Deleted AD User and need to attach new user account to the existing mailbox archive

[SteveA]

Hi,

We have a user who was setup for and used his mailbox archive. Unfortunately someone deleted the AD account. I've created a new AD account for the user and can see the users old EV mailbox archive

What would the process be for re-attaching this new user to his old mail archive?

We are using Enterprise Vault v7

Cheers,

Steve

[Maynard_K]

So if this account was deleted, was the mailbox deleted as well?  If so, then you may need to re-link the deleted mailbox to the user.  Exchange offers an automated process that can recover mailboxes and attach them to an AD account.  After this, you may need to delete the user's entry from our ExchangeMailboxEntry table.  Then you will want to run the "provisioning task" so that vault notices the existence of a new user.  Then, the "enable mailbox" wizard should allow you to choose the existing archive if it doesn't state that one already exists.

[SteveA]

Hi,

Thanks for the tips, here is where I'm at now:

We don't have the original mailbox. So I have a new user with a new exchange mailbox. I have given the new permissions to the old mailbox archive.

When I run enable mailbox I find my new user account ok and then click on 'select archive' I can browse to the original mailbox archive in our store but when I click ok I now get the error: 'You cannot choose 'John Briggs' because it is already the archive for mailbox 'John Briggs'.

Cheers,

Steve

[Maynard_K]

Delete that user's entry from the ExchangeMailboxEntry table, run your "provisioning task" and then try to enable mailbox and point to existing archive.

[SteveA]

Thats great!

The new account is now enabled and attached to the original mailbox archive. I can logon to outlook and do a vault search which shows all the items.

I could now restore them fromthe vault. But is there a way to regenerate the stub records in the new mailbox so that I don't have to re-archive the mail again?

Many Thanks,

Steve

[Maynard_K]

If the original mailbox is gone, then the shortcuts are also gone.  To restore these shorctuts you will need to restore the items to the mailbox and rearchive but then you run the risk of duplicates.

[Tobbe]

Bumping this old question.

By stating "After this, you may need to delete the user's entry from our ExchangeMailboxEntry table" does that mean that the entire row should be deleted or should only the value in "DefaultVaultID" be cleared?

Thanks,
/Tobbe

[MichelZ]

The whole row

Cheers

[Tobbe]

Brilliant. Thanks for your help.

This is what got me confused:

Use EnterpriseVaultDirectory
UPDATE ExchangeMailboxEntry
SET DefaultVaultID = ' '
WHERE MbxDisplayName = 'xxx'

copied from here: http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/297840.htm

[MichelZ · Accepted solution]

Both methods should work.
As mentioned in the article, always backup the database in case something goes wrong ;)