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PFMigrate doesn't display anything!

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I've had a few people hit me up about why PFMigrate doesn't give any visible feedback to the administrator when it's run through the Exchange Deployment Tools interface. In fact, you don't get any feedback at all (even when it finishes) unless it hits a problem or prompts for input! You can go into the PFMigrate.Log file, of course, but this is buffered so it may not be 100% current, plus you have to keep opening, closing, and reopening the file to see what's going on.

There's an easier way. By default, the Scripting Host (WSH) on Windows 2000/2003 is Windows Script (WScript). This puts feedback into dialog boxes, and doesn't provide any real feedback to the user of PFMigrate through the Exchange Deployment Tools. You can switch over to Console Script (CScript), which will then cause output to pop-up into a console on the screen while PFMigrate is processing. This will look just like the output pushed into the PFMigrate.Log file, so you can see what's going on while PFMigrate runs.

To switch the default scripting host on the server:

  1. Open Command prompt (Start->Run->CMD)
  2. Type: CSCRIPT //H:CScript and hit <Enter>

Also, here are a few more great new KBs that have come out in the last week, relating to SP1:

  KB.867627 - Description of the changes to ADC Tools in Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 - Talks about the changes in ADCTools, such as the new CA_Defaults.XML file and its use plus the new Activate_CAs.vbs script. Contains guidance on how to override the old ADC Tools behavior with defaults that you configure, very useful for things like setting the run schedule to “Never“ rather than “Always“ and having them run before the configuration of the new CAs can be confirmed.

KB.839826 - High network usage occurs while Outlook clients downlaod the offline Address Book from Exchange 2003 at the same time - Talks about some common reasons why the OAB has to be downloaded, and in particularly cases in which the Full OAB has to be downloaded. This has some information that is particularly relevant to SP1 Site Consolidation scenarios.

KB.867628 - Monitoring programs report that the Store.exe proces consumes additional memory after you install Exchange Server 2003 SP1 - After applying SP1 to Exchange 2003, you'll see memory use reported in a slightly different way. I've blogged about this previously.

KB.813772 - Microsoft Support Policy for Exchange Server coexistence with and migration from Lotus Notes/Domino 6.x - Beginning with Exchange 2003 SP1, the Lotus Notes connector of Exchange 2003 SP1 can now be used with Lotus Notes/Domino R6 client.