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<< Article: ADAM Troubleshooting | Home | /upgradecms failed! >>

Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy



When the EMC (exchange management console) is launched, it returns the following error:

--------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft Exchange Warning
--------------------------------------------------------
The following warning(s) were reported while loading topology information:

get-PublicFolderDatabase
Completed

Warning:
Object AAA-EX01\Second Storage Group\Public Folder Database has been corrupted and it is in an inconsistent state. The following validation errors have occurred:

Warning:
PublicFolderHierarchy is mandatory.

Warning:
PublicFolderHierarchy is mandatory.


--------------------------------------------------------
OK
--------------------------------------------------------

Trying to mount the Public folder database gets you the following eror:

--------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft Exchange Error
--------------------------------------------------------
Failed to mount database 'Public Folder Database'.

Public Folder Database
Failed
Error:
Exchange is unable to mount the database that you specified. Specified database: UDC-EX01\Second Storage Group\Public Folder Database; Error code: MapiExceptionADPropertyError: Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005, ec=2418)

--------------------------------------------------------
OK
--------------------------------------------------------

When trying to delete the public folder database:

--------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft Exchange Error
--------------------------------------------------------
The public folder database 'Public Folder Database' cannot be deleted.

Public Folder Database
Failed
Error:
The critical property 'PublicFolderHierarchy' is missing in the PublicFolderDatabase object 'UDC-EX01\Second Storage Group\Public Folder Database'.

--------------------------------------------------------
OK
--------------------------------------------------------

This all happens after you deleted the "First administrative group" in ADSIedit (which you should not have done!) after a migration to Exchange 2007. If these are the only problems you are facing be happy. To resolve it perform the following actions:

1. Open ADSIedit.exe.

2. Right click on Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)
3. Select New Object.
4. Select msExchPublicFolderTreeContainer for the class and click Next
5. Enter the following for the value: Folder Hierarchies, click Next
6. Click Finish

Create Public Folder Tree Object

1. Right click CN=Folder Hierarchies -> New Object
2. Selected msExchPFTree for the class
3. For the value we entered, "Public Folders" and clicked next
4. Clicked on the "More Attributes" button, selected msExchPFTreeType and set the value to 1.


Note: This is very important that this value is set to a value of 1 as this tells Exchange that this is a MAPI Tree
5. Click Ok and then finish


Populate msExchOwningPFTreeBL attribute object of the PF Stores in the organization

1. Get properties of the newly created "Public Folders" Tree object in ADSIEdit.
2. Copy the distinguishedname value to the clipboard and then click cancel.
3. Browse to CN=Public Folders Database,CN=Second Storage Group,CN=InformationStore CN="Sever Name:,CN=Servers,CN=Exchange Administative Group,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=ORG Name,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=Domain,DC=COM
4. In the properties of the "Public Folder Database", Edit the msExchOwningPFtree attribute and paste the content copied to the clipboard in Step2
5. Restart the Information Store Service.

 

*Update*

If you read the comments you'll see that Tim had a bit of an issue that was very similar to what was described here but not quite like it. Martina on the technet social helped him to resolve his issue by suggesting to check the msExchOwningPFTree attribute in ADSIedit! Have a look at the thread for the full details

 

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchange2010/thread/ac69d2f2-b8c4-40ab-9466-c6727da87fc7


Posted On Tuesday, July 5, 2011 10:03 AM
Filed Under [ Exchange ]

Comments

Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by Kay Urbach on 8/10/2011 7:33 PM
Hi, Thank you for your detailed informations about this issue. I have one question though.

My setup is slightly different, I have never had a second storage group, the public folders reside in the first storage group. I never used them, it was just created for training purposes, since I used this MSX2007 only for migration, and I already am on 2010. This, last step is uninstalling the information store.

I am getting these exact errors, but it seems I cannot find the "msExchOwningPFTreeBL attribute object of the PF Stores in the organization"

Maybe you could explain this a little more detailled.
Thank you.

Kay
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by Marc on 8/11/2011 9:35 AM
Hi Kay,

Just for my information here, you're having difficulties populating that attribute? If you stayed in one storage group you'd have to browse to:

CN=Public Folders Database,CN=First Storage Group,CN=InformationStore CN="Sever Name:,CN=Servers,CN=Exchange Administative Group,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=ORG Name,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=Domain,DC=COM

If you got that far but can't see it in the list, make sure you logged on with a domain admin account that has rights as exchange admin. That attribute should always be there, if you cannot see it I believe you don't have the rights to see it.

Alternatively, if all you want to do is remove the public folders database so you can finish up your migration you could consider deleting that database from the configuration partition by using ADSIEdit. That would remove all awareness of that database from exchange and let you go ahead with removing the server.
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by clint anderson on 9/24/2011 8:07 AM
dude, you just saved me BIGTIME, thanks so much
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by Tim on 10/12/2011 5:50 PM
This article seems to describe exactly what I did. Specifically:

(This all happens after you deleted the "First administrative group" in ADSIedit (which you should not have done!) after a migration to Exchange 2007.)

Only difference is my migration was 2003 -> 2010. 2003 had been turned off for months, but I was getting indication that 2010 still saw a legacy server in the organization, so I did this to solve it... and my Public Folder disappeard from EMC (though DB files still exist, AND the database name is still listed in scheme under Configuration->Services->Microsoft Exchange->Org->Administrative Groups->Exchange Administrative Group (...)->Databases.

