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When you run your Exchange Organization in hybrid mode with Office 365 and you migrate your on-premise Public Folders to Office 365, you are required to configure a remote Public Folder Mailbox in the Exchange Organization settings.

Organization Configs with Exchange 2013 Public Folders On-Premise

With Public Folders on-premise your Exchange Online Org looks like this:

Get-OrganizationConfig | fl *public*

DefaultPublicFolderAgeLimit             :
DefaultPublicFolderIssueWarningQuota    : 1.7 GB (1,825,361,920 bytes)
DefaultPublicFolderProhibitPostQuota    : 2 GB (2,147,483,648 bytes)
DefaultPublicFolderMaxItemSize          : Unlimited
DefaultPublicFolderDeletedItemRetention : 30.00:00:00
DefaultPublicFolderMovedItemRetention   : 7.00:00:00
PublicFoldersLockedForMigration         : False
PublicFolderMigrationComplete           : False
PublicFoldersEnabled                    : Remote
PublicComputersDetectionEnabled         : False
RootPublicFolderMailbox                 : 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
RemotePublicFolderMailboxes             : {PublicFolder-Mailbox001}

With Public Folders on-premise your On-Premise Exchange Org looks like this:

Get-OrganizationConfig | fl *public*

DefaultPublicFolderAgeLimit             :
DefaultPublicFolderIssueWarningQuota    : Unlimited
DefaultPublicFolderProhibitPostQuota    : Unlimited
DefaultPublicFolderMaxItemSize          : Unlimited
DefaultPublicFolderDeletedItemRetention : 30.00:00:00
DefaultPublicFolderMovedItemRetention   : 7.00:00:00
PublicFoldersLockedForMigration         : True
PublicFolderMigrationComplete           : True
PublicFoldersEnabled                    : Local
PublicComputersDetectionEnabled         : False
RootPublicFolderMailbox                 : ae0ef819-90d2-45d0-92b6-8b2062cf71a3
RemotePublicFolderMailboxes             : {}

Organization Configs with Exchange 2013 Public Folders in Exchange Online

With Public Folders in Exchange Online your Exchange Online Org looks like this:

Get-OrganizationConfig | fl *public*

DefaultPublicFolderAgeLimit             :
DefaultPublicFolderIssueWarningQuota    : 1.7 GB (1,825,361,920 bytes)
DefaultPublicFolderProhibitPostQuota    : 2 GB (2,147,483,648 bytes)
DefaultPublicFolderMaxItemSize          : Unlimited
DefaultPublicFolderDeletedItemRetention : 30.00:00:00
DefaultPublicFolderMovedItemRetention   : 7.00:00:00
PublicFoldersLockedForMigration         : False
PublicFolderMigrationComplete           : False
PublicFoldersEnabled                    : Local
PublicComputersDetectionEnabled         : False
RootPublicFolderMailbox                 : 5810bb30-cdda-4287-85a4-8a2547bb9b01
RemotePublicFolderMailboxes             : {}

With Public Folders in Exchange Online your Exchange On-Premise Org looks like this:

Get-OrganizationConfig | fl *public*

DefaultPublicFolderAgeLimit             :
DefaultPublicFolderIssueWarningQuota    : Unlimited
DefaultPublicFolderProhibitPostQuota    : Unlimited
DefaultPublicFolderMaxItemSize          : Unlimited
DefaultPublicFolderDeletedItemRetention : 30.00:00:00
DefaultPublicFolderMovedItemRetention   : 7.00:00:00
PublicFoldersLockedForMigration         : True
PublicFolderMigrationComplete           : True
PublicFoldersEnabled                    : Remote
PublicComputersDetectionEnabled         : False
RootPublicFolderMailbox                 : 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
RemotePublicFolderMailboxes             : {mcsmemail.de/Users/PF365-Mailbox-01-55e3d544-ed5a-4557-9008-d8c1b6f06d86}

The remote public folder mailbox has been added to the on-premise Exchange confguration by using:

Set-OrganizationConfig -RemotePublicFolderMailboxes PF365-Mailbox-001 -PublicFoldersEnabled Remote

To be able to add the remote public folder mailbox in a hybrid configuration you are required to add the public folder mailbox (or mailboxes, if you have more than one serving the hierarchy) as a mail user.

Microsoft provides a PowerShell script as part of a script collection here.

