Public Folder Mayhem Exchange 2010

I have been working at a costomer on a Exchange 2010 implementation in an existing Exchange 2007 environment.

All went pretty smooth until we came to the public folder replication.

For some reason we can't replicate public folders.
We even could not replicate public folder hierarchy.

The HUB Transport server dropped the update message with the error:

554 5.6.0 STOREDRV.Deliver.Exception:ObjectNotFoundException;
Failed to process message due to a permanent exception with message The Active Directory user wasn't found.

In the event log we received an event:
Error
4-11-2009 12:52:23
MSExchange Store Driver
1020
MSExchangeStoreDriver

The store driver couldn't deliver the public folder replication message "Status Request (PublicFolder@domain.local)" because the following error occurred: The Active Directory user wasn't found..

For some reason the HUB Transport server is unable to resolve the recipient.

We ran into brickwalls over and over again and finally descided to scratch Exchange 2010 completely and start all over again....

Removing the last exchange 2010 mailbox server in your environment is a bit different than it was in exchange 2007.

Exchange 2010 uses so called arbitrary mailboxes.
These mailboxes can't be retrieved by the normal command Get-Mailbox.

You have to use:

get-mailbox -Arbitration

Name Alias ServerName ProhibitSendQuota
---- ----- ---------- -----------------
SystemMailbox{1f05a... SystemMailbox{1f0... exch-ut-mbx unlimited
SystemMailbox{e0dc1... SystemMailbox{e0d... exch-ut-mbx unlimited
FederatedEmail.4c1f... FederatedEmail.4c... exch-ut-mbx 1 MB

So to remove these mailboxes you have to use:

get-mailbox -Arbitration Remove-Mailbox -RemoveLastArbitrationMailboxAllowed -Arbitration

Then all mailboxes are removed and you can uninstall exchange 2010.

But because you removed some system mailboxes you cannot install exchange 2010.

It will fail because the federation mailbox and discover mailbox are missing.

To fix this issue you have to run setup.com /prepareAD.
Even if you already had prepared the AD you need to rerun this command.
The PrepareAD will create these accounts again so you can re-install Exchange 2010.

So back to my initial problem.
The public folder replication issue.

In our first configuration we had three servers.
In the main AD site:
1 HUB / CA server
1 Mailbox server

In a remote AD site:
1 Mailbox / HUB / CA server

To make sure PF replication is working we decided to begin with just one server running all roles.

Installation went smooth and all was up and running.
Then we configured the E2010 public folder database and setup replication.

NOTHING!!!
Same error, same problem.

Until now we have not figured out what the problem is and how we can fix it.

We see a couple of things:

1. Exchange 2007 deliveres the message to the Exchange 2010 HUB server
2. The event entry saying message could not be delivered.
3. The error:
   
   554 5.6.0 STOREDRV.Deliver.Exception:ObjectNotFoundException; Failed to process message due to a permanent exception with message The Active Directory user wasn't found.
   
4. in the connectivity logs we also see:
   
   08CC2B6692C30788,MAPI,mbx.domain.local,>,Starting delivery
   08CC2B6692C30788,MAPI,mbx.domain.local,>,Connecting to server mbx.domain.local session type Public Folder
   08CC2B6692C30788,MAPI,mbx.domain.local,>,Failed to connect to server mbx.domain.local
   08CC2B6692C30788,MAPI,mbx.domain.local,-,Messages: 0 Bytes: 0 Recipients: 0

At this point we are still trying to solve this issue.

I will keep you posted.