Programmatically insuring that all public folder databases have a replica of every folder

Question

Hi,
I'm looking to essentially insure that all 3 public folder databases have a copy of every folder.  Right now there may be some that are only on mbx1 and mbx3, and some only on mbx1 and mbx2, etc.  It would seem that the right tool to leverage for
this task is the pre-canned AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 script, but I am looking for clarification for how many times do I have to run it.
For example, if I have 3 servers to sync (MBX1, MBX2, MBX3), would I need to run all of the following commands:
* .\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 –Server MBX1 –TopPublicFolder \ –ServerToAdd “MBX2”
* .\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 –Server MBX1 –TopPublicFolder \ –ServerToAdd “MBX3”
* .\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 –Server MBX2 –TopPublicFolder \ –ServerToAdd “MBX1”
* .\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 –Server MBX2 –TopPublicFolder \ –ServerToAdd “MBX3”
* .\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 –Server MBX3 –TopPublicFolder \ –ServerToAdd “MBX1”
* .\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 –Server MBX3 –TopPublicFolder \ –ServerToAdd “MBX2”
Or is this overkill?
Thanks in advance!
JC

Answer 1

The -Server parameter says what server to use to get the hierarchy.  You can safely assume that hierarchy replication is working, so you don't need to use this parameter, leaving your script to this:
.\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 –TopPublicFolder \ –ServerToAdd "MBX1"
.\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 –TopPublicFolder \ –ServerToAdd "MBX2"
.\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 –TopPublicFolder \ –ServerToAdd 'MBX3"
You can schedule this to run with Task Scheduler, running with a service account that has appropriate permissions, on one of the public folder servers.  Or, you could schedule it to run on a CAS or some other server that has the Exchange Management Tools
installed, or you could run it using Remote PowerShell.  If you don't run it on a mailbox server, put back the -Server MBX1 (or any of the public folder servers) so the command connects to a valid hierarchy.  Again, you do not need to run the command
for every permutation of -Server and -ServerToAdd.
Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."