XADM: How to Rehome Public Folders in Exchange

This article describes two methods for rehoming public folders to a desired server: using the PFAdmin.exe utility version 1.1.1, and moving the public folder to another server by using a .Pst file as an intermediate location.

Using PFADMIN 1.1.1

The PFADMIN utility 1.1.1 is located in the Pftools folder on the Microsoft BackOffice Resource Kit (BORK) Part Two, at Exchange\Winnt\I386\Pftools\PFADMIN. Installing the Exchange tools of the resource kit does not automatically install the PFADMIN utility; you must copy the Pfadmin.exe and the Aclcls.dll files (both located in the PFADMIN folder) to the drive where Exchange Server is installed. The files can be placed at the root of the drive, in the Windows NT directory, the System32 directory, or in the location of the Microsoft BackOffice Resource Kit.

Before running the utility, do the following:

1. Make sure that you are logged on to Windows NT as an account with Service Account Administrator Permissions at the Organization, Site, and Configuration levels. Make sure this account has a profile created on the computer. Also, ensure that the Exchange Server computer on which the folder or folders are currently homed is running and the information store service is running.
2. From a command prompt, type:
   
   Pfadmin <name of your profile> <Enter>
   
   You should now see:
   

         PFAdmin  1.1.1
         Enter commands:
   						

3. At the > prompt type the following:
   
   rehome,<folder name>,<site name>\<server name>,Yes
   
   You should see the following message indicating that the operation was successful:
   

         Replica list reset for folder: <folder name>
   						

4. If the process fails, the error messages will contain:
   SetProps failed, error.
   -or-
   MAPISession:: Logon: MAPILogonEx Failed, error = 0x80070XXX
5. At the > prompt, type quit <Enter> to exit the program.

NOTE: In the above commands: There are no spaces in the syntax; commas are used. In the command to rehome the folder, enter "YES" for the last argument if you want to include all sub-folders and "NO" if you only want to move the specified folder.

After you run the PFAdmin utility, the folder will continue to indicate that it belongs to the same server. You must run the DS/IS Consistency Adjustment on the server that you are homing the folder to. Before running the DS/IS adjustment, verify that no directory replication connectors are broken. Running the DS/IS adjustment with a directory replication connector disconnected can cause public folders to be rehomed when the directory replication connector is rejoined.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For any additional help with the PFADMIN utility, type PFADMIN ? REHOME.

A newer version of PFADMIN has been released; the version number is 1.1.2. Although this version does not contain the Rehome option, it allows you to rehome public folders with the SetReplicas option.

Using the .Pst Method

Perform the following procedure on the server that is to become the new owner of the folder:

1. Create a personal folder for your administrator's mailbox on the client (if it does not already exist).
2. Choose the public folder that you want to gain ownership of, and copy its contents into your personal folder.
3. Remove the public folder from the public folder structure by deleting it. Deleting the folder removes all replicas of the folder from other servers.
4. Allow replication to take place so this folder is deleted from all servers in the organization.
5. Log on to a mailbox on the server where you wish to rehome the public folder.
6. Create a new public folder.
7. Copy the information from your .Pst to the new public folder.
8. Assign the appropriate permissions.