Exchange 2013 uninstallation fails with arbitration mailbox error
Before you go ahead and try the steps outlined in this article, know that arbitration mailboxes should be moved to a different server provided you have one. My organization hosts only a single Exchange 2013 server.
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Error:
Uninstall can’t continue. Database Mailbox Database 0912423282 : This mailbox database contains one or more mailboxes, mailbox plans, archive mailboxes, public folder mailboxes or arbitration mailboxes. To get a list of all mailboxes in this database, run the command Get-Mailbox -Database <Database ID>. To get a list of all mailbox plans in this database, run the command Get-MailboxPlan. To get a list of archive mailboxes in this database, run the command Get-Mailbox -Database <Database ID> -Archive. To get a list of all public folder mailboxes in this database, run the command Get-Mailbox -Database <Database ID> -PublicFolder. To get a list of all arbitration mailboxes in this database, run the command Get-Mailbox -Database <Database ID> -Arbitration. To disable a non-arbitration mailbox so that you can delete the mailbox database, run the command Disable-Mailbox <Mailbox ID>. To disable an archive mailbox so you can delete the mailbox database, run the command Disable-Mailbox <Mailbox ID> -Archive. To disable a public folder mailbox so that you can delete the mailbox database, run the command Disable-Mailbox <Mailbox ID> -PublicFolder. Arbitration mailboxes should be moved to another server; to do this, run the command New-MoveRequest <parameters>. If this is the last server in the organization, run the command Disable-Mailbox <Mailbox ID> -Arbitration -DisableLastArbitrationMailboxAllowed to disable the arbitration mailbox. Mailbox plans should be moved to another server; to do this, run the command Set-MailboxPlan <MailboxPlan ID> -Database <Database ID>. It was running the command ‘Remove-MailboxDatabase ‘CN=Mailbox Database 0912423282,CN=Databases,CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT),CN=Administrative Groups,CN=contoso,CN=MicrosoftExchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=contoso,DC=pri’ -whatif’.
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To resolve this, we need to move or disable the arbitration mailboxes on the server and remove the mailbox database manually.
You need to also ensure you do not have any user mailboxes in the database you are trying to get rid of.
Start Exchange Management Shell and type the command to display mailboxes in the whole forest and not just the domain you are logged into:
[PS] C:\Windows\system32>$AdminSessionADSettings.ViewEntireForest=$True
[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-MailboxDatabase -Server nbc-d-mbx02
Name Server Recovery ReplicationType
—- —— ——– —————
Database15 NBC-D-MBX02 False None
[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-MailboxDatabase “nbc-d-mbx02\Database15” | Get-Mailbox
Now that you have the list of all mailboxes in the exchange database, move it to a different server
To work around the Arbitration mailbox issue, let’s find out the list of all Arbitration mailboxes
[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-Mailbox -Arbitration |ft Name, Servername
Name ServerName
—- ———-
SystemMailbox{1f05a927-0695-4348-bb62-d2369dcb23d5} nbc-d-mbx01
FederatedEmail.4c1f4d8b-8179-4148-93bf-00a95fa1e042 nbc-d-mbx01
SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9} nbc-d-mbx02
SystemMailbox{bb558c35-97f1-4cb9-8ff7-d53741dc928c} nbc-d-mbx02
Migration.8f3e7716-2011-43e4-96b1-aba62d229136 nbc-d-mbx02
Now will disable all of those since I do not have a different server to move them to.
[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Disable-Mailbox “SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9}” -Arbitration -DisableLastArbitrationMailboxAllowed
Confirm
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Disabling mailbox “SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9}” will remove the Exchange properties from the Active Directory user object and mark the mailbox in the database for removal. If the mailbox has an archive or remote archive, the archive will also be marked for removal. In the case of remote archives, this action is permanent. You can’t reconnect this user to the remote archive again.
