Migrating mailboxes larger than 2G

Migrating mailboxes larger than 2G (Full Version)

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jbbank -> Migrating mailboxes larger than 2G (1.Nov.2005 4:51:06 PM)
How do you migrate mailboxes larger than 2G on SBS? I have a few mailboxes larger than 2G and it doesn't work with exmerge since it will not import properly pst files larger than 2G. If anyone knows, please let me know... Thanks

mbunch -> RE: Migrating mailboxes larger than 2G (1.Nov.2005 7:17:01 PM)
Wow, a 2G mailbox. Makes me feel inadequate with my 30M (100M limit) mailbox that I have used for 8+ years now. Of course I don't mind because I had keeping all of that extra crap in my mailbox. Is your source server 5.5, 2000 or 2003? Have you considered using Outlook 2003 to connect to the source mailbox and performing an export to PST? You can then turn around and use O2K3 to connect to the new mailbox and import the data into it. O2K3 has revamped the PST file format, allowing for greater than 2G PST files. Be sure when you create the PST that you use the new format and not the 97-2002 compatible format, otherwise you will end up with a corrupted PST file. -- Mike

jbbank -> RE: Migrating mailboxes larger than 2G (1.Nov.2005 7:52:01 PM)
They're both Exchange 2003. I'd been using exmerge to export and import PST files for the other mailboxes and that works fine. But as soon as you reach the 2G limit, it no longer works properly. I didn't really want to resort to connecting to the mailbox and exporting, but if there's no other way around it, I guess it'll just have to be this way. If the 2G is still a limitation, at least I'll have the option to archive and seperate them into 2 PST files. Are 2G+ mailboxes that uncommon? We're a small office, but we receive a lot of emails and the management insists that all emails are kept for archival/legal purposes. I'm personally against large mailboxes like such, but it's not my decision.

mbunch -> RE: Migrating mailboxes larger than 2G (1.Nov.2005 8:03:21 PM)
The latest version ExMerge still used the legacy 97-2002 PST format in order to maintain backward compatibility with previous versions of Outlook. Understandable, but still a pain in the butt. If you only have a few to do, this is probably your best bet because it is pretty straightforward. Maybe someone else out there knows a faster/better way. To me, a 2G mailbox is very uncommon. I do live in my own world, so I may not recognize reality any more. I work for a company with 2200 employees and no one has a mailbox bigger than 1G. As a matter of fact, in 8 years of Exchange administration, I haven't met anyone with a mailbox approaching that size. I would think that a mailbox that size would be slower than molasses to access, not to mention making offline synchronization unbearable if not impossible. I won't get into the archival/legal side of things because I am not a lawyer nor a spokesperson for my company. However, we have the same archival concerns and make sure that we take the appropriate action to maintain data integrity/availablilty. There are a lot of tools, options and methods available for this purpose. -- Mike

abdulzis -> RE: Migrating mailboxes larger than 2G (2.Nov.2005 1:27:43 PM)
Check this tool out PST2GB http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=B33B1DFF-6F50-411D-BBDF-82019DDA602E&displaylang=en

uemurad -> RE: Migrating mailboxes larger than 2G (3.Nov.2005 4:31:00 PM)
A quick-and-dirty (i.e. ugly) way I did this in Exch2K was to run ExMerge with the Import Procedure setting at "Archive data to target store". This writes the data then deletes it. The ugly part is that when the PST file reaches 2GB, you get an error for every single message. So, I watched the log file size, and when it started growing quickly, I terminated ExMerge, renamed the PST file, then started the process again (becoming part 2). The worst one I did was 5GB (three parts). Yet another reason to avoid large mailboxes...

jbbank -> RE: Migrating mailboxes larger than 2G (3.Nov.2005 5:24:12 PM)
That sounds a tad scary [;)]

uemurad -> RE: Migrating mailboxes larger than 2G (3.Nov.2005 6:15:56 PM)
Not really scary, just annoying. The only downside is that if you don't terminate the process when the PST file gets to maximum size is that the log file will continue to grow. ExMerge very happily processes each and every message, dutifully making an error entry in the log for each message it can't write.

58Sniper -> RE: Migrating mailboxes larger than 2G (16.Nov.2005 7:05:49 PM)
You can use Exmerge to filter out based on a date. Grab everything before a certain date in the first pass, then everything after that date in a second pass. Dump them to two different .pst files. You'll have to import them one at a time, but it should make things easier.

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