I am running a total of 5 servers. There is one PDC 2K Server and one Exchange 2K Server. We always have problems when we remove a user. Typicaly when delete users we have problems with the mailbox staying behind. What I mean is we delete users from our PDC server in the active directory. When deleting the user we get prompted if we want to delete thier mailbox. We click yes, and assume everything has gone as planed. However when we go on our exchange server, open Exchange System Manager and then go to Administrative Groups -> <Group Name> -> Servers -> <Server Name> -> First Storage Group -> Maillbox Store -> Mailboxes, the user is still on the list. You can right click on it to get a menu but the purg option is greyed out. Since we can not remove the mailbox, this always causes our nightly backup to fail. (This is a big problem) The next morning after the backup fail we can go back into Exchange System Manager to the same place and the users mailbox now has a red X on the icon. Now if we right click on it to get a menu we have the purg option and can delete the mailbox. Questions: Am I follwoing the right steps to delete a user an their mailbox? If this does happen again, is there any way to manualy get that red X on the user in the Exchange Manager so I can get the purg option without having to wait form my nightly backup to fail? Thanks for all your help, it is greatly appreciated. -Mario-

Why not just disable the user in AD and then delete the Exchange account?

Just diabling an account in AD on the Primary Domain Controler does not release it from the Exchange Manager. When you diable an account on AD and then go into Exchange Manager, find the user, right click on it to get a menu, the purge option is greyed out. This is the dehlema I am having. Thanks for your suggestion. Any other advice? -Mario-

Obviously, I don't work with Exchange. :) Can you purge the mailbox/account and then disable the user in AD?

You can't purge a milbox first because the option to purge is grayed out. Thanks for your response, Any other suggestions?

The correct procedure for removing a mailbox is as follows: 1. Right-click on the user's account in AD and select Exchange Tasks... then Delete mailbox. 2. Wait for replication to occur (usually around 15 mins) 3. Open the Exchange System Manager and navigate to the storage group where the mailbox is located. 4. Right click on the Mailboxes folder beneath the storage group and select Run Cleanup Agent. 5. The mailbox you have deleted should now have the cross against it and you will be able to purge it. There is an option in Exchange 2K to set the retention period of "deleted" mailboxes. If you set this to 0 then all mailboxes with X's against them will be purged at the next cleanup. This is not recommended as you may have only dis-associated the mailbox from the user account. My recommendation would be to set the retention period at 30 days. The system will automatically remove any mailboxes that are older than that period and you have the option to reconnect mailboxes to accounts that may have been inadvertently deleted. Hope this helps. Kate

Thanks for your help Kate, that was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks again, -Mario-