Quick Exchange 2010 Mailbox Export To PST Guide

A quick and easy guide to exporting a former employee's Exchange 2010 mailbox to archive or PST.

First, let's assume you have all your ducks lined up: healthy Active Directory (AD) and Exchange 2010 infrastructure is in place, and you have Exchange Administrator rights AND have Exchange PowerShell installed. One last thing, be sure to have a folder to export to. I like to keep it short. I created a E:\PSTs share on a large data drive. Be sure the folder props are shared + accessible in UNC style (\\server\foldershare). I have a monthly reminder to push these PSTs off site to our Cloud for archiving purposes.

Now, let's say an employee is 'let go'. Although disabling the AD account keeps the email flowing, I usually change the password, leave the account open. Forwarding is set up to a Manager or whoever is responsible Asap. I.T. folks need to push this sometimes else some critical emails will go into a black hole and you are on the hook!

Open Mailbox Properties, go to Mail Flow Settings, then Delivery Options. Sometimes Managers like to jump on the laptop to check the user's files and email (like local archives as well) so I just give them the new password. The former employee does not know the new password, so this is as good as a disable as far as VPN, email, remote access is concerned.

Anyway, after a decision is made to fully close down the account / mailbox open the Exchange PowerShell and type:

[PS] C:\Windows\System32> New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox username -FilePath \\ServerName\PSTs\USername.pst

Of course fill in the username or login name as needed as well as your share UNC. The PST should have the employee's username in it for organization purposes.

After a few minutes, depending on size, use these commands.

[PS] C:\Windows\System32> Get-MailboxExportRequest | Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics

[PS] C:\Windows\System32>Get-MailboxExportRequest | Remove-MailboxExportRequest

It is best to verify that the PST can be opened within your Outlook. Be sure your user account has Full access to the PSTs folder from which you are opening - no need to copy the PST to your PC.
Outlook (2010) / File /Open / Open Outlook Data File
Again, assuming you have permissions to the PST folder, this works well.