Managing Duplicate Accounts


Duplicate accounts are synonymous with what Microsoft calls “conflicting accounts.” Essentially, these accounts are created when the Windows NT accounts are moved to Active Directory after the Exchange 5.5 directory information has been uploaded to Active Directory. By default, when an Exchange 5.5 directory account is uploaded without a corresponding user account in Active Directory, a disabled account is automatically created in Active Directory. This is illustrated in Figure 15-17, in which we used the ADC to upload account information from the Corp site’s recipient container before moving the corresponding Windows NT accounts to Active Directory. As you can see, each account is disabled.

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Figure 15-17: Disabled accounts in the Employees OU.

If you migrate the Windows NT accounts as illustrated earlier, you find that conflicting accounts do exist in the directory. Some accounts are listed twice— for example, James Monroe and jmonroe, which are therefore conflicting accounts. As is often the case, the naming conventions in a Windows NT accounts database are different from those in an Exchange 5.5 directory, hence, not all conflicting accounts will appear with the prefix or suffix that is specified for conflicting accounts in the User Account Migration Wizard.

To merge conflicting accounts, run the Active Directory Account Clean-up Wizard, or ADCLEAN. You can find this wizard in the \setup\i386\exchange\bin directory. Run it directly from the Exchange Server 2003 CD. Following the Welcome page is the Identify Merging Accounts page (Figure 15-18), which allows you to pinpoint where you want ADCLEAN to search for conflicting accounts. You can even specify whether you want to search only those accounts with Exchange mailboxes. Because we have yet to migrate any mailbox information, clear the Search Based On Exchange Mailboxes Only check box and accept the default to Search The Entire Directory.

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Figure 15-18: Searching for conflicting accounts to merge.

When you click Next, you are presented with a list of conflicting accounts. Notice in Figure 15-19 that our search has yielded four conflicting accounts, and that each has a different display name. To examine information for a particular account, such as the display name or logon ID, highlight the desired account and click the Account Information button (Figure 15-20).

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Figure 15-19: Conflicting accounts in ADCLEAN.

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Figure 15-20: Informational box providing details about a particular account.

If you want to export the list of accounts to be merged to a spreadsheet for further analysis and modification, click Next. If you do not want to export the list, select the Begin The Merge Process Now check box (Figure 15-21) and then click Next to begin the merge process. A pop-up box will appear reminding you that merged accounts cannot be unmerged. Just click Yes and continue with the merge. After the merge is completed, the Account Merge Results box appears explaining how many accounts were found and how many were merged successfully (Figure 15-22).

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Figure 15-21: Beginning the merge process.

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Figure 15-22: Informational box indicating that the four accounts were merged successfully.

Now no accounts should have conflicts. If conflicts remain, you should know why and have some idea about how to further troubleshoot those accounts. If you can’t get an account to merge, try deleting it in Active Directory and running your migrations on it again. When you do, check the UAMW and ADCLEAN log files to learn about why an account isn’t merging or migrating successfully.




Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Administrator's Companion
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Administrators Companion (Pro-Administrators Companion)
ISBN: 0735619794
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 254

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