How to REALLY make import / export mailboxes on Exchange 2010 work

Hi there,

After going through a lot of other (mostly beta-based) blogposts on this subject, without getting it to work in the Exchange 2010 RTM version, I'm happy to let you know how to make this REALLY work:. I'm not telling this is the only solution or the Microsoft approved solution, I can just say it works when following this approach.

Situation:

Started from a single Exchange 2010 server environment, I had a need to import PST-files from users; what should have been a no-brainer became suddenly a 'lot-after-the-hours-work'. Based on Bing search one can follow the next posts:

http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2010/management-administration/exporting-importing-mailboxes-exchange-server-2010.html

http://www.howexchangeworks.com/2009/08/where-is-exportimport-cmdlets-in.html

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb629586(EXCHG.140).aspx

as the most import ones with a lot of usefull information.

However, none of them helped me to make the import/export work. I got stuck at the moment where I had the following setup:

- single EX2010 hub/cas/mbx server for production

- separate machine with EX2010 Admin Console + Outlook 2010 beta x64 + working Outlook profile

- modified Rolebased permissions for user Administrator to allow import-export mailbox cmdlets

When executing the import-mailbox cmdlets once again, I got the following message: "To export to or import from a pst-file, the 64-bit version of Outlook 2010 or later must be running on the server to which you are connecting (SERVER.DOMAIN.ORG)" (where server.domain.org is my production Exchange 2010)

This left me with 2 options:

a) as mentioned in the error message, installing Outlook 2010 x64 on my production Exchange Server => this scenario was NEVER supported by MS in earlier versions; can't find any article so far where this is supported as of Exchange 2010

b) trying with an additional Exchange (Mailbox Server role) server , and see what happens

tadatatatatatatatata:

Solution B did the trick => instead of having only a server with Exchange Management tools on it, I configured it also as "mailbox server" (avoiding messing with the hub/cas roles in my environment), and dismounted the mailbox stores just to be sure. After relaunching the import-mailbox cmdlet, the import of the PST-file worked like a charm!! (export-mailbox as well :))

So I'm now at a stage where I can continue the migration project at the customer site, leaving me no more than forwarding this post to the correct teams within Microsoft to get "official statement" answer.

Keep you updated on this one.