Re-create Discovery and Other System Mailboxes in Exchange 2010

Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2

This article describes how to re-create and enable missing Discovery and other system mailboxes in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

Arbitration user accounts and mailboxes are created when you run the Setup.com /PrepareAD command to prepare Active Directory as part of the Exchange 2010 installation. Arbitration mailboxes are used for managing approval workflow. For example, an arbitration mailbox is used for handling moderated recipients and distribution group membership approval.You can find the Arbitration user accounts in the Users Organizational Unit (OU) in Active Directory. The accounts resemble the following:

• SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9} – This account is used by the Multi-Mailbox Search process to store discovery search metadata.

• FederatedEmail.4c1f4d8b-8179-4148-93bf-00a95fa1e042 – This account is used for federated mail.

• SystemMailbox{1f05a927-af78-475a-aba4-fc281398eb54} – This account is used for moderated transport.

• DiscoverySearchMailbox{D919BA05-46A6-415f-80AD-7E09334BB852} – This account is used as the target mailbox for discovery searches in the exchange control panel. Discovery search is used when you search for emails across all the mailboxes.

Because system mailboxes are not visible in the Exchange Management Console (EMC) or in Exchange address lists, they are rarely deleted accidentally.

If a system mailbox is deleted accidentally, features that rely on that mailbox no longer work. For example, if the Discovery system mailbox is deleted accidentally, the search process does not function correctly, and discovery managers can no longer perform searches or manage existing searches. To enable the discoverability functionality in this case, you must re-create the Discovery system mailbox.

For more information about the Discovery process, see Managing Discovery.

For more information about Arbitration mailboxes, see Understanding Moderated Transport.

Use the Exchange Management Shell to re-create the system mailboxes and user accounts

1. You must first delete the user accounts for the accidentally deleted mailboxes from Active Directory. By default, Exchange 2010 Setup creates system mailboxes in the Users container in Active Directory. For example, the account that was deleted may resemble one of the following:

   • SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9}

   • SystemMailbox{1f05a927-af78-475a-aba4-fc281398eb54}

   • FederatedEmail.4c1f4d8b-8179-4148-93bf-00a95fa1e042

   • DiscoverySearchMailbox{D919BA05-46A6-415f-80AD-7E09334BB852} For more information about how to delete a user account from Active Directory, see Delete a User Account.

2. Prepare Active Directory. To do this, run Microsoft Exchange 2010 Setup by using the /PrepareAD switch in the root domain of your Active Directory forest. For more information, see Prepare Active Directory and Domains.

3. Make sure that you enable the mailbox only for the accounts that were re-created. You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipient Provisioning Permissions" section in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

The following example describes how to enable the Arbitration and Discovery system mailboxes:

Enable-Mailbox -Arbitration -Identity "FederatedEmail.4c1f4d8b-8179-4148-93bf-00a95fa1e042"

Enable-Mailbox -Arbitration -Identity "SystemMailbox{1f05a927-8668-4003-adad-9b80758e86db}"

Enable-Mailbox -Arbitration -Identity "SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9}"

Enable-Mailbox -Discovery "DiscoverySearchMailbox {D919BA05-46A6-415f-80AD-7E09334BB852}"

To set the correct display for the SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9} mailbox, you can use the Set-Mailbox command. For example, run the following command:

Set-Mailbox -Arbitration -Identity "SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9}" -DisplayName "Microsoft Exchange"

If you have re-created the FederatedEmail system mailbox, you can reset the default quota for the FederatedEmail.4c1f4d8b-8179-4148-93bf-00a95fa1e042 mailbox by using the Set-Mailbox command. For example, run the following command:

Set-Mailbox -Arbitration -Identity "FederatedEmail.4c1f4d8b-8179-4148-93bf-00a95fa1e042" -ProhibitSendQuota 1MB

To determine whether the Enable-Mailbox and Set-Mailbox commands were applied correctly, you can use the Get-Mailbox command. Run the following command to verify the status of the Arbitration mailboxes:

Get-Mailbox -Arbitration

If the Enable-Mailbox and Set-Mailbox commands were applied correctly, the following results are returned.

Run the following command to verify the status of the DiscoverySearchMailbox mailbox:

Get-Mailbox -Identity DiscoverySearchMaibox*

If the Enable-Mailbox and Set-Mailbox commands were applied correctly, the following result is returned.

See Also

Concepts

Managing Discovery

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