The issue with Import-PublicFolderMailboxes.ps1

When you run the Import-PublicFolderMailboxes.ps1 script you might run into the following error:

Cannot bind parameter 'Name' to the target. Exception setting "Name": "The length of the property is too long. The
maximum length is 64 and the length of the value provided is 65."
    + CategoryInfo          : WriteError: (:) [New-MailUser], ParameterBindingException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterBindingFailed,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.RecipientTasks.NewMailUser
    + PSComputerName        : ex2013.mcsmemail.de

The name attribute for a mail user is limited to 64 characters. But why are you exceeding the length when the mailbox name is only 17 characters long?

It turns out that the PowerSheel script adds a prefix name "" and ther mailbox GUID as a suffix. And voilá, the name exceeds the allowed length for the mail user name attribute.

Recommendation

Don't use more than 16 characters when naming the Public Folder mailboxes in Office 365.

Or modify the Import-PublicFolderMailboxes.ps1 script to fit your needs.

$hasPublicFolderServingHierarchy = $true;
$displayName = $publicFolderMailbox.Name.ToString().Trim();
# ORIG: $name = "RemotePfMbx-" + $displayName + "-" + [guid]::NewGuid();
$name = $displayName + "-" + [guid]::NewGuid();
$externalEmailAddress = $publicFolderMailbox.PrimarySmtpAddress.ToString();

Links

• Microsoft Exchange 2013 Public Folders Directory Sync Support Scripts

You need assistance with your Exchange Server setup? You have questions about your Exchange Server infrastructure and going hybrid? You are interested in what Exchange Server 2016 has to offer for your environment?
Contact me at thomas@mcsmemail.de
Follow at https://twitter.com/stensitzki

Once upon a time at an Exchange Conference near you, a member of the Exchange Product Group (PG) announced that the very last Exchange Server will go away when having an active Exchange hybrid setup.

This was a hot topic for discussions at the Microsoft Exchange Conferences (MEC, @IamMEC) in 2012 and 2014, already. Since then the Exchange PG came up with a number of reasons why this is not possible. The question on when we will finally be able to remove the very last Exchange Server from the on-premises Exchange organization was asked every year at the Ignite Conference. 

Current Situation

Currently, the supported scenario for hybrid configurations between your on-premises Exchange organization and Exchange Online requires that you keep the last Exchange Server for creating, and managing Exchange related objects, even if those objects are located in Exchange Online. 

The following diagram illustrates the current requirements:

• Domain Controller Servers, with the most recent Active Directory Schema Update for a supported Exchange Server version, and stored Exchange-extended AD objects.
• DirSync Server, with AAD Connect, synchronizing Exchange-extended AD objects stored in on-premises Active Directory with Azure AD.
• Last Exchange Server, running a supported version of Exchange Server, managing the objects stored in on-premises Active Directory.

Interim solutions

In the past, there was communication on certain interim solutions that were supposed to support you in removing the last Exchange Server from your Exchange organization. Such interim solutions were:

• ADSI Edit
• Identity Management Solutions (IDM)
• PowerShell

At Ignite those solutions even made it into the official session catalog:

• Ignite 2018 - THR2145 - Why do we need to keep an Exchange Server on-premises when we move to the cloud?

All those interim solutions leave your on-premises Exchange organization and the Active Directory configuration in an uncomfortable twilight-zone. It was still something that worked somehow, but you knew it was officially not supported, and the secure and stable operation of the hybrid configuration was at risk.

But wait...

Removing the last Exchange Server is supported!

(at least when all components are released)

Solution

The new approach for managing your Exchange Online tenancy after migrating your on-premises Exchange organization to Exchange Online does not require an on-premises Exchange Server. 

The new mode of operation reduces your on-premises requirements to:

• Domain Controller Servers, running the most recent release Windows Server 2019 with the most recent Active Directory Schema Update for Exchange Server 2019 CU 5. This updates the Exchange-extended AD objects and the hybrid configuration object to support modern EXO management. Also, you must enable the Windows Feature "Exchange Online Remote Features" as described below.
   
• DirSync Server, with AAD Connect, synchronizing Exchange-extended AD objects stored in on-premises Active Directory with Azure AD. You must run the most recent release of Azure AD Connect (1.4.38.0) and have Exchange Hybrid enabled in AAD Connect.
  See release notes for Azure AD Connect. 
   
