Monday 20 September 2010

Exchange server: ExMerge

   


When dealing with Ms Exchange Server, you don't always find a ready solution to problems. One of the most useful application you might need is ExMerge (Microsoft Exchange Server Mailbox Merge Wizard).
ExMerge is a small program that you might not use for months, but it's worth knowing how to use it before things go wrong.
It can extract data from mailboxes on your server for backup or maintenance purposes. I actually use it when someone leaves the company: after a while, I extract all the mailbox folders and save them as a .pst file, then delete all the items and close the user account.
The program has a lot of options. When working with it, you should read carefully all the explanations, before choosing the appropriate settings.
With ExMerge you can export, import and merge mailboxes. After starting the program you can choose between two main procedures: extract and import one step procedure or two steps procedure. After selecting the second method (which is more controllable), you can choose between import and export. Then you will have to input the exchange server name and, after clicking on the options button, you can choose between a complete set of possibilities (like the filtering of date, message details, folders etc...).
When ready (and please read very carefully all the explanations on the options panel), select the desired mailbox, the language and the destination folder for your pst file.
ExMerge in some circumstances can be very useful.

As a side note, please consider that ExMerge will export the mailboxes into pst file. I am sure you all know about the 2GB size limit of pst files. Before starting the procedure, please check the mailbox size and eventually export data in more than one pst file (for example filtering the email messages by date). ExMerge will always create the pst file, but if its size is more than 2GB, you won't be able to import or open it.

This is not meant to be a complete guide on how to use ExMerge. Maybe now someone is more curious about it. If so...  look into Microsoft techNet and you will find loads of in depth information on the usage and options available for ExMerge.

1 comment:

  1. Alex,

    thank you for pointing that out, however the application you're talking about is not free. Before buying software, I think that it is worth trying with the free ones (included in the SQL Server pack or not). Anyway, I'm glad you found a solution.

    ReplyDelete

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