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Archiving Mailbox where associated AD account has been deleted

Dead-Data
Level 5
Partner Accredited Certified

Has anyone got a quick bulk method to achieve archiving Exchange 2003 mailboxes where associated AD accounts have been deleted? 

Thanks in advance.

David

 

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LCT
Level 6
Accredited Certified

As far as I know you can archive mailboxes that are hidden from the GAL OR/AND the AD account has been disabled (with reg keys, and SQL modifications) but I have not yet been able to archive disconnected mailboxes i.e. AD account has been deleted.

From what I have worked out, you CAN'T purely because once you have deleted the AD accounts you can no longer provision those mailboxes therefore you can't archive those anymore. Even if you play around with SQL to change the statuses of the mailboxes but the AD account cannot be looked up by EV because they do not exist on the DCs. If exchange can't see and the outlook client can't connect to the orphaned mailboxes (only through disconnected mailbox options) then EV will have problems.

Rule of thumb is Hidden and Disabled = YES, Deleted = NO. You can't archive something that does not exist. Before you delete the AD accounts make sure you archive the associated mailboxes first.

If someone can create the EV magic pills that would be great as I have thousands of orphaned mailboxes. :)

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10 REPLIES 10

TonySterling
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Maybe this from QuadroTech will help:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/archive-leavers

Dead-Data
Level 5
Partner Accredited Certified

Hi Tony,

Unfortunately not.  In common with many other EV tools it relies on a visble entry in the global address list.

It is good at targeting leavers mailboxes for rapid archival though, where they aren't hidden and the AD account is present and not disabled.

Regards

David

Dushan_Gomez
Level 6

Yes I'd like to know how it is possible a well in Exchange Server 2007, because my service desk team deleted the user from the AD and the mailbox in Exchange shows as disconnected state ?

Rob_Wilcox1
Level 6
Partner

So, what state are things in?

 

The AD account is gone?

The mailbox is marked for deletion (that's what happens, right, when you delete an AD account, the check box for 'mark mbx for deletion' is set)?

 

And you want to hoover up THOSE mailboxes?

Working for cloudficient.com

LCT
Level 6
Accredited Certified

As far as I know you can archive mailboxes that are hidden from the GAL OR/AND the AD account has been disabled (with reg keys, and SQL modifications) but I have not yet been able to archive disconnected mailboxes i.e. AD account has been deleted.

From what I have worked out, you CAN'T purely because once you have deleted the AD accounts you can no longer provision those mailboxes therefore you can't archive those anymore. Even if you play around with SQL to change the statuses of the mailboxes but the AD account cannot be looked up by EV because they do not exist on the DCs. If exchange can't see and the outlook client can't connect to the orphaned mailboxes (only through disconnected mailbox options) then EV will have problems.

Rule of thumb is Hidden and Disabled = YES, Deleted = NO. You can't archive something that does not exist. Before you delete the AD accounts make sure you archive the associated mailboxes first.

If someone can create the EV magic pills that would be great as I have thousands of orphaned mailboxes. :)

Dead-Data
Level 5
Partner Accredited Certified

LCT,

Spot on with the description of the situation.

Only approach I can think of is to export list of orphaned mailboxes / archives, create new AD accounts from list, put them in the leavers provisioning group and then they will archive down to zero items.

Have dealt with the name changes, office / site / server moves, disabled accounts and hidden from GAL aspects.

 

LCT
Level 6
Accredited Certified

Yes indeed DEJ, I have only have to that for mailboxes and archives that required for legal searches. I have too many orphaned mailboxes to recreate AD accounts for!!! :)

Rob_Wilcox1
Level 6
Partner

I would use something like this then :

 

http://www.mikepfeiffer.net/2010/06/managing-disconnected-exchange-mailboxes-with-powershell/

 

Reconnect them, process them with the QUADROtech tool, and then clear up.

 

Just an idea :)

Working for cloudficient.com

Dushan_Gomez
Level 6

thanks for sharing the link Rob !

Rob_Wilcox1
Level 6
Partner

No problem, did you give it a try?

Working for cloudficient.com