• Administrative PC, running the most recent version of the Exchange Online PowerShell v2 (aka ExchangeOnlineManagement)

The following diagram illustrates the new modern Exchange Online Management experience:

Simply you remove the requirement to use on-premises Exchange Server to write to your on-premises Active Directory. Instead, Azure AD Connect uses a new synchronization capability to handle the new Exchange Management experience in the AAD Connect MetaVerse. The on-premises AD-connector writes the changes to Active Directory which keeps the Active Directory up-to-date for all other on-premises solutions that require identities to have a proper state.

You execute all Exchange-related actions using the new Exchange Online Management PowerShell module, or, if needed, the new Modern Exchange Admin Center (EAC, which was announced at Ignite 2019.

Enable Modern Exchange Admin Experience (MEAE)

Before you uninstall the last Exchange Server from your on-premises Exchange organization, ensure that you

• Updated the Active Directory Schema Version to Exchange Server 2019 CU5
• Prepare the Active Directory and all domains in the Active Directory Forest that contain Exchange objects
• Ensure that there are not pre-Windows 2019 domain controller in use, and patch all domain controller to the March 2020 release
• Install the new EXORemote Windows Feature 

PS C:\> Get-WindowsFeature

Display Name                                            Name                       Install State
------------                                            ----                       -------------
[ ] Active Directory Certificate Services               AD-Certificate                 Available
    [ ] Certification Authority                         ADCS-Cert-Authority            Available
    [ ] Certificate Enrollment Policy Web Service       ADCS-Enroll-Web-Pol            Available
    [ ] Certificate Enrollment Web Service              ADCS-Enroll-Web-Svc            Available
    [ ] Certification Authority Web Enrollment          ADCS-Web-Enrollment            Available
    [ ] Network Device Enrollment Service               ADCS-Device-Enrollment         Available
    [ ] Online Responder                                ADCS-Online-Cert               Available
[ ] Active Directory Domain Services                    AD-Domain-Services             Available
[ ] Active Directory Federation Services                ADFS-Federation                Available
[ ] Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services     ADLDS                          Available
[ ] Active Directory Rights Management Services         ADRMS                          Available
    [ ] Active Directory Rights Management Server       ADRMS-Server                   Available
    [ ] Identity Federation Support                     ADRMS-Identity                 Available
[ ] Device Health Attestation                           DeviceHealthAttestat...        Available
[ ] DHCP Server                                         DHCP                           Available
[ ] DNS Server                                          DNS                            Available
[ ] Exchange Online Remote Features                     EXORemote                      Available
[ ] Fax Server                                          Fax                            Available
[X] File and Storage Services                           FileAndStorage-Services        Installed
    [X] File and iSCSI Services                         File-Services                  Installed
        [X] File Server                                 FS-FileServer                  Installed
        [ ] BranchCache for Network Files               FS-BranchCache                 Available
[...]

PS C:\> Install-WindowsFeature -Name EXORemote

Display Name                                            Name                       Install State
------------                                            ----                       -------------
[ ] Active Directory Certificate Services               AD-Certificate                 Available
    [ ] Certification Authority                         ADCS-Cert-Authority            Available
    [ ] Certificate Enrollment Policy Web Service       ADCS-Enroll-Web-Pol            Available
    [ ] Certificate Enrollment Web Service              ADCS-Enroll-Web-Svc            Available
    [ ] Certification Authority Web Enrollment          ADCS-Web-Enrollment            Available
    [ ] Network Device Enrollment Service               ADCS-Device-Enrollment         Available
    [ ] Online Responder                                ADCS-Online-Cert               Available
[ ] Active Directory Domain Services                    AD-Domain-Services             Available
[ ] Active Directory Federation Services                ADFS-Federation                Available
[ ] Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services     ADLDS                          Available
[ ] Active Directory Rights Management Services         ADRMS                          Available
    [ ] Active Directory Rights Management Server       ADRMS-Server                   Available
    [ ] Identity Federation Support                     ADRMS-Identity                 Available
[ ] Device Health Attestation                           DeviceHealthAttestat...        Available
[ ] DHCP Server                                         DHCP                           Available
[ ] DNS Server                                          DNS                            Available
[X] Exchange Online Remote Features                     EXORemote                      Installed
[ ] Fax Server                                          Fax                            Available
[X] File and Storage Services                           FileAndStorage-Services        Installed
    [X] File and iSCSI Services                         File-Services                  Installed
        [X] File Server                                 FS-FileServer                  Installed
        [ ] BranchCache for Network Files               FS-BranchCache                 Available
[...]

