Recipe2.20.Moving Objects Between Administrative Groups

Recipe 2.20. Moving Objects Between Administrative Groups

You need to move a server or routing group from one AG to another.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

1. Open ADSI Edit (adsiedit.msc) from the Windows Support Tools.

2. Drill down through the structure, expanding the following containers: Configuration Container CN=Configuration CN=Services CN=Microsoft Exchange CN=<organization> CN=Administrative Groups.

3. Highlight and expand the AG that currently hosts the object you want to move.

4. Highlight the container holding the object type you want to move (i.e., CN=Servers).

5. In the right pane, right-click the object you want to move and select the Move command.

6. In the Move dialog box, drill down through Services Microsoft Exchange <domain> Administrative Groups and select the AG you wish to move the object to. Click OK.

Microsoft doesn't officially support moving Exchange servers between AGs using this method. It seems to work fine, but you should thoroughly test for side effects before making the change to a production server.

Using VBScript

' This code moves a server named W2KDC1 from the First Administrative  ' Group to an  Administrative group named Test AG. ' ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------ strNewParentAG = "LDAP://CN=Servers,CN=Test AG,CN=Administrative &_     Groups,CN=<organization>,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,&_     CN=Configuration,DC=<domain>,DC=com" strCurrentAG = "LDAP://CN=W2KDC1,CN=Servers,CN=First Administrative &_     Group,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=<organization>,CN=Microsoft &_     Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<domain>,DC=com" StrObjectW2KDC1 = "CN=W2KDC1" ' ------- END CONFIGURATION -------- set objCont = GetObject(strNewParentAG) objCont.MoveHere strCurrentAG, strObjectW2KDC1

Discussion

According to Microsoft, once you install a server into an AG, or create a routing group within an AG, it's marooned there forever, even if you have a good reason (like site consolidation) to do away with some of your administrative groups. ESM doesn't allow you to move servers or routing groups (RGs) between AGs, even though in early Exchange 2000 betas this feature was enabled. If you need to move a server to another AG, you must move all mailboxes and Exchange resources to another server, remove the server, and rebuild it in the target AG. Once the server has been rebuilt into the new AG, you can move the Exchange mailboxes and resources to the relocated server.

See Also

Recipe 2.18 for creating administrative groups, and Recipe 2.19 for removing them