Public Folder synchronization to or from Exchange 2013 &/or 2016 is very slow (4246293)

Public Folder synchronization to or from Exchange 2013 &/or 2016 is very slow

There are a couple different reasons for the performance issue.  Below are two such issues.

1. The Public Folder Target Agent (PFTA) has to communicate with the Primary Hierarchy mailbox within Exchange, and if this mailbox is located across a wan, the retrieval of the Folder information can take excessively long.

2. To synchronize Public Folders to Exchange 2013, MMEX Public Folder Agents create a MAPI profile for PF Administrator mailbox which is specified in the Properties of the target Exchange 2013 server selected as a target server for Public Folder synchronization. (To find out which mailbox is specified as PF Administrator mailbox, expand the Target Exchange Organization in MMEX Management Tree down to target Exchange server and select Properties from the shortcut menu). This profile is created on the base of data retrieved by Autodiscover from Exchange 2013.

In particular PF Agents retrieve the value for ProxyServer parameter from the settings of EXHTTP protocol.

If an XML response for the query contains several sets of EXHTTP protocol settings, the agents will use the last set and create a MAPI profile based on it even if this last set contains some non-optimal parameters, say, external but not internal Proxy Server name.

Workarounds:

1. Currently, the PFTA cannot be led to read the folder information from another mailbox other than the primary hierarchy mailbox, (There can only be one Primary Hierarchy mailbox in an Organization) so it may have to reach across the WAN to do so.  Looking up the Public Folder Hierarchy mailbox properties within Exchange the DB location is key to finding it’s current location.  This can be done using ECP, or powershell.  This KB can assist to gather the required information.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123685(v=exchg.160).aspx

Until the product is able to point the agent to other hierarchy mailboxes, a workaround would be to ensure that the Primary Hierarchy mailbox (First Public Folder Mailbox created in Exchange) is located in the same location as the agent is sending data.  For example:  With a large Public Folder synchronization, where the PFTA is part of another source to target public folder job (using replicas to synchronize to the target with more agents), it may be best to move the Hierarchy mailbox to this other location to get the throughput required.  This would be a temporary workaround and mostly best for Resynchronization of the folders, permissions, and structure, not the actual data being ingested.

2. Set the PF Agents working with Exchange 2013 or 2016 server to use local XML file settings to connect to PF Administrator mailbox.

To do that:

1. Run Test E-Mail AutoConfiguration tool for Outlook by holding Ctrl button and right-clicking on Outlook icon in the notification area and selecting Test E-Mail AutoConfiguration command from the shortcut menu.
2. Type in PF Administrator mailbox e-mail address in the E-Mail Address box. You can find out the SMTP address of the PF Administrator mailbox in the EMWPFTA.log (or EMWPFSA.log) file by searching for "CMBMConn::TryGetAutoDiscoverSettings" string and copying mailbox address from this Informational trace:  'Informational    6306      Trying to get user 'PF_Admin_mailbox@veris.amazon.dmm' settings using autodiscover'.
3. Click Test, wait for the test to complete, click on XML tab and copy the part of XML file (as shown in an example below) making sure the fast Exchange 2013 server is added to XML.
4. Copy the response to xml file named after PF admin mailbox, eg. PF_Admin_mailbox@veris.amazon.dmm.xml and modify the flowing sections to reflect desired settings for profile. Remove section for "slow" server. For example, if there are two sections for EXHTTP, leave only the section containing required "fast" server.

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

        <Autodiscover xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/autodiscover/responseschema/2006">

            <Response xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/autodiscover/outlook/responseschema/2006a">

                <Account>

                 <Protocol>

                    <Type>EXCH</Type>

                         <Server>4f096621-d916-40d0-874a-b0a8d4a0e805@veris.amazon.dmm</Server>

                </Protocol>

                <Protocol>

                    <Type>EXHTTP</Type>

                         <Server>ex2013r2.veris.amazon.dmm</Server>

                </Protocol>

              </Account>

            </Response>

        </Autodiscover>

          5. Put the modified xml file to the PF agent host associated with Exchange 2013 server at 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Aelita Shared\' 

          6. Now PFSA and PFTA will use the local file instead of connecting to Autodiscover/ Thus the agents are forced to create a MAPI profile with the same ProxyServer which is used by Outlook.

Important: The feature works starting with MMEX 8.14 Public Update 20171216EX only.