Even though not explicitly stated, you should restart the server after installing the Windows feature.

• Connect to the modern Exchange Online Admin Center as a Global Administrator or Exchange Services Administrator and add at least one of your on-premises domain controllers to the list of modern management servers.
  https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com/#/modernmanagement

As part of the next AAD Connect synchronization cycle, the magic happens.

• The added EXO modern management server is validated
  • You'll see an error sign in Modern Exchange Admin Center if the validation has failed
•  Azure AD removes the "on-premises"-lock from the Exchange related attributes, so you can start managing these attributes in EXO
• The Exchange hybrid configuration object is set to "Modern Coexistence", ensuring that a newly added on-premises Exchange Server will not interfere with the setup

Verify that you can edit the Exchange related attributes of synchronized Active Directory objects in Exchange Online or Azure AD before you remove your last Exchange Server. 

Whey ready to uninstall the last Exchange Server you must use the following command line parameters to remove the server as intended. Otherwise, you'll leave the Exchange organization in an inchoate state. Ensure that you use an administrative PowerShell session. 

./Setup.exe /mode:uninstall /SwitchToMEMA /IAcceptExchangeOnlineLicenseTerms

Normally, you do not have to accept license terms when uninstalling Exchange Server, but in this case, you have to accept the Exchange Online license terms.

Prerequisites

• Windows Server 2019 Desktop Experience Editon or Core Edition, March 2020 Update
  Core Edition recommended
• Azure AD Connect, release 1.4.38.0
• Exchange Server 2019 CU5, as the last Exchange Server

Links

• Exchange Online Management PowerShell Module v2
• Hybrid deployment prerequisites
• Exchange Server hybrid deployments
• Install-WindowsFeature
• You must follow the instructions given in the follow article:
  Final instructions for enabling this awesome new MEMA-experience

Enjoy the modern experience and management options of Exchange Online!

Exchange Conferences

• MEC 2014 - Austin
• MEC 2012 - Orlando

Description

This script will generate a report for Exchange 2007/2010 Public Folder Replication. It returns general information, such as the total number of public folders, total items in all public folders, the total size of all items, the top 20 largest folders, and more. Additionally, it lists each Public Folder and the replication status on each server.

By default, this script will scan the entire Exchange environment in the current domain and all public folders. This can be limited by using the -ComputerName and -FolderPath parameters.

Examples

Generate a public folder generation report for public folder \MYPUBLICFOLDER having replicas on servers MXSRV01, MXSRV02, MXSRV03

Get-PublicFolderReplicationReport.ps1 -ComputerName MXSRV01,MXSRV02,MXSRV03 -FolderPath "\MYPUBLICFOLDER" -Recurse -Subject "Public Folder Environment Report" -AsHTML -To postmaster@varunagroup.de -From postmaster@varunagroup.de -SmtpServer relay.mcsmemail.de -SendEmail

Example report

If you want to simplify the report generation, create an additional script: Run-PublicFolderReplicationReport.ps1

param(
    [string]$publicFolderPath = ''
)

# Variables

# Custom label for email subject
$label = 'Exchange 2007'
$recipients = 'pfreports@mcsmemail.de'
$sender = 'postmaster@mcsmemail.de'

# array of public folder servers to query
$publicFolderServers = @('EX2007-01','EX2010-01')

# SMTP server to relay mail
$smtpServer = 'relay.mcsmemail.de'

# Used to trigger a dedicated report for \GrFolder1\Folder1, \GrFolder1\Folder2
$granularRootFolder = @()  # @("\Folder01")
$subPath = ''

# Check for granular folders, Added 2016-01-19
if($granularRootFolder -contains $publicFolderPath) {
    $subPath = $publicFolderPath
    $publicFolderPath = ''
}

