How to Migrate Public Folders from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010

Microsoft Exchange Server is the most preferred emailing server compare to any other email server.Over the past two decade many versions of MS Exchange server has been evolved including Exchange Server 4.0 to Exchange Server 2013. Every new or upgraded version of Exchange server is launched with improved features. And many large and medium category organizations make the use of MS Exchange Server extensively. So, sometime we need to use latest version to improve the performance of our email account, and we do this by migrating our existing version to another version by using Exchange inbuilt feature or with the help of third party migrating software.

So with this blog we are answering here how you can easily migrate public folders of Exchange Server 2003 to 2010. But before discuss the procedure of Public Folders migration;we’ll know the features of MS Exchange 2010 over 2003, and the key reasons why we do need to migrate the Public Folders of Exchange Server 2003 to 2010.

So first we start with its features, let’s check it-

Features of MS Exchange 2003:  

• This version of Microsoft Exchange has enhanced disaster recovery, and letting administrators to bring server online rapidly. 
• This version has the ability to drop inbound e-mail before being fully processed. 
•  Exchange 2003 has enhanced message and mailbox management tools. 
•  It has also added several basic filtering methods such as Intelligent Message filter, Sender ID filtering, Connection filtering, and Recipient filtering.

Features of MS Exchange 2010:

This version of Microsoft Exchange has many new features like:

•    DAG(Database Availability Group) which provides database level high availability and accessibility. 
•    CAS(Client Access Server) availability is provided by using CAS arrays. 
•    RPC Client Access, this service facilitates all Outlook clients to access their mailbox database. 
•    Personal Archive feature is available. 
•    Exchange Server 2010 has also added 'Shadow Redundancy' feature which protects e-mails messages while they are in transit.

Here are some common reasons when we need to do the migration of public folders in Exchange Server -

1.       First, sometime it can be seen that clients Outlook versions are not upgraded. So the Outlook 2003and previous versions require a Public Folder database for storing and distributing the data.

2.       Secondly, some third party applications require public folders to work. 

So, to fix the limitations of previous Outlook versions, we migrate public folders in Exchange Server. Here is the method to migrate private folders which is divided into two steps, 

                                I.            Copying Exchange 2003 public folders to Exchange 2010, and

                              II.            Moving Exchange 2003 public folders to Exchange Server 2010.

Step I: Firstly, copy Exchange 2003 Public Folders to Exchange 2010,then

Add the Exchange 2010 server as Public Folder in collaboration with Exchange 2003 server Public Folders and execute the following command:

From the Exchange 2010 server: .\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 -server "Exchange 2010 Server" -TopPublicFolder "\" -ServerToAdd "Exchange 2010 Server"

# If you want to migrate multiple public folders into MS Exchange 2010 server. Then repeat the above command to all of them.

Now, by using the Exchange 2003 System Manager, copy the Exchange 2003 Public Folder hierarchy & content to Exchange 2010 server. And then execute the following command:

From the Exchange 2010 server: Update-PublicFolderHierarchy -Server "Exchange 2010 Server”

               

Step II: Now move all replicas from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 through “move all replicas” which actually eliminate the Exchange 2003 replicas.

To move all Exchange 2003 replicas to Exchange 2010, this will essentially eliminate the Exchange 2003 replicas. Execute the following command:

From the Exchange 2010 server: .\MoveAllReplicas.ps1 -Server "Exchange 2003 Server" -NewServer "Exchange 2010 Server"

However, in some drastic situation if you find that the migration of public folders between the Exchange 2003 and 2010 is not possible, it may be due to the corruption or damage of public folders. To get rid of this situation, a third party software can be used to prevent the data lose. Click to see the most prominent Exchange recovery software which not only recover Exchange user’s mailbox & data but also repair damaged EDB files and corrupted Mailboxes.