How to Move a Database in a Local Continuous Replication Environment

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3

This topic describes the recommended way to move a database in a storage group that has been enabled for local continuous replication (LCR). You can use either the Exchange Management Shell or the Exchange Management Console to change the location of a database in an LCR-enabled storage group. In an LCR configuration, there are two database files, one for each copy. The locations for both copies can be changed independently or in tandem.

Similar procedures are used to reconfigure the location of a storage group log and system files in an LCR environment. For detailed steps to move the location of log files and system files for an LCR-enabled storage group, see How to Move a Storage Group in a Local Continuous Replication Environment.

Before You Begin

To perform the following procedures, the account you use must be delegated the following:

  • Exchange Server Administrator role and local Administrators group for the target server

For more information about permissions, delegating roles, and the rights that are required to administer Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, see Permission Considerations.

Important

Databases cannot be placed at the root of a volume.

Procedure

To use the Exchange Management Console to move a database enabled for LCR

  1. Open the Exchange Management Console.

  2. In the console tree, expand Server Configuration, and then click Mailbox.

  3. In the result pane, select the server on which you want to move the database.

  4. In the work pane, select the storage group containing the database to be moved.

  5. In the action pane, click Suspend Local Continuous Replication. When the Administrative Suspend dialog box appears, enter an optional comment, and then click Yes to suspend replication.

  6. In the action pane, click Move Database Files. The Move Database Files Wizard appears.

  7. If you want to move the active copy of the database, specify the move file location by clicking Browse for Exchange database file path. If you want to move the passive copy of the database, specify the move file location by clicking Browse for Local continuous replication Exchange database file path. Select the location, and then click OK to populate the file location field. Click Next to proceed.

  8. Review the Configuration Summary, and if it is correct, click Move to move the storage group files.

  9. Click Move to move the database.

  10. Click Finish to complete the wizard.

  11. In the work pane, select the storage group containing the moved database.

  12. In the action pane, click Resume local continuous replication.

To use the Exchange Management Shell to move a database enabled for LCR

  1. Suspend replication by using the Suspend-StorageGroupCopy cmdlet. Run the following command:

    Suspend-StorageGroupCopy -Identity:<Server\StorageGroupName>
    
  2. Use the Move-DatabasePath cmdlet to change the database path information in the Active Directory directory service. This cmdlet moves the passive copy of the database. It dismounts the database (if it is not already dismounted) while the move is occurring. Make sure the database in the storage group is dismounted prior to performing the move operation.

    Move-DatabasePath -Identity:<Server\StorageGroupName\DatabaseName.edb> -CopyEdbFilePath <filepath\DatabaseName.edb>
    
  3. Restart replication using the Resume-StorageGroupCopy cmdlet. Run the following command:

    Resume-StorageGroupCopy -Identity:<Server\StorageGroupName>
    
  4. Verify that replication for the storage group is proceeding normally. For detailed steps to verify that replication is healthy, see How to View the Status of a Local Continuous Replication Copy.

Note

Step 2 of the preceding Exchange Management Shell procedure can be modified to use the ConfigurationOnly option of the Move-DatabasePath cmdlet. This option prevents the command from moving the data. If you use this option, we strongly recommend that you explicitly dismount the database before Step 2 and explicitly mount the database after Step 2. After completing the move in Step 3, you must manually move the data. The advantage of this sequence is that if the move can be accomplished without copying the data, the procedure can be completed more rapidly, thus reducing the length of any outage.

For More Information

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Suspend-StorageGroupCopy, Move-DatabasePath, and Resume-StorageGroupCopy.

For more information about managing your LCR environment, see Managing Local Continuous Replication.