Understanding Move Requests

Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication Service

When you use the move request cmdlets to move mailboxes, MRS processes the move process. As stated earlier, MRS resides on an Exchange 2010 Client Access server and is the service that moves mailboxes from the source database to the target database. In Exchange 2007, the mailbox move is performed by the Move-Mailbox cmdlet. By using a service as the agent of the move, mailboxes can be moved while simultaneously remaining accessible to users. During the move, you can view, cancel, and manage the move request from any Exchange 2010 server in your organization.

Remote Mailbox Moves with Exchange 2010 in Both Forests

The following describes a remote mailbox move scenario:

• One forest is an Exchange 2010 forest and the other forest has at least one Exchange 2010 Client Access server.
  
• MRS and MRSProxy exist on all Exchange 2010 Client Access servers. MRS processes the cross-forest moves.
  
• The Fourth Coffee and Contoso forests both contain Exchange 2010 Client Access servers, but only Contoso contains Exchange 2010 Mailbox servers. Fourth Coffee contains only Exchange 2007 SP2 Mailbox servers.
  
• Fourth Coffee contains the mailbox for tony@fourthcoffee.com. Contoso contains a mail-enabled user for tony@fourthcoffee.com that has all the prerequisite settings configured.
  
• The following command is run from the target forest, Contoso.com.
  
  New-MoveRequest -Identity 'tony@fourthcoffee.com' -TargetDatabase DBa  -RemoteHo

  stName 'CAS01.fourthcofee.com' -RemoteCredential (Get-Credential Atlanta\Admini

  strator) -TargetDeliveryDomain 'mail.contoso.com'

Soft-Deleted Mailboxes

When mailboxes are moved from an Exchange 2010 SP1 database to any other database, Exchange doesn't fully delete the mailbox from the source database immediately upon completion of the move. Instead, the mailbox in the source mailbox database is switched to a soft-deleted state. Mailbox data can be accessed during a mailbox restore operation using the MailboxRestoreRequest cmdlet set. The soft-deleted mailboxes are retained in the source database until either the deleted mailbox retention period expires or you use the Remove-StoreMailbox cmdlet to purge the mailbox.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298174.aspx