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can't get exchange 2000 to uninstall

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can't get exchange 2000 to uninstall - 31.May2005 3:27:00 PM

Tom Decaluw�

Posts: 174
Joined: 18.Sep.2003
From: Belgium
Status: offline

Hi all,

I'm having a problem finishing off my exchange migration and i could use some help.

I setup a new exchange 2003 on new hardware and transfered all the mailboxes off the old legacy system to the new one without a problem.

I have also migrated the RUS services to the new system and the OAB generation so for as far as i can tell the box is freed of everything and ready to be cleanly uninstalled.

However when i select uninstall from the exchange 2000 dialogue box ik keep getting this error:

"MS exchange cannot be assigned the action 'Remove' because: One or more users currently use a mailbox store on this server..."

I whent to have a look at the exchange store and in the mailbox container i had 3 mailboxes: SMTP / SystemMailbox and a mailbox with the name of one of my users. This user still exists in my organisation but nolonger has a mailbox on our exchange system.

1) I tried deleting the mailbox form the exchange store but this could not be done.
2) I checked the users from ad users and computers and ther was nog Exchange mailbox assosicated with the user
3) Checked the user with adsi edit and confirmed there where no leftover attributes from msexch filled in.
4) As the exchange holds no relevant information is dismounted the store, moved the priv1 files to a backup location and remounted an empty store. So now i have an empty db with only SMTP and SystemMailbox left and ik still get the same error.
5) if i create a new mailbox for this user and assign it to the new server and open the mailbox using OWA the owa redirects met to the old server and creates the mailbox on the old server. If i check with adsiedit it tells me the homemdb is set for the new server but i actually see a new mailbox being created on the old server "[Confused]"

It seems some how the old server is hardboild into the user and i just can't figure out where and how.

Has anyone ever run into this problem?
How can i cleanly uninstall the exchange 2000 system?

I have not deleted the user yet and it's only a real last resort as this is a fairly important user in our oganisation and i don't want to cause him any hinder.

Any ideas?

Tom Decaluwe

[ May 31, 2005, 03:44 PM: Message edited by: Tom Decaluwe ]

Post #: 1

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RE: can't get exchange 2000 to uninstall - 5.Jul.2005 4:36:00 AM

SPembo

Posts: 5
Joined: 23.Apr.2004
From: Stoke on Trent, United Kingdom
Status: offline

I'm putting this reply here in the hope that it resolves other peoples problems in the future, as i've spent a good couple of days trying remove our first exchange server.

With exchange, it doesn't create a mailbox on the server until its emailed or access the first time. So even though there isn't actually a mail store there, there could still be a user sitting there associated with the mail store.

To find out the user refer to this article and follow the instructions associated with the error message regarding use of ADSI edit:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=839356

Hope this helps someone [Smile]

Error msg:

The component "Microsoft Exchange Messaging and Collaboration Services" cannot be assigned the action "Remove" because:
- One or more users currently use a mailbox store on this server. These users must be moved to a mailbox store on a different server or be mail disabled before uninstalling this server.

[ July 05, 2005, 04:37 AM: Message edited by: SPembo ]

(in reply to Tom Decaluw�)

Post #: 2

RE: can't get exchange 2000 to uninstall - 5.Jul.2005 5:44:00 PM

jdemersseman@tandk.com

Posts: 1
Joined: 1.Jul.2005
From: Lexington
Status: offline

We rolled out Exchange 2003 on new iron and experienced the issue Tom describes in trying to decommission our old Exchange 2000 box. Using ADSIEdit as described in http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=839356 allowed us to identify the accounts that were associated with the old server. We then used ADU&C to move the mailboxes of those accounts, even though the old server didn't indicate that these accounts had mailboxes. After the move Exchange 2000 allowed us to remove the installation.

(in reply to Tom Decaluw�)

Post #: 3

RE: can't get exchange 2000 to uninstall - 8.Jul.2005 5:29:00 PM

Guest

Ok, I'm having the same issue. I have run adsiedit and I found there was one mailbox there related to RightFax. I was able to remove this mailbox and now adsiedit only shows the system mailboxes as being in the stores. But I still get the message about there being mailboxes on the server. This kind of thing will drive a man crazy!

So am I stuck doing this the hard and manual way?

Thanks in advanced for any help.

(in reply to Tom Decaluw�)

Post #: 4