Knowledge Base

How to roll back a failed migration from Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2000 Server or to Exchange Server 2003

Article ID: 839356

Article Last Modified on 10/25/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Standard Edition
Microsoft Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server
Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Standard Edition

INTRODUCTION

This article describes how to roll back an unsuccessful migration from Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or to Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server.

You can upgrade your organization from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000 or to Exchange 2003 by joining your Exchange 2000 computer or your Exchange Server 2003 computer to an existing Exchange 5.5 organization. If this upgrade operation is unsuccessful, you may want to remove Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 and roll back to Exchange 5.5. This article describes how to roll back the upgrade operation to a point before Active Directory Connector (ADC) was installed and configured.

Important After you perform the procedure that is described in this article, all remnants of Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 are removed from the organization, including ADC. You must reinstall and reconfigure ADC and Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003. Do not perform these steps if any other Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 computers exist in the organization. If you do so, all Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 servers will be removed from the organization.

MORE INFORMATION

To roll back an unsuccessful Exchange Server migration, follow these steps:

Move all user account mailboxes back to the Exchange 5.5 computer by using the Active Directory Users and Computers tool. To do this, select the Move Mailbox option in the Exchange Task Wizard.
Configure all the ADC connection agreements such as the Config CA_Site_ServerName connection agreement, the recipient connection agreement, and the Public Folders connection agreement so that they never run. To do this:
1. Start Active Directory Connector Manager.
2. Click Active Directory Connector (ServerName).
3. In the right pane, right-click a connection agreement, and then click Properties.
4. Click the Schedule tab, click Never, and then click OK.
Remove Exchange attributes from all user accounts. To do this:
- For Exchange 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and later versions:
  1. Start Active Directory Users and Computers.
  2. Right-click the user accounts that you want to remove Exchange attributes from, and then click Exchange Tasks.
    
    NoteBefore you perform this step, make sure that you have already moved the user mailboxes to another Exchange Server computer.
  3. In the Exchange Task Wizard, click Next, click Remove Exchange Attributes, and then click Next.
  4. Click Next, and then click Finish.
- For versions of Exchange 2000 that are earlier than Exchange 2000 SP2, run the KillMailGui tool. You can obtain this tool from Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS). To contact Microsoft PSS, visit the following Web site:
  
  http://support.microsoft.com
Run the Setup program from the Exchange 2000 CD or from the Exchange 2003 CD to remove Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003. For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260378 How to manually remove an Exchange 2000 installation

833396 How to remove Exchange Server 2003 from your computer

Note You may receive the following error message when you try to remove Exchange Server:

The component "Microsoft Exchange Messaging and Collaboration Services" cannot be assigned the action "Remove" because:
- One or more users currently use a mailbox store on this server. These users must be moved to a mailbox store on a different server or be mail disabled before uninstalling this server.

In this scenario, when you view the Mailboxes folder in the Mailbox Store (ServerName) container by using Exchange System Manager, only the following two mailboxes appear:

SMTP (ServerName-{GUID})
SystemMailbox{GUID}

This issue occurs because the Setup program detects that a mail-enabled user is connected to this mailbox store. There may also be system mailboxes or other hidden mailboxes that are not visible in Exchange System Manager or in Active Directory Users and Computers. Use the HomeMDBBL attribute on the mailbox store to determine which user accounts have a back link to this store as their home mailbox store (HomeMDB). To do this, follow these steps.

Warning If you use the ADSI Edit snap-in, the LDP utility, or any other LDAP version 3 client, and you incorrectly modify the attributes of Active Directory objects, you can cause serious problems. These problems may require you to reinstall Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, or both Windows and Exchange. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems that occur if you incorrectly modify Active Directory object attributes can be solved. Modify these attributes at your own risk.
1. Start ADSI Edit. To do this, click Start, click Run, type adsiedit.msc in the Open box, and then click OK.
  
  Note ADSI Edit is included with the Windows Support Tools. You can install the Support Tools from the Support\Tools folder on the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server CD or the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 CD.
2. Expand Configuration Container [ServerName.domain.com], where ServerName is the name of your server, and where domain.com is the name of your domain.
3. Expand CN=Configuration,DC=domain,DC=com., expand CN=Services, expand CN=Microsoft Exchange, expand CN=OrganizationName, expand CN=Administrative Groups, expand CN=AdministrativeGroupName, expand CN=Servers, expand CN=ServerName, expand CN=Information Store, and then expand CN=StorageGroupName.
4. In the right pane, right-click CN-Mailbox Store (ServerName), and then click Properties.
5. In the Select which properties to view list, click Both.
6. In the Select a property to view list, click homeMDBBL.
7. View the contents of the Value(s) box to determine if a user account that is similar to the following appears:
  
  CN=user name,CN=Recipients,CN=Users,DC=example,DC=com
  
  Note You only have to consider user account mailboxes when you view the homeMDBBL property. You do not have to consider the following mailboxes:
  
  SystemMailbox
  Microsoft DSA
  SMTP
  Microsoft System Attendant
8. Click Cancel, and then start Active Directory Users and Computers.
9. Right-click the user account that appeared in the Value(s) box in step g, and then click Exchange Tasks.
  
