Exchange Migration

This article covers import of messages from Exchange 2003 using the "M-Drive Method" only. For further Exchange import options (including support for Exchange 2007/2010), please refer to the ExchangeImport utility.

Step One: Prepare Exchange 2003 for MailArchiva by displaying an M drive

The primary purpose of Step One is to set up a directory-like view of messages in the Exchange server. Exchange 2000/2003 uses a utility called the “M drive” to present this view. The M drive however is not typically displayed during the Exchange 2003 installation procedure. The first step in MailArchiva for Exchange 2003 therefore involves exposing the M drive so that you can get a proper view of the messages in the Exchange mailboxes:

Note: By default the M: drive is exposed in Exchange 2000.

1. Log on to the Exchange server as an administrator.

2. Start a registry editor (Start > Run > regedit.exe)

3. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EXIFS\Parameters registry subkey.

4. From the Edit menu, select New, then String Value.

5. Enter the name “DriveLetter”, then press Enter.

6. Double-click the new value, set it to “M”, then click OK.

7. Close the registry editor.

8. Restart the Exchange server (or restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service) for the changes to take effect.

Step Two: Creating a service account

1 Open Active Directory Users and Computers and create a new user called MailArchiva. You do not need to create an Exchange mailbox for this user.

2 Do not add this account to the Administrator group or a member of the Domain Admins or Enterprise Admins groups, as these accounts are explicitly denied access to all mailboxes other than their own.

3 Start Exchange System Manager, and then locate the database you want to have full mailbox access to.

4 Open the properties of this object, and then click the Security tab. If you do not see the Security tab, refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/259221

5 Grant the MailArchiva account full explicit permissions, including Receive As and Send As permissions.

6 Close Exchange System Manager and login to server using the MailArchiva account.

For more detailed information on creating a service account please refer to:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/262054 - Exchange 2000

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/821897 - Exchange 2003

Step Three: Download And Run Ex2MailArchiva

Download the mailarchiva_utilities package from Sourceforge or the Stimulus Software FTP site.

1. Create a Microsoft Windows share of the Microsoft Exchange M-Drive

2. Mount or map the Microsoft Exchange M Drive to a directory on the local machine

Note: As Microsoft Exchange stores emails with the subject being the filename, to correctly archive all emails, you will need to ensure that the mount point has unicode (UTF-8) enabled.

For example, using cifs, the following would be added to /etc/fstab:

//192.168.16.2/mbx /mnt/mbx cifs username=administrator,password=test,iocharset=utf8

Note: the iocharset=utf8 parameter ensures that the mount point is unicode enabled.

3. Run the mailarchivaimport utility as follows:

mailarchivaimport -h (to see all help options)

mailarchivaimport -s c:\exmount -i localhost (via SMTP on port 8091)

mailarchivaimport -s c:\exmount -d /usr/local/mailarchiva/server/webapps/mailarchiva (Windows)

sh mailarchivaimport.sh -s /mnt/exmount -d /usr/local/mailarchiva/server/webapps/mailarchiva (Linux)

NOTE #1: For this to work, you must ensure that you have allowed incoming smtp connections from the IP address of the machine where the utility is executed. (only relevant if running on a machine other than the MailArchiva server)

NOTE #2: If mailarchivaimport stops during the process, you may need to increase the number of archiving threads in the MailArchiva server to ten and restart the server. (see General tab in Configuration Screen)

NOTE #3: If you are importing from a maildir format mailbox , make sure your files have ".eml" or ".msg" extension -- TWikiGuest - 12 Aug 2008

NOTE #4: If you experience a high number of failures during the import process, it is due to the fact that (in true Microsoft style), other objects besides emails are stored in files with .EML extensions. Thus, the MailArchivaImport utility cannot process them. If the errors concern oyu, it is possible to edit the mailarchiva-import.properties file to exclude certain directories where Exchange calender entries and contracts are located.