What Do I Need To Watch Out For When Moving Exchange 2019 Database and Logs?

Question

This weekend I plan on moving the Exchange 2019 database and logs to another drive (on the same server) which will have more space. This is a production server, so I want to be sure I know what to watch out for when doing this so it goes smoothly.

I will be using the command:

Move-DatabasePath MailboxDB01 -EdbFilePath 'E:\ExchangeDB\MailboxDB01.edb' -LogFolderPath 'E:\ExchangeDB\Logs\'

The database file is about 220 GB. How long will this typically take to move? I want to get people an idea of how long their email will be down.

Any things I should watch out for?

Thanks!

Answer 1

its pretty hard to know how long, but typically that size would take less than an hour.

Be sure to have a full backup of the Exchange DB with an Exchange aware backup solution before proceeding.

If you want, check to ensure its in a clean shutdown state once dismounted:

ESEUTIL /MH <database_name>

The "State" output should be "Clean Shutdown"

Having said all that, I prefer to bring up a new database and move mailboxes to it. No downtime, but that does take longer :)

Answer 2

Just an F.Y.I, if the server is a member of DAG, replication for the database must be disabled for all copies. It's not enough to suspend replication; you must disable it by using the Remove-MailboxDatabaseCopy cmdlet to remove the database copies.

In this scenario, you'd better move mailboxes as Andy said rather that move DB.

Answer 3

Thank you both for your suggestions. Much appreciated!

Answer 4

The database move went successfully today. I did a lot of prep work prior to the move to be on the safe side.

1) Ran Windows Server Backup with VSS Full Backup to clear any old log files and to have a backup..
2) Ran a number of eseutil commands to check the health of the database and log files AFTER dismounting the database.

From DOS prompt in mailbox directory, test headers, and make sure you get a Clean Shutdown on dismount:

ESEUTIL /MH <database_name>

To examine headers:

ESEUTIL /ML E00.log

To check log sequence:

ESEUTIL /ML E00

To check checkpoint file:

ESEUTIL /MK E00.chk

3) Also copied all the database and log files from the Mailbox Database directory to another drive just in case the process failed.
4) Ran ScanDisk on the source and destination drives.
5) Made sure all Windows Server updates were installed.
6) Made sure the database could be dismounted, and remounted without issues.
7) Then ran the Move-DatabasePath command.

Some people might say this was a bit of overkill as far as all the checking that was done, but this is a production server for a service company that runs 24/7. Failure was not an option. :-)

The database was 220 GB. The straight copy command for the backup took about 30 minutes, and the Move-DatabasePath command took about an hour, about twice as long. For anyone out there reading this, the pseudo bar graph showing progress on the Move-DatabasePath command did stop at about the 1/3 mark for probably 20 minutes. Don't panic. It starts moving again.

Answer 5

Thanks for your sharing!