How To Prevent Permissions Problems When You Migrate Public Folders to Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003

This article describes how to prevent permissions problems when you migrate public folders to Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003.

Prevent Permissions Problems When You Migrate Public Folders

Consider the following scenario: A system administrator adds a new server running Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 to an organization, and then replicates public folders from a server running Exchange Server 5.5 to the new server. Users report that public folders have disappeared. What occurred?

Most likely, one of the users specified on the Exchange Server 5.5 public folder access control list (ACL) does not exist in Microsoft Active Directory directory service. When the server running Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 searches for the user in Active Directory and does not find the account, it adds only the folder owner to the public folder permissions and omitted all others. As a result, no one but the folder owner can gain access to the public folder.

To prevent this, run the Directory Service/Information Store (DS/IS) consistency adjuster that comes with Exchange Server 5.5 before you replicate Exchange Server 5.5 public folders to the servers running Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003. The DS/IS consistency adjuster removes users who do not have accounts in Active Directory from the public folder permissions lists. Run DS/IS consistency adjuster on one server in each site. Make sure that the server contains a public information store.

To run DS/IS consistency adjuster:

1. In the Exchange Server 5.5 Administrator program, click a server running Exchange Server 5.5 that contains a public information store.
2. On the File menu, click Properties, and then click the Advanced tab.
3. Click Consistency Adjustment.
4. In DS/IS Consistency Adjustment, click select the Remove unknown user accounts from public folder permissions check box, and then click All inconsistencies.
5. Important: Click to clear all other check boxes.

For more information, see the Public Folder Permissions in a Mixed-Mode Exchange Organization white paper. To see this white paper, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For step-by-step instructions about how to configure public folders when initially installing Exchange 2000 in an existing Exchange 5.5 organization, see the Exchange Up-To-Date article: Upgrading Public Folders from Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 to Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=3524) .