Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Merge program (Exmerge.exe) information

The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Merge Program (Exmerge.exe) enables an Exchange Server administrator to extract data from mailboxes on an Exchange Server computer and then merge this data into the same mailboxes on another computer that is running Exchange Server. The Exchange Server 4.0, 5.0, and 5.5 version of this program is included in the Microsoft BackOffice Resource Kit, Second Edition. The Exchange 2000 Server version of Exmerge is included on the Exchange 2000 Server CD in the Support\Utils\I386\Exmerge folder.

To run the Exmerge utility, you must copy the Exmerge.exe and Exmerge.ini files from the CD to the ExchSrvr\Bin folder on the server's hard drive and run the .exe file from that location.

Exmerge.exe copies data from the source server into personal folder (PST) files and then merges the data in the personal folders into the mailboxes on the destination server.

Note You cannot use Exmerge on front-end servers because front-end servers do not have a mailbox store. Also, you cannot use Exmerge on a recovery storage group that is mounted on a front-end server.

The program has two modes of operation: One Step and Two Step.

In One Step mode, the program copies data from the source mailbox to a PST file and then merge the data in the PST file into the same mailbox on the destination server. In this case, the mailbox on the destination server must have the same mailbox name and the same container path. The Distinguished Name (DN) of the mailbox on the destination server is obtained by replacing the Organization and Site names in the DN of the mailbox on the source server with the Organization and Sites names of the destination server.

In Two Step mode, the user has the option of only copying data to PST files or merging data from PST files into a server.

For this program to successfully work, the user must be logged on to Microsoft Windows NT with the Exchange Service account. If this is not possible, then the current Windows NT account must have permissions on all mailboxes selected to be merged.

The program creates a log file called C:\Exmerge.log, which contains any errors encountered during operation.

The Exchange Server 4.0, 5.0, and 5.5 version of this program only runs on Windows NT Server 4.0 or later. The Exchange 2000 Server version of this program only runs on Microsoft Windows 2000 Server or later.

Before you run this program, make sure that the Microsoft Outlook Client and the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program are installed on the computer that Exmerge.exe is being run on.

Note We recommend that you do not install Outlook on the Exchange server. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: To start the program, double-click on the Exmerge.exe program from the Windows NT Explorer.

This version of Exmerge.exe only merges user folders and messages. It does not support Inbox Rules, forms, and Schedule+ data. Exmerge.exe merges Outlook Calendars and Contacts.

Messages copied lose their single instance storage and this may result in the size of the Exchange private information store increasing significantly.

To download Exmerge.exe, visit the following Microsoft website:
To use Exmerge.exe when the information store won't start, perform the following steps:

NOTE: Assume the production server is called SERVERP and another test server is called SERVERT.

1. Create a new (blank) information store on SERVERP by moving out all the files in the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata directory. This allows the information store service to start.
2. Restore or recover the old information store onto SERVERT.
3. Stop the information store service on SERVERP.
4. Stop the information store service on SERVERT.
5. On SERVERT, rename the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata directory to Mdbdata.old.
6. On SERVERT, create a new directory called Exchsrvr\Mdbdata.
7. On SERVERP, rename the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata directory to Mdbdata.new.
8. On SERVERP create a new directory called Exchsrvr\Mdbdata.
9. On SERVERP, from the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata.new directory copy the Priv.edb and the Pub.edb files to the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata directory on SERVERT.
10. On SERVERT, from the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata.old directory copy the Priv.edb and the Pub.edb files to the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata directory on SERVERP. Hence, you have swapped the Priv.edb and Pub.edb files on the two servers.
11. On SERVERP, run Isinteg -patch.
12. On SERVERT, run Isinteg -patch.
13. Run the Exmerge program to now merge all data from SERVERT into SERVERP.

If you are having problems getting mailboxes on a server, do the following:

1. Check server name.
2. Check Organization and Site names.
3. Verify that the directory and information store are running on the server. The Exmerge program gets the list of mailboxes from the information store, because it also gets the mailbox size.
4. Sometimes the list displayed may not contain all the mailboxes on the Exchange Server computer. Mailboxes that have never been logged on to have no Information Store object. Therefore, these mailboxes are not detected. This behavior is also noticed in the Exchange Server Administrator program when you view the mailbox resources of the private information store. The workaround to this problem is to log on to the Exchange client and send an e-mail message to all mailboxes on that server. This creates mailbox objects in the information store for all mailboxes. (This step applies to Exchange 4.0, 5.0, 5.5, not to Exchange 2000)

Error Messages

The following error message may be logged in the Exmerge.log: This error message can be generated if there is no Directory object for a mailbox object that exists in the information store.

Check the Mailbox Resources page of the private information store in the Administrator program, and then verify that Directory Objects exists for the mailboxes listed in the Mailbox Resources. Directory objects can be created manually, or by using the DS/IS adjustment.

NOTE: Please make sure you understand the implications of running the DS/IS adjustment before you run it.

The following error may also be reported: Make sure that you are logged on to Windows NT using an account that has rights to the mailboxes you are trying to access using Exmerge.exe It may be easiest to log on to Windows NT using the Exchange Service account.

If you receive the following error: Make sure that Exchange client is installed on the computer that Exmerge.exe is running on.

After using the Exmerge utility to move a user's mailbox, any users using offline storage (OST) have to fully synchronize all folders. If the contents of the mailbox are missing for any reason or have been lost, the messages may have to be restored from the OST. This involves adding personal folders (PSTs) to the profile, starting the client offline, and manually moving messages from the OST to the PST then back to the mailbox.

For more information about restoring messages from an OST, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Version Information

Version 1.3 fixed a problem noticed when aliases longer than 18 characters in length are encountered. The following error is logged: Version 1.4 added functionality to copy messages individually if the MAPI_W_PARTIAL_COMPLETION error is encountered. Added extra logging when errors are encountered during the message copy process.