  Note Before you perform this step, make sure that you have already moved the user mailboxes to another Exchange Server computer.
10. In the Exchange Task Wizard, click Next, click Remove Exchange Attributes, and then click Next.
11. Click Next, and then click Finish.
12. Restart the Setup program to remove Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 from the computer.
After you remove Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003, remove and then reinstall Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260378 How to manually remove an Exchange 2000 installation

833396 How to remove Exchange Server 2003 from your computer
Remove the Microsoft Exchange container from the Active Directory directory service by using the ADSI Edit tool. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Start ADSI Edit. To do this, click Start, click Run, type adsiedit.msc in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Expand Configuration Container [ServerName.domain.com], where ServerName is the name of your server, and where domain.com is the name of your domain.
3. Expand CN=Configuration,DC=domain,DC=com, and then expand CN=Services.
4. Right-click CN=Microsoft Exchange, and then click Delete.
5. When you receive the following message, click OK:
  
  Are you sure you want to delete this object?
6. When you receive the following message, click OK:
  
  Do you want to delete this container and everything in it?
7. Quit ADSI Edit.
Note If you rebuild the Exchange organization on the same Domain environment that executed this procedure, you must restart the global catalog server to prevent the following issues:
- User fails to create profile on client computer.
- User fails to generate the Offline Address Book (OAB).
- User cannot connect to Global Address List.
Run the ADC Setup program from the Adc\I386\ folder on the Exchange 2000 CD or the Exchange 2003 CD, and then remove ADC.
Start the Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator program, and then remove the ADNAutoDRC object if it appears under Directory Replication.
In the Administrator program, expand Servers, and then remove the Exchange 2000 object or the Exchange 2003 object if it exists.
Under Servers, click the Exchange 5.5 server object, and then click Properties on the File menu.
Click the Advanced tab, and then click Consistency Adjuster.
Under Filter, click All inconsistencies, and then click OK four times.
In the right pane, double-click Directory Service.
On the General tab, click Check Now.
When you receive the following message, click OK:

Knowledge consistency has been successfully verified

The operation has completed successfully.

Microsoft Exchange Administrator
ID no: c10306a4
Click OK.
Create a new worksheet that contains the following four column headings:

Obj-Class Directory Name Primary Windows NT Account ADC-Global-Names
Note If you have multiple recipient subcontainers, add "Obj-Container" as a fifth column heading to the worksheet.
Save this worksheet as C:\Export.csv.
Export the recipients objects to the Export.csv file that you created in step 17. To do this, follow these steps:
1. In the Administrator program, click Directory Export on the Tools menu.
2. Click Export File, click the Export.csv file that you saved, and then click Open. Note Place a check in the "Include subcontainers" checkbox if you have multiple recipient subcontainers.
3. Under Export objects, click to select the following three check boxes:
  
  Mailbox
  Custom recipient
  Distribution list
4. Click to select the Include hidden objects check box, click High under Logging level, and then click Export.
5. When you receive the following message, click OK:
  
  The directory export to C:\Export.csv is complete.
  
  3 warning descriptions were recorded in the system's application event log.
  
  No errors were encountered.
Start Microsoft Excel, and then open the Export.csv file.

In the ADC-Global-Names column, replace the contents of each cell with ~DEL. The worksheet will be similar to the following:

Obj-Class	Directory Name	Primary Windows NT Account	ADC-Global-Names
Mailbox	User1	EXAMPLE\User1	~DEL
Mailbox	User2	EXAMPLE\User2	~DEL
Mailbox	User3	EXAMPLE\User3	~DEL
Mailbox	User4	EXAMPLE\User4	~DEL

Save the changes to the Export.csv file, and then quit Excel.
Import the contents of the Export.csv file into Exchange. To do this, follow these steps:
1. In the Administrator program, click Directory Import on the Tools menu.
2. Click Container, click Recipients, and then click OK.
3. Make sure that the "Use selected container if not specified in the file" radio button is selected.
4. Click Import File, click the Export.csv file that you saved, and then click Open.
5. Under Logging level, click High, and then click Import.
6. When you receive the following message, click OK:
  
  The directory import from file C:\Export.csv is complete.
  
  No errors were encountered.
Quit the Administrator program.
Use the Administrator program in raw mode to view several user accounts to make sure that the value for the ADC-Global-Names attribute is blank. To do this, follow these steps.

Warning If you use the raw mode of the Exchange Server Administrator program (admin /r) incorrectly, serious problems may occur that may require you to reinstall Microsoft Windows NT Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, or both. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems that result from using raw mode incorrectly can be solved. Use raw mode at your own risk.
1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Change to the Drive:\Exchsrvr\Bin folder, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
  
  admin.exe /raw
3. Expand your site, and then click Recipients.
4. In the right pane, click a recipient, and then click Raw Properties on the File menu.
5. In the List attributes of type list, click All.
6. In the Object attributes list, click ADC-Global-Names.
7. Make sure that the Attribute values list does not contain any values.
8. Click Cancel.
For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

319474 How to remove the ADC Global Names attribute from Exchange 5.5 Server recipients

Exchange 2000 and all its attributes or Exchange 2003 and all its attributes are removed. For more information about how to migrate to Exchange 2000 Server, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

316886 How to migrate from Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2000 Server

For additional information about how to migrate to Exchange 2003, run Exchange 2003 Deployment Tools. For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

812593 Exchange Server 2003 Deployment Tools overview

822942 Considerations when you upgrade to Exchange Server 2003

Additional query words: XADM

Keywords: kbinfo KB839356

Microsoft KB Archive/839356

How to roll back a failed migration from Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2000 Server or to Exchange Server 2003

INTRODUCTION

MORE INFORMATION