Restarting Replication
A replication storm is bad, but you do want public folder replication to proceed
when network conditions are stable. Without replication, functions such as free/busy
information won't work properly because servers can't replicate data between
each other. You can start replication by clicking the organization object in
ESM and selecting the Resume Public Folders Content Replication option. ESM
displays this option to resume replication only when a stop-replication operation
is in effect.
ESM then displays a dialog box asking you to confirm that you want to restart
replication. If you confirm, ESM sends a message to the public folder servers
to tell them to restart replication. Servers resume replication according to
their usual replication schedule, so if you've configured servers to replicate
data once a day at midnight, they won't resume replication until that time.
Before you restart replication, you should ensure that you've addressed any
problems that caused the original replication storm.
When replication begins again, the IS logs event 3119 in the Application event
log to indicate that replication has been re-enabled. Replication should quickly
settle into its typical pattern in small organizations, but distributed organizations
that have more than a few public folder servers might take several hours to
resume usual service. In very large organizations or those that depend on high-latency
or low-bandwidth links to reach some servers, it could take several days for
replication to settle down.
Looking Ahead
Exchange Server 2007 offers no prospect for radically better public folder management
because Microsoft is de-emphasizing public folders. In fact, the Exchange 2007
management console doesn't let you manage public folders at all—you have
to use Exchange Management Shell or keep an Exchange 2003 server around and
use it to manage public folders, which isn't a satisfactory solution.
Because public folders don't figure highly in the future for Exchange, you
might want to consider whether it makes sense to create any new folders or replicas
at all because you'll only need to migrate this data to another repository in
the future. Now is a good time to think about your future strategy for storing
the type of data that you store in public folders today.
Administer with Care—and SP2
If you take care with your public folder administration, it's unlikely that
you'll need to suppress a replication storm. However, accidents happen to even
the best of us, and it's nice to know that you can—finally—do something
about replication storms—as long as you've deployed Exchange 2003 SP2
throughout your organization.