Exchange 2010 Mail Import

I have had my first go at importing mail into Exchange 2010. After exporting all the mailboxes manually using the PST export from Outlook, as ExMerge didn't work, i thought that it would be a simple process of using the new Microsoft Shell cmdlets. After creating a share out of the directory which holds the PST files, all I had to do was to run the following command;

New-MailboxImportRequest -Mailbox aliasname -FilePath \\server\folder\ailiasname.pst
(please note the Filepath is dependant on where you hold the .pst file)

However, when I ran the command, it seemed to work and then fail. The message complained that it failed after there were too many errors in the file. Its true this customer had mail problems in the past but I thought that as long as the exported .pst file finished exoprting without errors, the imprt shoudl be fine.
Even after I used the scanpst.exe tool which did find errors, it still failed. In the end to get round the issue I had to use the following extra switches.

New-MailboxImportRequest -Mailbox aliasname -FilePath \\server\folder\ailiasname.pst -AcceptLargeDataLoss -BadItemLimit unlimited

The unlimited option of the -BadItemLimit is optional and can be replaced with a number. I used 150 until I just went for unlimited to get the mail in. You will recieve a warning just after you press enter which states that you could lose data in the import becuase this is not the done way.
I was not comfortable in firing multiple import requests, so I would run one import and then run the following command to see when the import completes;

Get-MailboxImportRequest -Mailbox aliasname

Message lost after being submitted to Categorizer in Exchange 2003

We have had two instances where mail that is sent to a "Distribution List" don't appear. The sender doesn't even receive a NDR. When you use the Message Tracking Centre to track the message you will see the following track.

SMTP: Message Submitted To Advanced Queuing
SMTP: Started Message Submission to Advanced Queue
SMTP: Message Submitted to Categorizer

It transpires that the Categorizer is the part which checks for viruses so usually in this case you would first check the Virus software. In this case however, we use no such mail scanning facility as its done before the mail reaches the server via Postini and Message labs.
After trawling through hundreds of posts, all I needed to do was change the Group Scope of the Distribution list from Global to Universal. Then all of a sudden it worked.

Error ID 9551 Public Folder Issues

I was having problems trying to amend a shared calander I had created in a public folder located on our Exchange 2003 server. I was trying to change the permissions from the "Exchange System Manager" and everytime I tried to open the "Public Folders" directory the server would hang and I would eventually be given an error address.

Close inspection of the event viewer saw a number of Error ID 9551 ACL Security errors. I eventually found out that the ACL on the Public Folder refered to users from an old domain that no longer exist. This Public Folder area was moved from an old Exchange 5.5 install held in a different domain. These users are refered to as "Zombie" users becuase although they are referenced they actually no longer exists.
When searching the net you will find lots of references to DS/IS Consistency Checker which is a tool found in Exchange 5.5 that must be run BEFORE moving the Public Folder over to Exchange 2003. However, in my situation this had already been done.

The tool I used to get round my problem was "PFDAVAdmin" link This tool can be used to fix these problems and also it can be used directly to change permissions on objects in Public Folders which is what I did. I made myself owner of the calander so I could then assign permissons from Outlook.