Move Exchange 2013 Database to Another Server Using Database Portability
Published on 09 September 15
Joe2
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Moving mailboxes across servers is still a less difficult task to be carried out. However, the move of database from Exchange 2013 to another location is the one that requires a little extra effort. The particular version of the server comes with a feature called Database Portability, which allows 2013-mailbox database transfer on a different mailbox server within the similar organization via move or mounting procedure. This destination server database must be having similar schema version in its database. Previous versions of Exchange Server cannot move mailbox database into the mailbox server operating on Exchange 2013 version. With the use of database portability feature, enhancement in reliability is achievable by the elimination of error-prone steps of recovery. Moreover, database portability also happens to reduce the complete recovery time objective for a number of failure circumstances.
Database portability can be used for moving a mailbox database between Exchange 2013 of the same network/forest. Therefore, a lot of recovery time objective is reduced for certain scenarios involving failure.
Prerequisites for Mailbox Move between Exchange 2013
- EAC cannot be used for moving user mailbox to dial tone database or even a recovered database via Database Portability.
- The estimated time required for moving would be approximately 5 minutes excluding the time taken for restoration of data, moving of database, and waiting for the replication of Active Directory to finish.
- It is necessary to be having right permissions before performing the move.
Using Shell for Database Move Via Database Portability
Move user mailboxes from 2013 database to a recovered or dial tone DB.
Step1: Confirm that database which has to be moved is in a clean shutdown condition beforehand. In case this is not the case, it is suggested that soft recovery be performed.
NOTE: Take note that while soft recovery is being performed, any / all log files in uncommitted state will be committed to the respective database automatically. In case you are not available with the required log files, soft recovery procedure cannot be completed.
For committing the uncommitted logs to your database, run the given command from command prompt.
ESEUTIL /R <Enn>
NOTE: <Enn> signifies the prefix of log files for the target database, i.e. the one in which you are intended to commit the log file. This is a necessary parameter while running the command Eseutil /r.
Step 2: Use the given below syntax for creating a new database:
New-MailboxDatabase -Name <DatabaseName> -Server <ServerName> -EdbFilePath <DatabaseFileNameandPath> -LogFolderPath <LogFilesPath>
Step 3: Assign ‘this database can be overwritten by restore attribute’ with the help of given syntax:
Set-MailboxDatabase <DatabaseName> -AllowFileRestore $true
Step 4: Now start moving the original copy of database files, i.e. EDB, LOG, and search catalog of Exchange to the specified destination folder.
Step 5: Mount your database with the help of the given below syntax:
Mount-Database <DatabaseName>
Once your database is successfully mounted, begin with modifying settings of the user account with the use of - Set-Mailbox cmdlet. This way the account will point to mailbox on the new server.
Use the given syntax below for moving all users from old to new database:
Get-Mailbox -Database <SourceDatabase> |where {$_.ObjectClass -NotMatch '(SystemAttendantMailbox|ExOleDbSystemMailbox)'}| Set-Mailbox -Database <TargetDatabase>
Step 6: The given syntax will help in triggering the delivery of any/messages that are still remaining in the queue.
Get-Queue <QueueName> | Retry-Queue -Resubmit $true
Once the Active Directory replication procedure also finishes, all of the users will finally be able to get access to their respective mailboxes existing on the new (destination) Exchange Server database. Most of the clients are redirected with the help of Autodiscover. The OWA users are automatically redirected too.
Verifying The Move
In order to cross check whether the move was a successful one or not, perform the following:
- Open your mailbox on Outlook Web App
- Open mailbox with Microsoft Outlook client
Conclusion: The above-described method is a reliable way to move Exchange 2013 database to another Server manually. However, in the situation of not being comfortable moving / mounting database between servers with the help of Database Portability method, commercial conversion solutions can be used to move exchange 2013 database to new server. The applications have an added benefit of performing on disconnected database, which prevents putting the server in downtime.
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Great article. Thanks for sharing this informative post. Few days ago, I was reading another well explained article that covers some important points while upgrading users mailboxes from old exchange server to upgraded one : http://www.lepide.com/blog/problems-in-migrating-emails-while-upgrading-exchange-server/ Though, I have bookmarked both resources for my future prospective.
Check out Steps to Move Exchange Server Mailbox to Higher Version,To know more details visit:- https://exchangeserverstips.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/steps-to-move-exchange-server-mailbox-to-higher-version/