XADM: Best Practices for Removing an Exchange 5.5 Site from the Organization

This article describes how to properly remove an Exchange 5.5 Site from your Exchange Server organization. Review all of these steps carefully before you remove the Exchange 5.5 Site.

In this scenario, there are two Exchange Server sites: Exchange_Site_A and Exchange_Site_B. You want to remove Exchange_Site_B from the Exchange Server organization. It may take a long time to remove a site, because of the time that it takes for public folder and directory replication to occur in your Exchange Server organization.

1.	Move all mailboxes, public folders, and distribution lists from Exchange_Site_B to Exchange_Site_A. Use either Exmerge to move only the mailboxes or use the Move Server Wizard to move the mailboxes and distribution lists. For additional information about these utilities, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 281584 XGEN: Exchange Tools for Migration You should also remove all public folder replicas in Exchange_Site_B by doing the following: a. Connect to a server in Exchange_Site_A. b. On the server in Exchange_Site_A, click the Public Information Store object, and then click Properties on the File menu. c. On the Instances tab, click Exchange_Site_B on the Site menu. d. If there are folders listed in the Public Folders area, select all of them, and then click Add to add an instance to the Folders on this Information Store area. e. You must connect to all servers in Exchange_Site_B, and then view the Instances tab on the properties of the Public Information Store object. Select all folders that are listed under the Folders on this Information Store area, and then click Remove to remove all folder instances from the servers in Exchange_Site_B. You must also rehome any public folders that are homed on any server in Exchange_Site_B.For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 185010 How to Rehome Public Folders f. Wait for public folder replication to populate all replicas and home server changes to any of the Public Folders. The changes must occur in all Exchange Server sites throughout your Exchange Server organization before you continue.
2.	Remove the Directory Replication Connector from both Exchange_Site_B and Exchange_Site_A. Do this for all Directory Replication Connectors that located in Exchange_Site_B. Let this change replicate throughout your Exchange Server organization.
3.	Remove all connectors that connect Exchange_Site_B to any other Exchange Server site in the Exchange Server organization. Let this change replicate throughout your Exchange Server organization.
4.	Recalculate routing in Exchange_Site_A and any other Exchange Server site that was connected to Exchange_Site_B. To recalculate routing, view the properties of the Site Addressing object under the Configuration object. Click the Routing tab, and then click Recalculate Routing. This occurs automatically according to the Routing Calculation Schedule for the Exchange Server site.
5.	Run a Knowledge Consistency Check in every Exchange Server site or let this run automatically (the default is every 3 hours).