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [?] Help (default is “Y”): a
[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Disable-Mailbox “SystemMailbox{bb558c35-97f1-4cb9-8ff7-d53741dc928c}” -Arbitration -DisableLastArbitrationMailboxAllowed
Confirm
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Disabling mailbox “SystemMailbox{bb558c35-97f1-4cb9-8ff7-d53741dc928c}” will remove the Exchange properties from the Active Directory user object and mark the mailbox in the database for removal. If the mailbox has an archive or remote archive, the archive will also be marked for removal. In the case of remote archives, this action is permanent. You can’t reconnect this user to the remote archive again.
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [?] Help (default is “Y”): a
[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Disable-Mailbox “Migration.8f3e7716-2011-43e4-96b1-aba62d229136” -Arbitration -DisableLastArbitrationMailboxAllowed
Confirm
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Disabling mailbox “Migration.8f3e7716-2011-43e4-96b1-aba62d229136” will remove the Exchange properties from the Active Directory user object and mark the mailbox in the database for removal. If the mailbox has an archive or remote archive, the archive will also be marked for removal. In the case of remote archives, this action is permanent. You can’t reconnect this user to the remote archive again.
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [?] Help (default is “Y”): a
[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-MailboxDatabase -Server nbc-d-mbx02
Name Server Recovery ReplicationType
—- —— ——– —————
Mailbox Database 0912423282 NBC-D-MBX02 False None
[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Remove-MailboxDatabase “Mailbox Database 0912423282”
Confirm
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Removing mailbox database “Mailbox Database 0912423282”.
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [?] Help (default is “Y”): a
WARNING: The specified database has been removed. You must remove the database file located in E:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\Mailbox Database 0912423282\Mailbox Database 0912423282.edb from your computer manually if it exists. Specified database: Mailbox Database 0912423282
You may now run setup.com /ps or prepareSchema and rerun the setup and it should continue.
Ratish Nair
MVP Exchange Server
Team@ MSExchangeGuru
January 2nd, 2013 at 4:52 pm
Good article, same procedure for all the exchange mailbox server uninstallation 🙂
January 7th, 2013 at 7:09 am
[…] Exchange 2013 uninstallation fails with arbitration mailbox error […]
September 18th, 2013 at 4:20 pm
Love this article. Saved me pretty much time. Thanks!
September 26th, 2013 at 5:09 pm
Thank You Worked for me
January 16th, 2014 at 12:39 pm
What if the shell can´t connect to the server? How can I remove it?
…
VERBOSE: Conectando a PHOENIX.SYSDOMAIN.LOCAL.
New-PSSession : [phoenix.sysdomain.local] Processing data from remote server phoenix.sysdomain.local failed with the
following error message: O cliente WinRM Shell não consegue processar o pedido. O identificador de shell transmitido à
função WSMan Shell não é válido. O identificador de shell só é válido quando a função WSManCreateShell é concluída com
êxito. Altere o pedido incluindo um identificador de shell válido e tente novamente. For more information, see the
about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic.
At line:1 char:1
+ New-PSSession -ConnectionURI “$connectionUri” -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Excha …
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : OpenError: (System.Manageme….RemoteRunspace:RemoteRunspace) [New-PSSession], PSRemotin
gTransportException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : -2144108212,PSSessionOpenFailed
January 30th, 2014 at 10:28 am
Great !! You gave me the write hint, the -DisableLastArbitrationMailboxAllowed switch. Thank you !!!!!!!!!
March 20th, 2015 at 1:30 pm
Nice article. I’m trying to move a set of mailboxes from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2013 using the “New-MigrationBatch” cmdlet, when I get this error: “The mailbox of user Migration.8f3e7716-2011… that is located on a server that is running version 8 can’t be opened on a server that is running version 15.” The Mailbox is present in AD and is disabled. I tried to enable it using the Enable-Mailbox -Arbitration -Identity “Migration.8f3e7716-2011-43e4-96b1-aba62d229136” cmdlet from this KB (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2812509), but this failed. Tried from both Exchange servers and failed. I was able to manually enable it. But still can’t run a new-migrationbatch. Exchange 2013 appears to be accepting the 2nd cmdlet in the above referenced article “Set-Mailbox “Migration….” But gives a warning that this could have negative affects. Should I enable it? Also wondering if I should move the Migration.8f3e…mailbox from 2007 to 2013, if that is a potential solution?
Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Steve
November 17th, 2015 at 7:18 pm
Thanks! That helped 🙂
June 12th, 2016 at 11:42 pm
I am trying to uninstall Exchange 2016 from a 2012 R2 server, because it simply will not function properly (cannot open Administrative console–always get a blank page). I went through all of these steps that you have provided, and several more (because your post is NOT complete), and FINALLY, after wasting 8-hours of my day, I was able to delete the mailbox database. Unfortunately, it is a crock, because when I go into the mailbox folder, lo-and-behold, the EDB database is still there. So the UNINSTALL still does not work. So I shut off all of the Exchange services, and moved the entire mailbox folder to another hard drive, and Exchange STILL will not UNINSTALL. I have been working on this now for 3-days, 10+ hours per day. This is absolute INSANITY. Do you have a –FORCE option that I can feed the SETUP.EXE program? I can’t keep wasting hours and hours of my time on this. Please help!
June 13th, 2016 at 3:24 am
Hi Paul,
I have been working with Microsoft Consulting Services as a consulting and deployed many Exchange 2016 perfectly.
I would highly recommend to engage an expert including me.
There can be multiple issue/Configuration which you might be missing and same applies during uninstallation.
At the same time your mx points to Office 365.
June 28th, 2016 at 1:54 pm
Ratish, thanks for these step-by-step detailed instructions. Helped me out a lot to get 2013 uninstalled.
Thanks!
December 17th, 2016 at 7:01 am
[…] Following article contains more info and fix to disable arbitration mailboxes. https://msexchangeguru.com/2013/01/02/exchange-2013-error/ […]
January 23rd, 2017 at 9:12 am
Thanks you Sir you saved my 3 days for struggle. I was trying to uninstall the only Exchange 2013 in my lab but didnt find any useful info on removing the default database. Your article save my life 🙂
February 27th, 2017 at 6:07 am
Hi,
What if you try to disable the arbitration mailbox but they are associated to recipients that is restricted with approval required?
Couldn’t disable the arbitration mailbox “SystemMailbox{1f05a927*}” because it is associated with existing recipients for which membership restriction of approval is required or the moderation feature is enabled. Please disable the approval feature on those recipients before performing this operation.
Thanks,
John
February 27th, 2017 at 6:37 am
I have found a resolution that will allow you to remove the Exchange 2013 on-premise. I was getting the error:
Couldn’t disable the arbitration mailbox “”because it is associated with existing recipients for which membership restriction of approval is required or the moderation feature is enabled. Please disable the approval feature on those recipients before performing this operation.
To resolve this – you need to remove all the following users from AD in the Root Users container:
DISCOVERY MAILBOX
DiscoverySearchMailbox {D919BA05-46A6-415f-80AD-7E09334BB852}
MONITORING MAILBOXES
HealthMailbox62256620620346798029c55bfe0fcc5d
HealthMailboxb67c72c285f54c30bad37dd37eec361a
HealthMailbox721771958fa64a53aa78527c02caf55b
HealthMailbox995793b82c2c4a14b6173e54371179ec
HealthMailboxc8603cb9bb41442e8b402db42f93dc16
ARBITRATION MAILBOXES
SystemMailbox{1f05a927-c403-4250-9f07-c5e43605c1ac}
SystemMailbox{bb558c35-97f1-4cb9-8ff7-d53741dc928c}
SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9}
FederatedEmail.4c1f4d8b-8179-4148-93bf-00a95fa1e042
Migration.8f3e7716-2011-43e4-96b1-aba62d229136
Once these have been removed from AD, you will be able to uninstall Exchange 2013.
Thanks,
John