#
if($publicFolderPath -ne '') {
    Write-Host "Generating Public Folder reports for $($publicFolderPath)"
    # Generate report for a single public folder | Change COMPUTERNAME attribute for servers to analyse
    .\Get-PublicFolderReplicationReport.ps1 -ComputerName $publicFolderServers -FolderPath $publicFolderPath -Recurse -Subject "Public Folder Environment Report [$($publicFolderPath)] [$($label)]" -AsHTML -To $recipients -From $sender -SmtpServer $smtpServer -SendEmail
}
else {
    if($subPath -ne '') {
        $publicFolderPath = $subPath
    }
    else {
        $publicFolderPath = '\'
    }
    
    if($granularRootFolder.Count -ne 0) {
        Write-Host 'Following root folders will be excluded when using "\":'
        $($granularRootFolder)
    }
    
    Write-Host "Generating Public Folder reports for all folders in $($publicFolderPath)"
    
    $folders = Get-PublicFolder $publicFolderPath -GetChildren 

    # Generate a single report for each folder in root
    $folderCount = ($folders | Measure-Object).Count
    $pfCount = 1
    foreach($pf in $folders) {
        # Check, if folder is in list of granular folders
        if($granularRootFolder -notcontains $pf) {
            if($pf.ParentPath -eq '\') {
                $name = "$($pf.ParentPath)$($pf.Name)"
            }
            else {
                $name = "$($pf.ParentPath)\$($pf.Name)"
            }

            $activity = 'Generating Stats'
            $status = "Fetching $($name)"
            
            Write-Progress -Activity $activity -Status $status -PercentComplete (($pfCount/$folderCount)*100)
          
            .\Get-PublicFolderReplicationReport.ps1 -ComputerName $publicFolderServers -FolderPath $name -Recurse -Subject "Public Folder Environment Report [$($name)] [$($label)]" -AsHTML -To $recipients -From $sender -SmtpServer $smtpServer -SendEmail
            $pfCount++
        }
    }
}

Use the $granularRootFolder array to add root public folders which require a dedicated report for each sub-folder.

Version History

• 1.0, Initial community release
• 1.1, Replica status (green/red) depending on the item count, not the percentage
• 1.2, Fixed: If 1st server has a lower item count a folder is not being added to the list of folders with incomplete replication
• 1.3, Changes to number and size formatting, Exchange 2007 now returns MB or GB, as configured
• 1.4, Handling of KB values with Exchange 2007 added
• 1.5, Some PowerShell hygiene and fixes
• 1.6, Count of incomplete replicated public folders stated in the table header (issue #1)

Links

• Download and follow at Github: https://github.com/Apoc70/Get-PublicFolderReplicationReport
• Download and vote at TechNet Gallery: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Exchange-2010-Public-315ea9aa

Additional Credits

Additional credits go to Mike Walker (blog.mikewalker.me)

Follow

• Twitter @stensitzki
• LinkedIn

Additional Note

This Powershell script has been optimized using the ISESteroids™ add-on. Learn more about ISESteroids™ here.

When you delete a public folder using a legacy Outlook client, you can easily restore the deleted folder and it's content using the Recover Deleted Items function. 

Due to a fancy trick implemented in Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016 the recovered folder will not be recovered using it's full name.

This phenomenon has been verified with Exchange On-Premises and Exchange Online on the server side and Outlook 2013/2016 and Outlook 365 ProPlus.

The following example uses public folders in Exchange Online and Outlook 365 ProPlus.

Example

In this example I will delete and recover a public folder named My Public Folder.

After deletion of My Public Folder and it's content, I need to select the original parent folder and click the Recover Deleted Items button in the button bar.

The Recover Deleted Items dialogue opens and we select the deleted item for recovery. The dialogue displays the original name of the deleted folder.

After recovering the deleted folder the folder is recovered with the first character only.

That's an annoying result in regards to customer self-care when users restore deleted items on their own behalf.

But wait, there is a solution available.

Solution

The solution requires today's primary administrative tool available: PowerShell.

Step 1

Get an overview of public folders currently located in the public folder dumpster

Get-PublicFolder –Identity “\NON_IPM_SUBTREE” –Recurse 

Name             Parent Path
----             -----------
NON_IPM_SUBTREE
[...]
My Public Folder \NON_IPM_SUBTREE\DUMPSTER_ROOT\DUMPSTER_EXTEND\RESERVED_1\RESERVED_1\65722859-3...
Sub Folder 1     \NON_IPM_SUBTREE\DUMPSTER_ROOT\DUMPSTER_EXTEND\RESERVED_1\RESERVED_1\65722859-3...
Sub Folder 2     \NON_IPM_SUBTREE\DUMPSTER_ROOT\DUMPSTER_EXTEND\RESERVED_1\RESERVED_1\65722859-3...
[...]

