i followed the steps in the steps in the below link to remove legacy 2003 exchange after migrating to 2010 http://www.simple-talk.com/sysadmin/exchange/upgrade-exchange-2003-to-exchange-2010---part-ii/ i reached the point where i need to remove the public folder DB i did the same steps and everything i working fine and all public folder are replicated to 2010 also 2003 replica is removed the hierarchy is on 2010 now and life is beautiful , the only bad part is that for 2 days still the PF instances are there in 2003 as is for that i can not delete the PF mailbox store i also ran the scripts to move public folder to 2003 and did it also from 2003 ESM and OAB generation is on 2010 as well my question can i dismount the PF mailbox store and delete it OR can i just go a head and complete the decommissioning steps for the server normally since i have my PFs on 2010 ? will case me any harm or problems in the future ?

What instances are still there? When you post questions, please tell us all the relevant information. I do not recommend you do what you are proposing. Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

sorry i made a mistake in my post - i meant to say public folders instances not archive

Did you remove the replicas from the old server? CD "\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Scripts" .\AddReplicaToPfRecursive.ps1 -TopPublicFolder \ -ServerToAdd E2010SERVER .\AddReplicaToPfRecursive.ps1 -TopPublicFolder "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY" -ServerToAdd E2010SERVER .\AddReplicaToPfRecursive.ps1 -TopPublicFolder "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\OFFLINE ADDRESS BOOK" -ServerToAdd E2010SERVER .\AddReplicaToPfRecursive.ps1 -TopPublicFolder "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\EFORMS REGISTRY" -ServerToAdd E2010SERVER Wait a while for the content to replicate. Use Get-PublicFolderStatistics to see what's been replicated. Don't get impatient after five minutes--this can take a couple of days! When everything has replicated, run the following. .\RemoveReplicaFromPfRecursive.ps1 -TopPublicFolder \ -ServerToRemove E2K3SERVER .\RemoveReplicaFromPfRecursive.ps1 -TopPublicFolder "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY" -ServerToRemove E2K3SERVER .\RemoveReplicaFromToPfRecursive.ps1 -TopPublicFolder "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\OFFLINE ADDRESS BOOK" -ServerToRemove E2K3SERVER .\RemoveReplicaFromPfRecursive.ps1 -TopPublicFolder "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\EFORMS REGISTRY" -ServerToARemove E2K3SERVER Watch to see if the instances go away. Don't come posting back here in an hour. Give the first part a couple of days, and give the second part a day or two. You don't need to replicate the other system folders, like the ones under EventConfig, StoreEvents and OWAScratchPad, since they're server-specific. Just delete them.Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

Before you go to remove the public folder from Exchange server, I suggest you use this to check the current status of replica list on these public folders (on Exchange 2010): Get-PublicFolder \ NON_IPM_SUBTREE -Recurse Server ServerName | fl Name,Replicas > pf-system-replicas.txt If all the replicas has been moved to Exchange 2010, you can go to remove the public folder database from Exchange 2003 If you find the replicas has not been moved to Exchange 2010, please follow Ed's suggestion to remove the replicas from old server. Thanks, EvanEvan Liu TechNet Community Support

Ed i added the replication server 2010 since 1 month! i removed the legacy from replication since 3 days! i moved users to the new exchange since 20 days! and PF is working fine for them i am posting back now in less than an hour :) i shutdown the legacy server sine 2 hours and i am checking with the users to see the PF working fine (once i get this resolved i will let you know) i can not compare 2003 and 2010 PF items because i already moved PF hierarchy to new 2010 administrative group and no PFs i can see in 2003 only instances Get-PublicFolderStatistics **results sample** Name ItemCount LastAccessTime ---- --------- -------------- EX:/O=SHELL/OU=EXTERNAL (FYDIBOHF25SP... 0 7/11/2012 3:06:23 AM Anti-Virus Alerts 0 7/11/2012 6:44:22 AM Benzene 663 7/11/2012 6:44:19 AM Bid invitation 15 7/11/2012 10:07:11 AM CBD 0 7/11/2012 10:07:08 AM CHR 2 7/11/2012 10:07:08 AM contract Engineer 4 7/11/2012 10:07:09 AM Correspondence with RC 0 7/11/2012 10:07:10 AM CSE 26 7/11/2012 10:07:08 AM CVs 0 7/11/2012 10:07:07 AM Email Communications Alerts 0 7/11/2012 6:44:22 AM Eng.IV , Instrument 0 7/11/2012 10:07:09 AM Eng. Chemical 21 7/11/2012 10:07:07 AM

I think you can follow my command to check before you remove the public folder from Exchange 2003. Thanks, EvanEvan Liu TechNet Community Support

thanks a lot Evan i ran the command and below is the result - as you will see the free + busy folder and the OAB folder doesn't have replica is this normal ? - when i try to add my new {Sasref Public Folder} as a replica it errors that modification to this folder is not allowed please note that the old serve hosting legacy 2003 PF is down, i shutdown down to test before removing it do i have to edit this on the legacy server ? Name : NON_IPM_SUBTREE Replicas : {} Name : EFORMS REGISTRY Replicas : {} Name : Organization Forms (English) Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : Events Root Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : OFFLINE ADDRESS BOOK Replicas : {} Name : /o=SHELL/cn=addrlists/cn=oabs/cn=Default Offline Address List Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : OAB Version 2 Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : OAB Version 3a Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : OAB Version 4 Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : EX:/o=SHELL/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT) Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : EX:/o=SHELL/ou=SASREFALJ Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : OAB Version 2 Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : OWAScratchPad{4255E1BC-079F-4508-810E-EF36F91E0B66} Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : OWAScratchPad{DFDAEF31-FD75-42BC-B543-526077BDE5E9} Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY Replicas : {} Name : EX:/o=SHELL/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT) Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : EX:/O=SHELL/OU=EXTERNAL (FYDIBOHF25SPDLT) Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : EX:/o=SHELL/ou=SASREFALJ Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : StoreEvents{4255E1BC-079F-4508-810E-EF36F91E0B66} Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : globalevents Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : internal Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : StoreEvents{DFDAEF31-FD75-42BC-B543-526077BDE5E9} Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : globalevents Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder} Name : internal Replicas : {Sasref Public Folder}

The ones you bolded, as well as NON_IPM_SUBTREE and EFORMS REGISTRY are containers and don't have replicas. That is normal. Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

clear that means i can carry on and decommission the legacy server thanks

Yes, since all the replicas are moved to new public folder, you can just go to remove the legacy public folder. Thanks, Evan Evan Liu TechNet Community Support