Microsoft KB Archive/262892

= Moving the Exchange System Attendant Mailbox =

PSS ID Number: 262892

Article Last Modified on 7/2/2003

-

The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server

-



This article was previously published under Q262892



SUMMARY
The System Attendant mailbox on an Exchange server is used by the system for passing messages such as Server Monitor notifications. This account is created in the First Storage Group\Mailbox Store  database when Exchange is installed. You cannot delete this database until the System Attendant mailbox has been moved to a different database on the same server.



MORE INFORMATION
You may not need to move the System Attendant mailbox to accomplish your purpose. If you simply want to rename storage groups and databases, right-click the names in Exchange System Manager, and then click Rename. If you want to move the database that contains the System Attendant mailbox to another server or storage group, you must move the mailbox. If you do not move the mailbox, notifications and other messages handled by the System Attendant are not sent, although most other server functions will not be affected.

After you move the System Attendant mailbox, you cannot move it back to the original database unless you physically delete and then re-create the original database.

Before you move the mailbox, make a backup of the current database.

To move the System Attendant mailbox:  Change the homeMDB attribute of the Microsoft System Attendant object for the server to reflect the new database. For example, if the homeMDB value is

CN=Mailbox Store (SERVER1),CN=First Storage Group,CN=InformationStore,CN=SERVER1,CN=Servers,CN=First Administrative Group,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=First Organization,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=mycompany,DC=com

and you want to move the System Attendant mailbox to a database called DB2 in storage group Second, change the homeMDB value to

CN=DB2,CN=Second,CN=InformationStore,CN=SERVER1,CN=Servers,CN=First Administrative Group,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=First Organization,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=mycompany,DC=com

The System Attendant object for each Exchange server is located in the Configuration container of your Active Directory forest. The path to it is:

CN=Microsoft System Attendant,CN=[server name],CN=Servers,CN=[administrative group name],CN=Administrative Groups,CN=[organization name],CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration

Note There are several ways to edit the homeMDB value. You can use the Adsiedit tool, the LDP tool, or the LDIFDE tool. Step-by-step instructions for editing the homeMDB value with LDIFDE are provided at the end of this article. Stop and restart all Exchange services. Run the Mailbox Cleanup Agent against the original database. To access the Cleanup Agent, right-click the Mailboxes object for the database. After you run the Cleanup Agent, the original System Attendant mailbox should have a red X next to it, indicating that it is no longer connected to an Active Directory object. Right-click the disconnected System Attendant mailbox, and then permanently delete the mailbox.

WARNING: After you complete this step, you cannot move the mailbox back to the original database. To move it back, you must delete the physical database files, and allow a fresh database to be re-created. From a client workstation, send a mail message to the System Attendant mailbox, requesting a delivery receipt. Address the message in the following format, including use of the square brackets:

[SMTP:SERVERNAME-SA@domain.com]

 Monitor the Application Log carefully for errors relating to the System Attendant mailbox.</ol>

To alter the homeMDB attribute of the mailbox with LDIFDE, construct a command similar to the following.

Note The following command is a single line and is wrapped for readability:

LDIFDE -F SA.LDF -D &quot;CN=Microsoft System Attendant,CN=[server name],CN=Servers,CN=[administrative group name],CN=Administrative Groups,CN=[organization name],CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=mycompany,DC=com&quot; -P base -L homeMDB

The resulting output to the plain text Sa.ldf file will look similar to the following:

<pre class="fixed_text">dn: CN=Microsoft System Attendant, CN=[server name],CN=Servers, CN=[administrative group name], CN=Administrative Groups,CN=[organization], CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services, CN=Configuration,DC=mycompany,DC=com changetype: add homeMDB: CN=Mailbox Store (IRULAN),CN=First Storage Group, CN=InformationStore,CN=IRULAN, CN=Servers,CN=[administrative group name], CN=Administrative Groups,CN=[organization name], CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration, DC=irulan1,DC=microsoft,DC=com

Edit the file to make it look like this:

<pre class="fixed_text">dn: CN=Microsoft System Attendant, CN=[server name],CN=Servers, CN=[administrative group name], CN=Administrative Groups,CN=[organization], CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services, CN=Configuration,DC=mycompany,DC=com changetype: modify replace: homeMDB homeMDB: CN=DB2,CN=Second, CN=InformationStore,CN=IRULAN, CN=Servers,CN=[administrative group name], CN=Administrative Groups,CN=[organization name], CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration, DC=irulan1,DC=microsoft,DC=com -


 * Do not modify the dn value.
 * Change the changetype value to &quot;modify&quot; instead of &quot;add.&quot;
 * Insert the line &quot;replace: homeMDB&quot; beneath the changetype line.
 * Modify the homeMDB value to reflect the new database and storage group.
 * Finally, add another blank line at the bottom of the file.

The LDIFDE import format allows long value names to be broken over multiple lines, but strictly requires that the line breaks be indented a single space. In most cases, you should not have to modify the line breaks created by the export file. Be aware that some text editors may strip trailing spaces from lines when they save files. This behavior will cause an import procedure to fail if line breaks have occurred after a space at the end of the previous line. If you are manually breaking lines, break them after commas or in the middle of the words, not at spaces.

To import the file, run the following command:

LDIFDE -I -F SA.LDF

To verify that the import procedure worked as expected, you may export the object again. If you use &quot;con&quot; as the filename for the -F parameter, output will be displayed on screen instead of written to a file.

Note These steps can also be used to move the Site Replication Service mailbox, but you have to go to the properties of the Microsoft DSA object under the server to modify the homeMDB value.

Additional query words: XADM

Keywords: kbinfo KB262892

Technology: kbExchange2000Search kbExchange2000Serv kbExchange2000ServSearch kbExchangeSearch kbExchangeServ2003Ent kbExchangeServ2003Search kbExchangeServ2003St

-

[mailto:TECHNET@MICROSOFT.COM Send feedback to Microsoft]

© 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.