Step 2

Export the list of public folders currently located in the public folder dumpster and find the identity of the deleted public folder you want to recover

Get-PublicFolder –Identity “\NON_IPM_SUBTREE” –Recurse  | fl | Out-File D:\TMP\publicfolderdumpster.txt

publicfolderdumpster.txt excerpt:

RunspaceId                     : 6ce9588e-829b-4592-aedc-85f9a2e2c963
Identity                       : \NON_IPM_SUBTREE\DUMPSTER_ROOT\DUMPSTER_EXTEND\RESERVED_1\RESERVED_1\65722859-366a-4e0
                                 9-81fe-ea576ec7a6f7\My Public Folder
Name                           : My Public Folder
MailEnabled                    : False
MailRecipientGuid              : 
ParentPath                     : \NON_IPM_SUBTREE\DUMPSTER_ROOT\DUMPSTER_EXTEND\RESERVED_1\RESERVED_1\65722859-366a-4e0
                                 9-81fe-ea576ec7a6f7

Step 3

Recover the deleted public folder to the correct parent target folder

Set-PublicFolder –Identity "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\DUMPSTER_ROOT\DUMPSTER_EXTEND\RESERVED_1\RESERVED_1\65722859-366a-4e09-81fe-ea576ec7a6f7\My Public Folder" –Path “\TestFolders” –Verbose

As a result the public folder is recovered with it's original name.

Notes

There are some other things to consider when recovering deleted modern public folders.

Public folders originally located in the hierarchy root are always recovered to the public folder mailbox holding the primary hierarchy. 

Public folders originally located in the hierarchy root will replace the permissions of child public folders when restored. 

More on these default restore behaviours can be read here.

Links

• Recovering public folder information in Exchange 2013

Nevertheless, enjoy modern public folders.

The community script to gather legacy public folder replication reports for Exchange Server 2010 and Exchange Server 2007 has been updated.

The replica status of a public folder is indicated by a green or red backgroud color for each folder and replica. The previous version of the script used the replica percentage to set the backgroud color. Escpecially folders holding a large number of items had an issue when Math::Round provided a 100% value.

The current version of the script compares the item count itself. This approach provides a more accurate result.

Enjoy.

Links

• Get-PublicFolderReplicationReport.ps1 at TechNet Gallery
• Get-PublicFolderReplicationReport.ps1 at Github

Migrating legacy public folders (Exchange Server 2010 or older) to modern public folders (Exchange 2013 or newer / Office 365) requires a cleanup of public folders.

There are quite a lot of blog posts and tutorials available describing the general process of migrating legacy public folders to modern public folders.

First you have to identify all public folders having a backslash "\" as part of the public folder name.

Get-PublicFolderDatabase | ForEach {Get-PublicFolderStatistics -Server $_.Server | Where {$_.Name -like "*\*"}}

Just rename those public folders to a name without a backslash.

Another issue might prevent a successful public folder migration: Access Controll Lists (ACL)

This will be the case in public folder hierarchies that go back to the early days of Exchange and have never cleaned up properly during past Exchange migrations.

The cleanup any orphaned Active Directory accounts, run the following PowerShell script.

Get-PublicFolder "\" -Recurse -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-PublicFolderClientPermission | ?{$_.User -like "NT User:S-1-*"} | %{Remove-PublicFolderClientPermission -Identity $_.Identity -User $_.User -Access $_.AccessRights -Confirm:$false}

To cleanup just a single public folder, run the following PowerShell script.

Get-PublicFolder "\My Folder" -Recurse -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-PublicFolderClientPermission | ?{$_.User -like "NT User:S-1-*"} | %{Remove-PublicFolderClientPermission -Identity $_.Identity -User $_.User -Access $_.AccessRights -Confirm:$false}

It should be noted that most of the tutorials have been written using an Exchange Server lab environment with just a few legacy public folders. Therefore, some readers tend to beleive that you only need one modern public folder mailbox. That is not true. In a large legacy public folder infrastructure you will end up with a multiple public folder mailboxes. And the number of mailboxes required to serve the public folder hierarchy.

