Using pfMigrate
Although the manual process described earlier works well, using it to move many top-level public folders can be tedious. To automate the migration process, Microsoft supplies the Public Folder Migration Tool (pfmigrate.wsf) on the Exchange 2003 CD-ROM in the \support\exdeploy folder. pfMigrate is a command-line script that lets you create replicas of user and system public folders. You can use pfMigrate to create replicas only on a new server and within a routing group. Furthermore, you must execute pfMigrate from an Exchange Administrator account that has administrator permissions to either the public folders you're moving or higher in the public folder hierarchy.
To generate a report that shows how many public folders are on an Exchange server, you can run pfMigrate with the /r parameter. If neither the source nor target server is an Exchange 2003 system, you must use the /wmi switch to specify an Exchange 2003 server on your network that can supply Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) services because Exchange modifies WMI counters during the move operation.
Be aware that pfMigrate operates against the Messaging API (MAPI) public folder Top-Level Hierarchy (TLH) only; you can't use it for other applications' TLH public folders. Also, you can't specify a particular public folder or public folder tree to move--you must specify individual folders.
Although pfMigrate performs many functions, one way you can use it is to replicate user public folders from a source server to a target server. To do so, use the following syntax:
pfmigrate.wsf /s:<source>
/t:<target> /a /n:10
/f:c:\pfmigrate.log
where source is the source server and target is the target server. The /a parameter indicates an add replica operation, /n defines the number of public folders to move, and /f defines the log file. If the number of public folders to be moved specified by the /n parameter is less than the total number of public folders on the source server, the remaining public folders stay on the source server. You must use the /n parameter with the /a parameter.
After the user public folders are replicated, you can delete replicas from the source server by using the following command:
pfmigrate.wsf /s:<source>
/t:<target> /d /f:c: pfmigrate.log
The /d parameter activates a delete replica operation from the source server for any public folder that has a replica on the target server. After you delete the replicas, you can remove the server from the organization.
To move system public folders, use the syntax
pfmigrate.wsf /s:<source>
/t:<target> /a /n:10
/sf /f:c:\pfmigrate.log
The /sf parameter specifies that system folders will be deleted. You can obtain a full description of pfMigrate's syntax by executing the pfmigrate.wsf command with no parameters.
Happier Migration
Although public folders haven't changed greatly in Exchange 2003, they've changed in subtle ways. Administrators should find no big surprises with public folder deployment and migration, but the improvements I describe can ease the pain associated with managing these often-dreaded features.