In Exchange 2010 SP3/SP2/SP1, the administrators can export mailboxes to PST format with the help of New-MailboxExportRequest. These are a new set of PowerShell commands introduced in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.
The PowerShell commands are a great support for Exchange administrators as they perform multiple functions such as exporting and importing mailboxes, assigning permissions and roles to Exchange Admins and users and more. These commands are identical for all Service Packs (SP) – SP1, SP2, and SP3.
Let’s check how to use the PowerShell scripts to export mailboxes from Exchange 2010 SP3, SP2 or SP1 to PST
Step 1: Grant full access rights
Administrators do not have full access rights. They have to be configured manually by assigning the management role with a specific PowerShell script. The following script can be used to grant full access rights to the Administrator:
New-ManagementRoleAssignment –Role “Mailbox Import Export” –User Administrator
Also, ensure the following:
- Grant the “Exchange Trusted Subsystem” read/write rights to the folder you want to export to the mailbox.
- Grant user rights to the admin account to allow it to export
- Verify that the exchange database is in a consistent state and running healthy mailboxes
Step 2: Create Network Share to use as File Path for exporting mailbox data to PST files
There are many Client Access Servers (CAS) available in a particular network and any CAS can be used to process mailbox export request. But, not all CAS will lead to the assigned PST file. Therefore, assigning a valid file path with the help of a PowerShell script is compulsory. This path has to be a UNC, not a local path.
Step 3: Run New-MailboxExportRequest
After allocating the permissions, run the script for Mailbox Export Request to export mailboxes from Exchange 2010.
[PS] C:\>New-MailboxExportRequest –Mailbox administrator.xyz –FilePath \\esp-ho-ex2010a\pst \ administrator.xyz.pst
The above-mentioned steps are valid when an administrator is using PowerShell script for the first time to export the mailbox from Exchange 2010 SP1, SP2, and SP3.
Administrators may face problems in using the mailbox export request. The following section identifies a few specific problems faced by the Exchange Administrators during mailbox export and the steps to solve such issues.
Problem 1:
Sometimes, Administrators use the Mailbox Export Request regularly to export mailboxes. But, regular usage of the same PowerShell script may create issues at some point in time.
Exchange database maintains the logs of all the export-import and other PowerShell scripts from the beginning till the end. There is no mechanism where the Exchange server can clear them out even when they are successful. There is no aging mechanism for the logs which can help an Exchange server to clean-up such requests after the set time period, say 30 days. And such piled up mailbox requests may create issues unless they are manually removed by the administrator.
An appropriate way to clean-up old requests is by using the following PowerShell script which removes old requests and ensures uninterrupted exporting of the mailbox.
Get-MailboxExportRequest -Status Completed | Remove-MailboxExportRequest
Also, remove the mailbox import request, if any:
Get-MailboxImportRequest -Status Completed | Remove-MailboxImportRequest
Note: “Exchange PowerShell scripts to clean-up Export-Import requests” are only successful if the mailbox account is not deleted from the Active Directory account. This is because the Exchange server uses Active Directory attributes. Absence of the mailbox account on Active Directory will end up in an ‘orphan’ or ‘lingering’ Export-Import clean-up request.
The sequence of commands to export mailbox from Exchange 2010 SP1, SP2, and SP3 are:
- Type the PowerShell script to export the mailbox and verify that the export request is completed successfully with the help of the following cmdlet:
Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics
Also, include the Report with -IncludeReport parameter
- Open the exported PST file and verify that the data exported to PST file is complete and in a proper format.
- Remove the Export mailbox request from the mailbox with the help of the following cmdlet –
Remove-MailboxExportRequest
- Delete the mailbox and the Active Directory account. Mailbox deletion is performed by using the following cmdlet:
Remove-StoreMailbox
This is a new cmdlet introduced in Exchange 2010 SP1.
Make sure that the mailbox content is accessible and the mailbox is not hidden from the administrator before executing the remove mailbox command.
Problem 2:
A few administrators were unable to locate the PowerShell scripts in Exchange Management Shell after they upgraded from Exchange 2010 SP1 to Exchange 2010 SP2. In fact, administrators were particularly unable to see the following Mailbox requests:
New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Role “Mailbox Export Export” -User “administrator”
New-MailboxExportRequest -FilePath \\Exchange\sharefolder\”test.pst” -Mailbox “test”
In this case, Administrators may receive the following error:
| The term ‘New-MailboxImportRequest’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again. At line:1 char:25 |
The problem may be with the Exchange rights. An administrator must check the ‘Import Export’ entry in the Mailbox permissions topic. The detailed information on mailbox permissions is available on this link.
Problem 3:
Another problem is experienced by the Administrators when they migrate from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 SP3.
After upgrading the Exchange version, when a few users leave the organization and the administrator tries to export their mailbox data by using the New-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet, the Exchange displays a message “cmdlet has been removed from SP3”.
The administrator is unable to export mailbox from Exchange 2010 SP3 to PST as the PowerShell script ceased to exist in the upgraded Exchange.
Even after trying the New-ManagementRoleAssignment cmdlet, the issue is not resolved. This may be caused due to a corrupt message or attachment in the mailbox, which results in the failure of the export process when the administrator tries to export the mailboxes.
Multiple Exchange database issues can create a panic situation even for the subject matter experts. Hence, it is essential to resolve the issue at hand, which in this case is about exporting mailboxes from Exchange2010 SP3. This issue can be resolved by using an effective Exchange mailbox converter software such as Stellar Converter for EDB.
The software ensures that the mailbox data is converted into PST format. Administrators can also export the mailboxes into other formats.
Conclusion
Exchange Administrators can easily export mailboxes from Exchange 2010 to PST, irrespective of the Service Packs (SP3, SP2, and SP1) installed on their system by using the PowerShell cmdlets. However, during this process, they may encounter multiple issues such as Export request not working properly and more.
Most of the issues can be resolved either by providing adequate permissions to the administrator on Exchange server or by removing redundant data from the database.
Such issues are best resolved with the help of an EDB to PST converter software. The software converts the Exchange database into Outlook PST without dismounting the database, thus ensuring that other Exchange users are not affected during mailbox export. It facilitates mailbox export to PST with minimal resources and also provides an activity log for monitoring.
Author: Pankaj Bhardwaj
Pankaj is a technical expert at @Stellar addressing several data loss scenarios on Mac & Windows Operating system. He loves to explore new places and learn more about new technologies.