So I thought this was exactly the article I need.

BUT... I am not seeing:
CN=Public Folders Database,CN=First Storage Group,CN=InformationStore CN="Sever Name:,CN=Servers,CN=Exchange Administative Group,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=ORG Name,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=Domain,DC=COM

I see Marc post on 8/11 "If you got that far but can't see it in the list, make sure you are logged on with domain admin account....". I'm logged with the domain\Administrator account. Definitely should have all rights.

Let me say it in my terms to make sure I'm looking in the right way (AD Scheme novice). Basically reversing this nomenclature, I get this far:
Configuration->Services->Microsoft Exchange->Deppmann->Administrative Groups->Exchange Administrative Group->Servers->myserver->InformationStore

But that's it... nothing under that at all.

Anything you can say to help this by chance? Given that I have the database, I'd really rather not have to start from scratch. It's not all that big, but there were some existing items in there... mail enabled folders, etc. It had been working all along with the old server off.

Thanks!
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by Marc on 10/12/2011 6:00 PM
@Tim: Is there any specific reason you turned off the server instead of performing a uninstall of the exchange 2003 (that`s what is is reading like :))?? By the looks of it you still have your first administrative group and your problem is a bit different then what I post about. If you're still seeing the old server and you performed an uninstall of the old 2003 server then for some reason you have lingering objects.

Best to take a backup of your AD and remove the old server name. If you want you can drop me an email with screenshots of the exact situation. I'l be glad to help!
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by Tim on 10/13/2011 4:23 PM
Hi Marc,
Thanks for the reply.
I was referred to your link via this conversation on MS forums. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchange2010/thread/ac69d2f2-b8c4-40ab-9466-c6727da87fc7

I ended up working it out there.
The only reason for turning the server off rather than uninstalling 2003 was ignorance. Since it was off for so long, I didn't consider that it would have been a problem deleting the references to the first admin group. I was wrong :)

Really this article did get me steered in the right direction. Thanks for that, and for your willingness to help!
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by Marc on 10/13/2011 4:29 PM
No problem Tim! Glad to be of help :)

And shiver me timbers, my posts are being used on the technet social forums! Happy days xD!
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by Tony on 10/24/2011 10:46 PM
Thanks for this pointers Marc.
In my case, i was getting the error message after migrating to MS Exchange 2007 (SBS), all the instructions worked fine but was able to Populate msExchOwningPFTreeBL attribute object by navigating to the container -

Configuration->Services->Microsoft Exchange->first organization->Administrative Groups->Exchange Administrative Group-> Servers-> myserver->InformationStore -> Second storage group -> Public folder database
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by Marc on 10/27/2011 3:00 PM
Glad you got that fixed Tony!
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by Nivlesh on 11/28/2011 3:15 AM
Hi Marc.

My problem is slightly different. We still have 3 Exchange 2003 servers coexisting with our Exchange 2010 servers. I found that the public folders do not replicate between Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2010 anymore. Also, I have got two Mailbox Servers in Exchange 2010 and the public folders do not replicate between them as well. Public Folders seem to be replicating successfully within the Exchange 2003 servers.

I get the following in my event logs on my Exchange 2010 CAS servers
"The store driver couldn't deliver the public folder replication message "status request (exchange2003-is@domain.internal)" because the following error occurred: The Active Directory user wasn't found.."

Can you please help me resolve this.
Regards
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by marc on 11/28/2011 9:56 AM
Nivlesh, sounds like your top level smtp address for the public folder is missing. I'm currently in transit to a client but I'll look through my notes later today as I've definately seen that before!
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by KrushR on 12/17/2011 6:22 AM
WOW this article and series of commentaries has SAVED my bacon. After erroneously having the default-first-site container deleted, which contained our public folders, we're back online.

My only caveat was that I had to follow Tony's train of thought within ADSIEDIT to put the proper attribute in place. Also, when copy/pasting these fields with incredibly long data, go ahead and paste it into notepad and peruse your clipboard. For some reason, mine didn't copy the first "CN=Public Folders", so queries were failing. As soon as I copied the correct string, pasted it in and restarted the MS Inf Store, all is kosher and straight again.
BRILLIANT, all of you. MUCH thanks.
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by Some Guy on 2/6/2012 5:50 PM
Thanks. This solved solved my issue. :-)
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by RMZ on 2/7/2012 7:40 PM
Thank you for posting this solution.
A client had removed the old admin group for Exchange 2003 from ADSI. After this no Outlook 2003 clients could connect and PF db would not mount. I followed your instructions. Older client could connect and the PF data mounted back online. Made me look like a hero thanks again.
RMZ
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by Simon Shaw on 7/5/2012 5:08 AM
Thanks heaps! Solved my issue too. I killed Public Folders off then found one of the directors was using Outlook 2003. Doh!
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by George on 12/20/2012 4:00 PM
Thanks a lot m8,it was the issue
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by marcde on 12/20/2012 7:42 PM
Your welcome George
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by Anonymous V on 2/2/2013 12:44 AM
you seriously saved me man, great share.
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by Marcde on 2/2/2013 5:29 PM
Always glad I could help!
Gravatar # re: Article: Recreating the public folder hierarchy
Posted by DH on 4/19/2013 12:20 AM
I never reply to these things, but this was too awesome not too. Thanks for the post. Worked wonderfully. Seems like MS could have just added that to the original migration.

I especially appreciate the "(Which you should not have done!)". That is priceless.
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