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I am attempting to uninstall Exchange 2010 that exists at a DR site in which Double Take Availability was used to replicate the Exchange Database and logs in the event of a catastrophe. Long story short, this server is no longer necessary and I'd like to get rid of it to free up some space on the DR box.

Attempting to uninstall the server on the DR site fails at the Readiness Check with the following error.

Error: Uninstall cannot continue. Database 'Public Folder Database XXXXXXXXXX (servername)': The critical property 'PublicFolderHierarchy' is missing in the PublicFolderDatabase object 'Public Folder Database XXXXXXXXXX (servername)'

In investigating this error I've come across This Article however there is nothing matching the CN=ServerName discussed in my Configuration Container of ADSI.

I'm stumped on this one - any help would be appreciated.

DKNUCKLES
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2 Answers2

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On the DRsite run the following command on exchange powershell.

Update-PublicFolderHierarchy -Server "DR_SERVER"

If the DR server has not synchronised for a while this might be causing the error. Above will update hierarchy and might allow you then remove.

Ankh2054
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  • Thank you for your response. I get the following error "Cannot complete the operation because there isn't an available public folder database on server 'SERVER'. – DKNUCKLES Apr 27 '15 at 16:52
  • Can you run this on DR server and actual exchange server and see whether the results differ. Get-PublicFolderStatistics – Ankh2054 Apr 27 '15 at 18:44
  • The production server displays a list of public Folders as well as an ItemCount and LastAccessTime, however the DR version of that server still states that it "Cannot Complete the operation because there isn't an available public folder database on server 'SERVER' – DKNUCKLES Apr 27 '15 at 19:40
  • I wonder if you should try and re-create public folder on DR-SERVER and then trying to uninstall. New-PublicFolderDatabase "Public Folders" -Server DR-SERVER – Ankh2054 Apr 27 '15 at 19:58
  • Mount-Database "Public Folders" – Ankh2054 Apr 27 '15 at 19:58
  • I would however to this when the server is not connected to network, just incase it tries to replicate back other other exchange. – Ankh2054 Apr 27 '15 at 19:59
  • Thanks for the response @Ankh2054 - I suspect the issue here is caused by Double Take. The replicated mailbox shows up in EMC as dismounted, but the Public Folder Database it references is the same of the production machine. There is a 400 MB .edb file in the Public Folder Database folder which is from the Double Take replication. I'm not sure what part that plays in all of this... – DKNUCKLES Apr 27 '15 at 20:16
  • Are you able to mount the database in EMC? – Ankh2054 Apr 28 '15 at 07:09
  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/23253/discussion-between-dknuckles-and-ankh2054). – DKNUCKLES Apr 28 '15 at 12:56
  • having problems with Chat, but you can email me at charles@avanta.co.uk – Ankh2054 Apr 29 '15 at 09:28
  • thanks for your help - I've posted how to resolve the issue below. – DKNUCKLES May 15 '15 at 01:50
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Sorry for the late response on this but I submitted a ticket with Double Take and this issue is caused because when Double-Take Application Protection creates a job, it sets the msExchOwningPFTree Attribute from the standby server (Target) to NUL. This setting is necessary for public replication between the live Exchange Servers and the standby Exchange Server not to occur. Exchange Server Uninstall script fails because it is looking for the missing attribute's value.

The solution to the issue was to use ADSIEDIT to locate CN=Configuration, CN=Services, CN=Org Name, CN=Administrative Groups, CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYIXXXXXXXXXXX), CN=Databases, CN=Public Folder Database 123123(DRServer Name) and delete the entire folder.

Once that was done the uninstall process ran without issue.

DKNUCKLES
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