How to Move a Database in a Standby Continuous Replication Environment

How to Move a Database in a Standby...

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Topic Last Modified: 2007-08-01

This topic describes the recommended way to move a database in a storage group that has been enabled for standby continuous replication (SCR). In an SCR configuration, there are two or more copies of the database, one for the source and one for each target. The locations for all copies must be changed in tandem. For continuous replication to work, the paths for an SCR source and its targets must be identical. Therefore, you must perform this procedure on the source and all of its targets to maintain a working SCR environment.

Similar procedures are used to reconfigure the location of an SCR-enabled storage group. For detailed steps about how to move an SCR-enabled storage group, see How to Move a Storage Group in a Standby Continuous Replication Environment.

Before You Begin

To perform the following procedure, the account you use must be delegated the Exchange Server Administrator role and local Administrators group for the source and target servers. For more information about permissions, delegating roles, and the rights that are required to administer Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, see Permission Considerations.

Before moving an SCR-enabled database, you must use the Exchange Management Shell to suspend continuous replication. After the move has been completed, you can use the Exchange Management Shell to resume continuous replication.

Note:
If the SCR source is a local continuous replication (LCR)-enabled storage group, you can use the Move-DatabasePath cmdlet to change the location of the database on the source. However, this will not move the location of the database on the SCR target. Moving the database on the SCR target must be performed manually using Windows Explorer. If the SCR source is a clustered mailbox server in a cluster continuous replication (CCR) environment, Move-DatabasePath is supported only with the -ConfigurationOnly option. In this case, the administrator must manually move the database files for all database copies before resuming replication.

Note:

If the SCR source is a local continuous replication (LCR)-enabled storage group, you can use the Move-DatabasePath cmdlet to change the location of the database on the source. However, this will not move the location of the database on the SCR target. Moving the database on the SCR target must be performed manually using Windows Explorer. If the SCR source is a clustered mailbox server in a cluster continuous replication (CCR) environment, Move-DatabasePath is supported only with the -ConfigurationOnly option. In this case, the administrator must manually move the database files for all database copies before resuming replication.

Procedure

To move the location of a database in an SCR environment

Open the Exchange Management Shell.

Suspend transaction log replication and replay activity by using the Suspend-StorageGroupCopy cmdlet.

Suspend-StorageGroupCopy -Identity <Server\StorageGroupName> -StandbyMachine <NameOfSCRTargetMachine>

Use the Move-DatabasePath cmdlet with the -ConfigurationOnly parameter to change the path of the database in Active Directory:
```
Move-DatabasePath -Identity <Server\StorageGroupName\DatabaseName> -EdbFilePath <FullPathToDatabaseFile> -ConfigurationOnly
```
On the SCR source computer, use Windows Explorer to manually move the log files and system files from the old path to the new location specified by the paths in Step 3.
On the SCR target computers, use Windows Explorer to manually move the log files and system files from the old path to the new location specified by the paths in Step 3.

Restart replication by using the Resume-StorageGroupCopy cmdlet as follows:

Resume-StorageGroupCopy -Identity <Server\StorageGroupName> -StandbyMachine <NameOfSCRTargetMachine>

Verify that replication for the storage group is proceeding normally. For detailed steps about how to verify that replication is healthy, see How to View the Status of Standby Continuous Replication.

For More Information

For detailed syntax and parameter information about the cmdlets, see Suspend-StorageGroupCopy, Move-DatabasePath, and Resume-StorageGroupCopy. For more information about managing your SCR environment, see Managing Standby Continuous Replication.