Exchange 2010 Mailbox Export

Question

How can I make a backup of an Exchange mailbox to .pst without the end user noticing (aka, not deleting/removing content from the mailbox and not notify the user at all.

Basically we have a sensitive situation where I need to be able to have a very recent backup of email without the user knowing we have a copy. I know Exmerge doesn't work with 2010, so I'm just looking for some guidance--I have about 2 hours to backup 16GB of mailbox data before some users may end up getting let go.

Answer 1

A user isn't notified when you do a mailbox export, or if you used exmerge. Either way, for 2010 you need to use the new-mailboxExportRequest cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell and specify a file path to send the PST. For example:

New-MailboxExportRequest jsmith -FilePath "\\server\Psts\jsmith.pst"

You also need to give the Trusted Exchange Subsystem read/write permissions to the folder you will store the exported PSTs.

As Judaslscariot pointed out, you also need to grant the account performing the export the Import/Export Role.

And you can get further stats on detailed progress with:

Get-MailboxExportRequest | Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics 

Which will show you the percentage complete.

Answer 2

Grant yourself the Import/Export role: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee633452.aspx

Use:

New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox "UserToBeLetOff" -FilePath \\server\fileshare\backup_UserMailbox.pst

To keep an eye on the progress, use:

Get-MoveRequest -Identity "UserToBeLetOff@company.com"

2 Hours for 16GB, your kinda in a hurry, but it should be possible, if you choose a fileshare on the Mailbox server as FilePath