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

ID: Q174197

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Merge Program (Exmerge.exe) allows a Microsoft Exchange administrator to extract data from mailboxes on a Microsoft Exchange Server computer and then merge this data into the same mailboxes on another computer running Microsoft 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.

In order for this program to successfully work, the user must be logged On to Windows NT with the Microsoft 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 will only run 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 run the program, double click on the Exmerge.exe program from the Windows NT explorer.

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

Messages copied will lose their single instance storage and this may result in the size of the Microsoft Exchange Private Information Storage 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 will allow 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 we 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.


If you're having problems getting mailboxes on a server, do the following:

  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 Microsoft Exchange Administrator program when you view the Mailbox Resources of the private information store. The workaround to this problem is to log on to the Microsoft Exchange client and send an e-mail message to all mailboxes on that server. This will create mailbox objects in the information store for all mailboxes.


Error Messages

The following error may be reported in the ExMerge.log:

Error configuring message service (MSEMS)


This error can be generated if there is no Directory object for a mailbox object that exists in the information store.

Check the Mailbox Resources page of the Private Information Store, in the Administrator program and then verify that Directory Objects exists for the mailboxes listed in the Mailbox Resources. Directory objects can be created manually, or by using the DS/IS adjustment.

NOTE: Please make sure you understand the implications of running the DS/IS adjustment before you run it.

The following error may also be reported:

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


Make sure that you are logged on to Windows NT with an account that has rights to the mailboxes you are trying to access using Exmerge.exe It may be easiest to log on to Windows NT using the Microsoft Exchange Service account.

If you receive the following error:

Error creating Message Service (MSPST MS)


make sure that Microsoft Exchange client is installed on the computer that Exmerge.exe is running on.

After using the Exmerge utility to move a user's mailbox, any users using offline storage (OST) will have to fully synchronize all folders. If the contents of the mailbox are missing for any reason or have been lost, the messages may have to be restored from the OST. This will involve adding personal folders (PSTs) to the profile, starting the client offline, and manually moving messages from the OST to the PST then back to the mailbox.

For more information on restoring messages from an OST, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q163589 XCLN: Restoring from an OST after Deleting the Mailbox

Version Information

Version 1.3: Fixed a problem noticed when aliases longer than 18 characters in length are encountered. The following error is logged:
Error creating MAPI profile
Version 1.4: Added functionality to copy messages individually if the MAPI_W_PARTIAL_COMPLETION error is encountered. Added extra logging when errors are encountered during the message copy process.

Additional query words: 


Keywords          : XADM 
Version           : winnt:4.0,5.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbinfo

Last Reviewed: April 2, 1999