COBRAS moves user but not mailbox

[jeff.singh_2]

hi,

we have 3 unity failover pairs with digital networking. Unity 5.x. Using COBRAS to try and move some users from server 1 to server 2 , the export fails at step 22 (completes upto step 21). Log file does not specifically show what its failing on.How ever when we try and import the user on server 2 we cannot find the mailbox - so intially it will create with a new mailbox and then when we try and import the mailbox from the backup the system states that it cannot locate the mailbox. Obviously the backup is not backing up the mailbox. Everything else seems to come through ok, sometimes we have mwi issues but main issue is the mailbox is not being backed up...Cheers Jeff

[lindborg]

Several things here.

1. there is no mailbox move here - the mailbox is created when the user is created in AD by the Unity SQLSyncSvr service. There is no seperate mailbox creation and COBRAS has nothing to do with that.

2. Sounds very much like you're having a permissions issue or an Exchange issue on the back end - COBRAS never attaches to Exchange or AD directly - it works through the SQLSyncSvr service and has Unity create the users in AD - same deal with all tools such as GSM and DiRT - direct connection and manipulation of the directory or mailstore is a no-no.

3. I assume you mean messages are failing to import - this is almost always a permissions issue. if everything is working properly (i.e. you can leave new messages now on the system) then the mailbox is indeed created properly in Exchange and AD has a handle to it - if not then the entire system would be unfunctional.

4. Message import errors are almost always related to DOH permissions issues of some sort. The log file will usually say SOMEthing about this - without any more to go on than you saying mailboxes are failing to import there's not much I can go on here.

You should open a TAC case and gather logs (this includes SQLSyncSvr logs and MAL logs) to narrow down the problem.

As a side note, you can use ExMerge (Exchange message transport tool) to get messages moved from one system to another as well - this uses a completely different mechanism for fetching/pushing messages (requires send as/receive as rights on all mailstores). if everything but messages are there and you still have access to the old Exchange store you can take this approach instead.

[jeff.singh_2]

Hi Mr Lindborg (and all ofcourse), just thought I'd update you, the issue was regarding encrypted messages. Th export log file showed messages as not being backed up due to them being encrypted.(Help file in COBRAS also states that).

[lindborg]

ah, that makes sense. Well you have a couple options if you want to try and move encrypted messages. The trick is you need the same public keys on the new Unity server.

1. You can use DiRT to move the entire system - this doesn't allow for merging systems unfortunately, but it does add the public keys from the old Unity server to the new one and uses ExMerge to move messages which gets the entire inbox (including encrypted messages).

2. You can use ExMerge manually on your own - which gets everything. You can use DiRT to get just the public keys (there's an option on the restore to "restore certificates only" which is there for this purpose. This is a little cumbersome but does work.

Most sites moving systems with encrypted messages (i.e. going from Unity to Connection which has no ability to move encrypted messages at all) just leave the old system(s) running and have users fetch their encrypted messages from there for several weeks after the migration and then decomision the server.

[jeff.singh_2]

thanks for your help.