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Here is some notes from a recent issue error, I encountered at a client, doing a decommission of some Exchange 2007 servers.

We had followed the best practices for moving Public Folder database content to new Public Folder databases. But still could not remove the Public Folder databases on some of the Exchange 2007 servers.

The best practices for removing a Public Folder database is:

1. Move the public folder replicas to another server. See my previous post about Public Folder replica management.

2. Associate mailbox databases with another public folder database.

3. Remove the PF database and delete the database files manually.

This error you might see in step 3, when trying to remove the Public Folder database is:

——————————————————–
Microsoft Exchange Error
——————————————————–
The public folder database ‘Public Folder Database’ cannot be deleted.

Public Folder Database
Failed
Error:
The public folder database "SERVERNAME\Second Storage Group\Public Folder Database" contains folder replicas. Before deleting the public folder database, remove the folders or move the replicas to another public folder database. For detailed instructions about how to remove a public folder database, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=81409.

——————————————————–
OK
——————————————————–

If you have followed the best practices and you still cannot remove the Public Folder, check which folders still reside in the database, using:

Get-PublicFolderStatistics –Server SERVERNAME

 

If the folders left are folders you care about, you should continue troubleshooting replication issues. But if the folders are leftover that you know have been replicated or if it is system folders, such as OWAScratchPad, you can remove them using:

Get-PublicFolderStatistics –Server SERVERNAME | Remove-PublicFolder

 

Be careful with the above command, since it removes everything left within your Public Folder database.

Now you should be able to Remove the Public Folder database from you Exchange 2007 server.

Other great references on the issue:

• http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2007/11/13/3404348.aspx
• http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2007/07/09/3403373.aspx

As previously written in one of my earlier posts and on msexchangeteam.com, a pre-release version of Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB952580) was inadvertently made available to Microsoft Update, the Microsoft Update Catalog, and Windows Software Update Services (WSUS) servers for download and soon after taken offline again.

Now the final release of Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 has been released. Fixes for the following issues are included (details in KB 952580).

Direct link to download:

• Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1

If you by accident have installed the pre-release version of Update Rollup 4, you should uninstall it before installing the final version. Read more on the MSExchangeTeam blog:

• Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 has been released
• INFO: Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1

There’s an issue with the Exchange 2007 SP1 Rollup 4 patch and it’s confirmed by the Exchange Team on their blog.

Some of the known issues are with the Exchange Web Services (EWS) and failures regarding backup, returning errors in the eventlog regarding “Storage Group Consistency Check”. I’ve seen problems with the last issue.

The patch was originally released to the web, Microsoft Update and WSUS, but was pulled back again. But it’s not completely disappeared, on Sep. 15th I was downloading Rollup 2 and the patch I got was “Rollup 4” ?!

Microsoft recommends uninstalling Rollup 4 and re-installing Rollup 3.

Read more about the issues with Rollup 4 and the pulled back patch on msexchangeteam.com.

Direct download link to: 

• Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB949870)