Public Folders – Delete Public Folders from 2003 after migrating to 2010 (via Adsiedit) – safe

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Similar Question: How do I delete a public store in Exchange 2003?

We are ready to remove our Exchange 2003 server after having migrated all public folders and mailboxes to 2010. We ran for a week with the exchange 2003 server shut down and everything seemed to work.

When I try to delete the Public Folders database from 2003 it says it contains replicas. Whilst migrating I only had one was sync working (from 2003 to 2010) so I believe that 2003 hasn't received the responses from 2010 saying replica removed. When I look in Public folders on the 2003 box none are listed, when I look in Public Folders Instances they are all listed. I know everything has moved to the 2010 server and I know 2010 is not showing the 2003 server as a replica for any folders. I am looking to use ADSI edit to remove the Public folder database from the 2003 server, but want to ensure I am going to delete the right thing so that they do not get deleted from the 2010 database. I have checked and the only public folder with the old exchange server listed as a replica is SYSTEM CONFIGURATION.

Should I delete configuration, Services, Microsoft Exchange, Company Name, Administrative groups, First administrative group, Servers, Server name, Information store, First storage group, public folder store (Server name)? Or something else?

Best Answer

In Exchange 2003, databases are always child objects of Exchange servers; so you'l find them in the directory tree with a structure like

 <Administrative Group Name>
   <Servers>
     <Server Name>
       <Information Store>
         <Storage Group Name>
           <Database Name>

This changed in Exchange 2010, where databases are higher-level objects, and are no longer tied to a specific server.

So, yes, that's the right place where you will find an Exchange 2003 public folder database, and the right place where you can delete it.

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