1 x Exchange 2003 Server (In the decomissioning process)
1 x Exchange 2010 Server
10 x Outlook 2007 Clients
No Outlook clients below Outlook 2007 i.e. No Outlook 2003 clients.
200 OWA users
The Exchange 2003 to 2010 Transition has gone well. All mailboxes have been moved to the new Exchange 2010 server.
I want to delete the Exchange 2003 Public Folder heirarchy without replicating it to the Exchange 2010 server if it's not in use.
What's the best way to test if any Public Folders are in use?
Best Answer
Even if nobody touches those files for 6 months, I still wouldn't let them disappear for a while. You'll save yourself a lot of potential headaches by replicating these PFs to the 2010 box and simply not making them accessible to the users, if you truly want to phase them out (I bet you can create the PF DB, replicate, then take it offline and get it off the exchange storage, if necessary). Document it thoroughly and keep the PF DB around for the longest retention period on your backups (I'd go with 5 years, myself).
It's CYA at it's finest. If nobody ever needs it, you 'wasted' maybe an hour fiddling with it. If they DO need it, you saved yourself a world of aggrivation. I can't tell you how many times I've been called on to resurrect a 2- or 3-year-old file.
Another alternative would be to pull all the data out & stuff it onto some kind of cheap NAS or offline backup. The idea of having to resurrect that Exchange 2003 server so you can restore the PFs from backup in order to retrieve one file... just sounds ugly.