Public Folder database dismounted after you move all the Public Folder Replicas from Exchange 2003 server to Exchange 2007 server

Issue with Public Folders

It has been observered that when we decommision the Exchange 2003 server after moving all the Public Folders Replicas from it to the Exchange 2007 Server, the Outlook stops connecting for all the clients... Public folders doesn't show anything from Outlook Web Access and even Public Folder Management Console on Exchange 2007 server doesnt show any of the Public Folders and the Public Folder database doesnt mount.

This typically happens when we manually remove the Exchange 2003 server hosting earlier all the Public Folder replicas.

This happens because the msExchOwningPFTree attribute had its value missing. This msExchOwningPFTree attribute controls the Public Folder database path and contains a list of all the stores in the hierarchy.

We need to specify its correct value in order to make Public Folders work. We can do it from ADSI Edit tool.

• Start the ADSI Edit tool
• Expand the Configuration container, then expand out each container as follows: CN=Services then CN=Microsoft Exchange then CN=YourExchangeOrg then CN=Administrative Groups then CN=AdminGroupofyourPFServer then CN=Servers then CN=YourPFServer then CN=InformationStore and then click on CN=StorageGroupContainingYourPFStore. In the pane on the right you see the public store object listed. Right click on the object and click on properties.
• In the list of attributes, double click on the msExchOwningPFTree attribute and specify the correct value.
• Restart Microsoft Exchange Information Store service.

Here is the Microsoft KB article that will help you to determine the correct value of msExchOwningPFTree attribute and set that up.