PC Adm: Rebuilding the Postoffice Address List (125252)

SUMMARY

This article describes how to rebuild a Microsoft Mail Postoffice Address List (POL). This may be necessary when the Postoffice Address List is corrupt and cannot be repaired by other means.

This article requires the Microsoft Mail Database Maintenance Utilities document, which contains utilities used to repair and maintain the database for Microsoft Mail for PC Networks. The procedures described in the document apply to versions 2.1 and later of Microsoft Mail, except where noted.

To obtain the document containing the Database Maintenance Utilites, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

99419 PC DB: Database Maintenance Utilities [Complete]

To obtain this document directly, you can download it at the following location:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/mail/pcmail-public/WA0641/

MORE INFORMATION

NOTE: The resetting of group files can be automated. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

129500 Automating the Resetting of Group Files using GIMPORT

Following are the steps to rebuild the Post Office List. The steps assume that all of the programs are run from the same directory(except ACCTONME.EXE, which must be run from the root of the Post Office). Also, the steps assume that the M:\ drive is mapped to the affected Post Office.

Backup your complete Mail postoffice. You do not need to backup the MMF directory.

It is recommended that the following steps be done when there are no users logged in or instances of the EXTERNAL.EXE program working against your production postoffice, and no changes are made to the production postoffice via the ADMIN.EXE program.

The following steps make use of two programs: GIMPORT.EXE and ACCTONME.EXE. These programs are part of the Database Maintenance Utilities Application Note. Please read the documentation for both of these utilities before proceeding. The documentation is part of the Application Note. Also, if GIMPORT.EXE is run from a directory, which contains GROUPS.TXT or GRPUSERS.DAT, remove those files.
GIMPORT ADMIN -Ppassword -Ddrive -FGROUPS.TXT -I -X -Q -LGIMPORT.LOG

This extracts group information to two files (Groups.txt and Grpusers.dat) to the current directory.

NOTE: Verify that there is valid information in these files before proceeding. If not, or if Admin.nme is empty, restore from backup first, repeat step 2, and then finish the process if information appears in the text files that were created. If group information never appears, you have to read the groups manually.
GIMPORT ADMIN -Ppassword -Ddrive -R

This will reset the ADMIN.GRP and ADMINSHD.GRP to 8 bytes and GROUP.GLB and GRPMEM.GLB to 4 byte files.
REN M:\NME\ADMIN.NME M:\NME\ADMIN.BAK

This will backup the Post Office List.
TYPE NUL > M:\NME\ADMIN.NME

This will create an empty Post Office List.
ACCTONME.EXE

Run this from the root of the PO, so that it sees all 19 Post Office subdirectories. This will create a new version of the Post Office List based on information in the local mail accounts files(ACCESS*.GLB).
COPY M:\NME\ADMIN.NME M:\NME\ADMINSHD.NME

This will copy the Post Office List to its shadow file.
IMPORT ADMIN -Ddrive -Ppassword -FGRPUSERS.DAT -A

This will add the extracted external user information from the file GRPUSERS.DAT, which was created in the second step, back into the Post Office List.
GIMPORT ADMIN -Ddrive -Ppassword -FGROUPS.TXT -LGIMPORT.LOG -V

This will add the extracted group information from the file GROUPS.TXT, which was created in the second step, back into the Post Office List.
Groups on the affected PO must be modified to participate in dirsync, regardless of former participation. This can be done by running the Mail Administrator program, selecting the Local Admin - Groups - Modify command and selecting Enter through each prompt until asked, "Include in group in Directory Synchronization?". Select "Yes". In order for the Global Address List to reflect changes made to the Post Office List, REBUILD.EXE -F -Ddrive must be run. In order for remote users to see updated address lists, run ADMIN.EXE and select the Remote - Regenerate command. Remote users must then update their address lists.