Exchange 2010 Public Folders and replicas

To create Public folders in Exchange 2010, you can manage everything in the Exchange Management Console through the Public Folder Management Console under Toolbox.

1. In the console tree, click Toolbox.
2. In the result pane, click Public Folder Management Console.
3. In the action pane, click Open Tool. The Public Folder Management Console appears.
4. In the public folder tree, click or expand Default Public Folders, and then select the parent public folder of the public folder that you want to configure.
5. In the result pane, select the public folder for which you want to configure replication.
6. In the action pane, click Properties.
7. In <Public Folder> Properties, click the Replication tab.
8. To add a public folder database to the list of replicas, click Add.
9. In Select Public Folder Database, select the public folder database on which to replicate the public folder, and then click OK.
10. By default, Exchange uses the replication schedule set on the public folder database. To create a custom replication schedule for the public folder, clear the Use public folder database replication schedule check box and use the following settings in the corresponding list:
    
    • Never Run   The public folder is not replicated.
    • Always Run   The replication process is initiated during the replication interval set for the public folder database.
    • Run every hour   The replication process is initiated every hour.
    • Run every 2 hours   The replication process is initiated every 2 hours.
    • Run every 4 hours   The replication process is initiated every 4 hours.
    • Use Custom Schedule   The replication process uses the customized schedule that you create in Step 12.
11. To create a customized schedule, click Customize.
12. To set the schedule, click the time grid in the Schedule dialog box. Public folder replication will run during the time slots that you specify. You can select the same time slot every day by clicking a column header for a specific time slot. You can select an entire day by clicking the name of that day. (The default time slot for the grid is one hour. For finer control, you can change the schedule grid to 15 minute intervals by clicking 15 minute. Scheduled intervals must be at least 15 minutes apart.)
13. Click OK to close the Schedule dialog box.
14. To specify the age limit for items in this public folder, type the number of days in the Local replica age limit (days) box. Items that have reached the age limit are deleted.
15. Click OK to close <Public Folder> Properties and to save your changes.

Powershell cmdlets to set Public folder replication:


This example sets a public folder so that it always uses the default replication schedule of the public folder database.

Set-PublicFolder "\My Public Folder" -ReplicationSchedule Always

This example sets the public folder My Public Folder so that it doesn't use the default replication schedule of the public folder database and 
replicates to PFDatabase02 on Server02 and PFDatabase03 on Server03.

Set-PublicFolder "\My Public Folder" -UseDatabaseReplicationSchedule: $False -Replicas "Server02\PFDatabase02","Server03\PFDatabase03" 

NB: Store.exe
If you are setting up replication for the first time and this also applies to Public folders that are not big in size, you may notice the store.exe process takes up a high amount of CPU and memory usage. This can cause performance issues to your environment with Outlook clients freezing and just extreme slowness on the mailbox servers itself. Its recommended that first time replication takes place after production hours in order to avoid impacting users. Please read the following article on store.exe for more clarity

http://blogs.technet.com/b/maliks/archive/2012/04/25/exchange-2010-store-exe-service-takes-high-memory-utilization.aspx




 ref: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb691120.aspx