Fixing Leading and Trailing Whitespace in Exchange Objects

Source: http://www.expta.com/2010/03/fixing-leading-and-trailing-whitespace.html

You must remove all the leading and trailing spaces from Exchange 2000/2003 user names, group names, and Public Folder names prior to migrating them to Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010.  Previous versions of Exchange and Outlook would let you create these objects, usually by accident.  Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 have strict conformance rules that will not allow this, so you’ll have to fix it before the objects are migrated.

For example, you may use the Exchange AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 script to add your Exchange 2007 or 2010 servers as replicas to your Public Folders.  If the Public Folder contains leading or trailing whitespace you will receive an error in the Exchange Management Shell (EMS):

Set-PublicFolder : The Name property contains leading or trailing whitespace, which must be removed.
At C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Scripts\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1:147 char:24
+ $_ | Set-PublicFolder <<<< -server $_.OriginatingServer;
WARNING: Object \Information Technology\Website Resources\Software Development has been corrupted and it is in an inconsistent state. The following validation errors have occurred:
WARNING: The Name property contains leading or trailing whitespace, which must be removed.

Use the following PowerShell one-liners to trim the leading and trailing whitespace from Exchange objects in AD:

USER OBJECTS

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Single User Object:

Get-Mailbox -Identity USER | Foreach { Set-Mailbox -Identity $_.Identity -DisplayName $_.DisplayName.Trim() }

All User Objects:

Get-Mailbox | Foreach { Set-Mailbox -Identity $_.Identity -DisplayName $_.DisplayName.Trim() }

 

---

PUBLIC FOLDERS

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Single Public Folder:

Get-PublicFolder -Identity "\Test\SubPath\PublicFolderName" | Set-PublicFolder -Identity $_.Identity -Name $_.Name.Trim()

All Public Folders:

Get-PublicFolder -Identity "\" -Recurse -ResultSize Unlimited | Foreach { Set-PublicFolder -Identity $_.Identity -Name $_.Name.Trim() }

 

---

DISTRIBUTION GROUPS

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Single Distribution Group:

Get-DistributionGroup -Identity GroupName | Set-DistributionGroup -Identity $_.Identity -DisplayName $_.DisplayName.Trim()

 

All Distribution Groups:

Get-DistributionGroup | Foreach { Set-DistributionGroup -Identity $_.Identity -DisplayName $_.DisplayName.Trim() }

 

 

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Note: These commands all give a warning if the object is not changed, which you can safely ignore:

WARNING: The command completed successfully but no settings of ‘\xxxxx\xxxxxx\xxxxx\IT Department Calendar’ have been modified.

Another configuration that can cause errors is when a Public Folder alias contains spaces. Use the following one-liners to remove spaces from Public Folder aliases:

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Remove Spaces From a Single Public Folder Alias:

Get-PublicFolder -Identity "\Test\SubPath\PublicFolderName" | Get-MailPublicFolder | 
Where {$_.Alias -like "* *"} | ForEach-Object { Set-MailPublicFolder $_.identity -Alias:($_.Alias -Replace " ","") }

 

Remove Spaces From All Public Folder Aliases:

Get-PublicFolder -Identity "\" -Recurse -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-MailPublicFolder | 
Where {$_.Alias -like "* *"} | ForEach-Object { Set-MailPublicFolder $_.identity -Alias:($_.Alias -Replace " ","") }