A larger public folder migration batch using 66 public folder mailboxes looks like this:

Get-MigrationUser -BatchID PFMigration | Get-MigrationUserStatistics | ft -AutoSize

Identity    Batch       Status Items Synced Items Skipped
--------    -----       ------ ------------ -------------
PFMailbox1  PFMigration Synced 91993        16
PFMailbox2  PFMigration Synced 103239       0
PFMailbox46 PFMigration Synced 35034        0
PFMailbox56 PFMigration Synced 22554        0
PFMailbox57 PFMigration Synced 20740        0
PFMailbox58 PFMigration Synced 20122        0
PFMailbox59 PFMigration Synced 7209         0
PFMailbox60 PFMigration Synced 104727       0
PFMailbox61 PFMigration Synced 23278        0
PFMailbox62 PFMigration Synced 9760         0
PFMailbox63 PFMigration Synced 9277         0
PFMailbox65 PFMigration Synced 5870         0
PFMailbox64 PFMigration Synced 5639         0
PFMailbox66 PFMigration Synced 21261        0
PFMailbox50 PFMigration Synced 27889        0
PFMailbox52 PFMigration Synced 14063        0
PFMailbox47 PFMigration Synced 29476        0
PFMailbox54 PFMigration Synced 24283        0
PFMailbox55 PFMigration Synced 4646         0
PFMailbox51 PFMigration Synced 59943        0
PFMailbox53 PFMigration Synced 30052        0
PFMailbox49 PFMigration Synced 22746        0
PFMailbox48 PFMigration Synced 16941        0
PFMailbox18 PFMigration Synced 34307        0
PFMailbox19 PFMigration Synced 4523         0
PFMailbox11 PFMigration Synced 100409       0
PFMailbox6  PFMigration Synced 116655       0
PFMailbox4  PFMigration Synced 55240        5
PFMailbox12 PFMigration Synced 37790        0
PFMailbox3  PFMigration Synced 113842       2
PFMailbox22 PFMigration Synced 46416        0
PFMailbox23 PFMigration Synced 37387        0
PFMailbox13 PFMigration Synced 231845       1
PFMailbox7  PFMigration Synced 82859        0
PFMailbox20 PFMigration Synced 65818        0
PFMailbox21 PFMigration Synced 32270        0
PFMailbox9  PFMigration Synced 46609        0
PFMailbox14 PFMigration Synced 30637        0
PFMailbox38 PFMigration Synced 246428       1
PFMailbox43 PFMigration Synced 101837       0
PFMailbox45 PFMigration Synced 157571       0
PFMailbox44 PFMigration Synced 61763        0
PFMailbox40 PFMigration Synced 70637        1
PFMailbox41 PFMigration Synced 143042       0
PFMailbox42 PFMigration Synced 81254        0
PFMailbox39 PFMigration Synced 68876        2
PFMailbox15 PFMigration Synced 58221        0
PFMailbox27 PFMigration Synced 28065        0
PFMailbox24 PFMigration Synced 31869        1
PFMailbox5  PFMigration Synced 64125        0
PFMailbox30 PFMigration Synced 72938        1
PFMailbox33 PFMigration Synced 32545        1
PFMailbox31 PFMigration Synced 93782        0
PFMailbox32 PFMigration Synced 28743        0
PFMailbox25 PFMigration Synced 100794       0
PFMailbox26 PFMigration Synced 35412        0
PFMailbox28 PFMigration Synced 27003        0
PFMailbox29 PFMigration Synced 80510        0
PFMailbox17 PFMigration Synced 97952        1
PFMailbox8  PFMigration Synced 18601        0
PFMailbox34 PFMigration Synced 87150        0
PFMailbox35 PFMigration Synced 31531        0
PFMailbox36 PFMigration Synced 37979        0
PFMailbox37 PFMigration Synced 95770        0
PFMailbox10 PFMigration Synced 14193        0
PFMailbox16 PFMigration Synced 64323        1

Enjoy (modern) public folders.

Links

• Exchange Server 2010 to 2013 Migration – Moving Public Folders
• Use batch migration to migrate public folders to Exchange 2016 from previous versions
• Use batch migration to migrate legacy public folders to Office 365 and Exchange Online

Updates

• 2016-12-20: Public folder migration batch example added

You need assistance with your Exchange Server setup? You have questions about your Exchange Server infrastructure and going hybrid with Office 365? Contact us at office365@granikos.eu or visit our website https://www.granikos.eu.