Exchange Server

Exchange 2007/2010 Public Folder Store in an Inconsistent State

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In Exchange Server 2007 or 2010 you may encounter an error that the public folder store is corrupted and is in an inconsistent state.

The following warning(s) were reported while loading topology information:

get-PublicFolderDatabase
Completed

Warning:
Object EX2007PF1\EX2007PF1_SG1\Public Folder Store (EX2007PF1) has been corrupted and it is in an inconsistent state. The following validation errors have occurred:

Warning:
The item “fbd8a0c6-8083-4175-915c-6842e6408af6” in public folder referral does not reference an existing server.

In this particular case the problem was a server in the public folder referral list that no longer existed. This could be seen by inspecting the CustomReferralServerList attribute of the public folder database.

[PS] C:\>$list = (Get-PublicFolderDatabase -server EX2007pf1).customreferralserverlist

[PS] C:\>$list

ServerName          ServerGuid                         Cost Name
----------          ----------                         ---- ----
SYDEXPF1         3b1789ed-8d9b-43...                  10 SYDEXPF1:10
MELEXPF1          7521739a-6dc1-41...                  10 MELEXPF1:10
ADLEXPF1         5ce9557a-8e70-41...                  40 ADLEXPF1:40
                    fbd8a0c6-8083-41...                  90 {fbd8a0c6-8083-4...
EX2007PF2         8e074cb6-6170-46...                  25 EX2007PF2:25

Note the missing entry in the ServerName column above, though the ServerGuid, Cost, and Name were still populated.

But because the ServerName attribute was empty, removing the entry from the list could not be done by referencing it as the necessary pair of values (ie ServerName:Cost).

Fortunately PowerShell 2.0 makes it possible to remove an entry from an array by referencing it by number, using the RemoveAt method.

The first entry in an array is 0, so the fourth entry is 3.

[PS] C:\>$list.RemoveAt(3)

The array now has the invalid attribute removed.

[PS] C:\>$list

ServerName          ServerGuid                         Cost Name
----------          ----------                         ---- ----
SYDEXPF1         3b1789ed-8d9b-43...                  10 SYDEXPF1:10
MELEXPF1          7521739a-6dc1-41...                  10 MELEXPF1:10
ADLEXPF1         5ce9557a-8e70-41...                  40 ADLEXPF1:40
EX2007PF2         8e074cb6-6170-46...                  25 EX2007PF2:25

The final step is to update the public folder database with the new value.

[PS] C:\>Set-PublicFolderDatabase "EX2007PF1\Public Folder Store (EX2007PF1)" -CustomReferralServerList $list

This may take some time to replicate throughout your Active Directory, after which the public folder database should no longer report the inconsistent state.

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About the Author

Paul Cunningham

Paul is a former Microsoft MVP for Office Apps and Services. He works as a consultant, writer, and trainer specializing in Office 365 and Exchange Server. Paul no longer writes for Practical365.com.

Comments

  1. Aaron 28 Sep 2017 Reply

    Hi Paul, thanks for this great article. I am a bit confused about one section in your last code line:

    “EX2007PF1Public Folder Store (EX2007PF1)”

    I am not sure what to change this to in my environment. I see that the server name is referenced at the beginning but where do I acquire the rest?

  2. Matt 1 Jul 2014 Reply

    I’ve just inherited an Exchange server that’s been reporting this error for months. The only entry in the referral list is the corrupt entry, is this safe to remove if it’s the only entry there?

  3. sunil 6 Feb 2014 Reply

    Hi Paul

    Today I have found some of the public folders are corrupted and inconsistent state. Please guide me how to resolve this error.
    Exchange 2010 with Service Pack 3

    WARNING: Object domain.com/Microsoft Exchange System Objects/Bob Jones has been corrupted and it is in an inconsistent state. The following validation errors have occurred:

    WARNING: “Bob Jones” is not valid for Alias. Valid values are: Strings formed with characters from a to z (uppercase or lowercase), digits from 0 to 9, !, #, $, %, &,’, *, +, -, /, =, ?, ^, _, `, {, |, } or ~. One or more periods may be embedded in an alias, but each one of them should be preceded and followed by at least on of the other characters. Unicode characters from U+00A1 to U+00FF are also valid in an alias, but they will be mapped to a best-fit US-ASCII string in the email address which is generated from such an alias”

      1. sunil 7 Feb 2014 Reply

        Thanks Paul

  4. ayman 30 Apr 2013 Reply

    Please is there a way to from to remove from powershell ver1

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