If you’re still using Exchange 5.5 or Exchange 2000, or
you’re new to Exchange 2003, you might appreciate some enhancements in Exchange
2003’s “move mailbox” capability. First, Microsoft removed some of
the tedium from moving large numbers of mailboxes by multithreading the new
move mailbox feature. Now, you can easily move multiple mailboxes at the same
time, making the process move a little faster.

In Exchange 2000, you could only move mailboxes by using
Active Directory Users and Computers. Under the Exchange 2003 version, this
functionality is also present in the Exchange System Manager. From an
administration standpoint, this is really nice as it makes Exchange more
manageable from a central location. As a further improvement to the
administrative side of handling of this task, Exchange 2003 also allows you to
schedule mailbox moves for any time you like.

Tips in your inbox

Delivered each Monday, TechRepublic’s free E-mail Administration NetNote provides tips that will help you manage your Exchange server and other e-mail systems.

Automatically sign up today!

Exchange 2003 also improves the handling of exceptions, such
as corrupted items in a mailbox. You can opt to totally skip a mailbox that has
any corrupted items, or you can provide a threshold below which corrupted items
will be deleted and the mailbox moved. If the corruption count exceeds your
threshold, the mailbox is not moved.

To move a mailbox (or mailboxes):

  • Start
    the Exchange System Manager
  • Expand
    Administrative Groups > First Administrative Group > Servers >
    YOUR SERVER > YOUR STORAGE GROUP > YOUR MAILBOX STORE >
    Mailboxes.
  • Right-click
    the mailbox you wish to move. If you want to move multiple mailboxes, hold
    down the Ctrl key and individually select each mailbox you want to move. You
    can also use the Shift key to select a range of mailboxes.
  • From the
    shortcut menu, choose Exchange Tasks.
  • On the
    Available Tasks window, choose Move Mailbox.
  • On the
    Move Mailbox window, choose the server and store to which you would like
    to move the mailbox.
  • Next,
    decide how you want to handle corrupt items.
  • If
    desired, provide a date and time to schedule the move.
  • Wait!

At the end of the process, you will be presented with a
report outlining the success and failure of the mailbox move operation.