XADM: How to Export the Connections Container to a Text File

This article describes how to export the Connections container to a text file. Exporting the Connections container to a text file allows you to view its contents in a different format than that provided by the Raw Properties command in the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program.

To export the Connections container to a text file, follow these steps:

1. Create a new text file called Connect.txt in the root folder of drive C that contains the following lines:
   

         [Export]
         DirectoryService=<server1>
         HomeServer=<server2>
         Basepoint=/o=ORG/ou=SITE/cn=configuration/cn=connections
         ExportObject=All
         InformationLevel=Full
         RawMode=Yes
         HiddenObjects=Yes
         Subcontainers=Yes
   
         [Import]
         DirectoryService=<server1>
         Basepoint=/o=ORG/ou=SITE/cn=configuration
         Container=
         InformationLevel=Full
         OverwriteProperties=Yes
         RawMode=Yes
   						

   
   where <server1> is the name of the computer on which the directory service is running and <server2> is the name of the Microsoft Exchange Server computer.
2. Use the Header.exe program from the Microsoft Exchange Server Resource Kit to create a comma-delimited text file called Connect.csv in the root folder of drive C. The file should contain all the attributes from the Mailbox Gateway object class.
3. Type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
   c:\exchsrvr\bin\admin.exe /e c:\connect.csv /o c:\connect.txt

NOTE: After you export the Connections container to the Connect.csv file, you can use the following command to import the contents of the Connect.csv file to the Connections container: Because the directory contains most of the necessary configuration information for the connectors, you should not back up the Connections container by exporting it to a text file. Importing the text file at a later time is essentially the same as restoring the directory.