Public Folder Database XXXXXXXXXX

Now you can delete key from:-

CN=Services, CN=Microsoft Exchange, CN=First Organization, CN=Administrative Groups, CN=Exchange Administrative Group (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX)

Now create a New Public Folder Database using the EMC (leave unchecked the ‘Mount this Database’) which completes fully and then mount it manually without any error occurrence.

Third Possible Error:-

Assuming the public folders are ready for sending and receiving data, you can start testing the email delivery from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2010 server to Exchange 2003 Server.

Then you find email delivery to Exchange 2010 is fine from Exchange 2003, but you are not able to send emails from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2003. So when you check the queue viewer and will find this error:-

Last Error: There is currently no route to the mailbox database

This is really very miscellaneous since the installation process was accurately done from the both ends (from Exchange 2003 to 2010 and 2010 to 2003) as seen in Exchange Server Manager (can also use Get-RoutingGroupConnector from the EMS).

In such a case you have a lot of risk of the corruption of the EDB file. When I did this because of these errors my EDB file got corrupted very badly. Then someone told me about Stellar Phoenix Exchange Server Recovery Software. This is really a very good utility to repair damaged EDB file or server. Also, it can be used with every version of the Exchange Eerver like 2010, 2007, 2003, 2000 and 5.5.