Transitioning from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007, had a warm fuzzy feeling about how smoothly things were going, until I actually had to start managing the system (Command line? What Milleniaare the Exchange developers living in?). Scratch the warm fuzzy feeling, I'm regretting the move already. Trying to stay positive, I've been playing with adding and removing users and mailboxes. First user/mailbox I added, I made the (apparent) mistake of deleting the test user from Active Directory before removing the mailbox from Exch 2007. Now I can't remove the mailbox because "The operation could not be performed because object <deletedusername> could not be found on domain controller <DCname>." How do I get rid of the mailbox now? <rant> Other than occasionally changing some settings (rarely), all I ever had to do with Exch 2003 was check the "Create mailbox" box when creating a user, and every once in a while checking the list of mailboxes to see whose was getting too big, neither of which I can do now. I don't care what may have been added to Exch 2007, the complications to my day-to-day tasks are not worth the trade-off. </rant>

Exchange 2007 (certainly the EMS) kinda grows on you. I had the same feels about the command shell the first couple of times I used it, but now I hate going back to E2K3. Of course, I still get a bit frustrated trying to figuring things out sometimes. Regarding your test user, can you refresh your console? It really should disappear from the Exchange Management Console because both ADUC and the EMC both are looking at the same data. Regarding the complexities of the EMC and managing the mailboxes separately, you are preaching to the choir, Reverend! I am hoping that Microsoft will add an extension back to ADUC in the future. This is a common complaint.

I apparently made the mistake of believing that the big red 'FAILED" coupled withthe message "The operation could not be performed..." meant, well, that the operation could not be performed. I have opened EMS back up to check, and the mailbox is indeed gone. Maybe I am thinking of this Exch 2003-style and complicating things unnecessarily? When I did my test user, I created it in ADUC, then when creating the mailbox, I linked it to the user I had just created. Does the mailbox need to be linked? How else can the user authenticate? I generally copy an existing user in ADUC, to get group memberships mostly and place them in the proper place in the AD structure (for group policy application), do I need to rethink my methodolgy to adapt to Exch 2007? My first reaction to the EMS was positive, and the smoothness of the transition in mixed 2003/2007 mode is sweet (on the few mailboxes I've moved, Outlook 2003 even picks up the fact that the server has changed, and changes settings automatically), and the ability to move gradually rather than cold turkey is great. We're a relatively small shop (250-300 mailboxes), unfortunately I envision just enough time between Exchange tasks to forget any commands and syntax that I learn from one time to the next. Not so sweet. Many thanks!

Glad your problem is resolved. Again, I think a lot of us agree with you on the missing extensions to ADUC. Microsoft does watch these forums, though, and the do listen to people's feedback, so it is going that you have voiced your concerns. Hopefully the will address this in the future. While I think that E2K7 and the EMS are pretty darned spiffy, I agree that it is a "bit much" for a 300 mailbox shop.