Hi All, I have a Exchange MBX DB which is now on 200GB+ (215GB), is this something off a concern ? We have to change the drives on this Exchange server in the coming months to increase disk space as we are left with 45GB free space on our DB partition. we have a exchange aware backup in place which truncates log files etc. Exchange version is Exchange 2007 SP1, with Windows 2008 Server X64. I am thinking to a) Do a fresh install and upgrade it to Exchange 2007 SP3, then restore all mailboxes into the new DB with New Disks installed or b) I was thinking to shutdown the server, take out the existing 2 Drives (RAID-1) for DB Partition, install the new Hard drives, create RAID-1 on it, restore the DB only from the latest Backup? Your suggestions will be helpful Thanks

Hi, The DB size is OK if your disk system can still handle the IO, but that depends on the users and how they use Exchange/Outlook. Do you have the option of putting the two new disks in at the same time as the current? If so just create a new DB and move the users this database when it is up and running. Do you have the option of installing a new server? Then you can install this one with Exchange 2007 SP3 and move the users to the new server. Do remember that when you update to newer service packs you have to start with the CAS server, then Hub Transport, then UM and lastly the Mailbox server. /MartinExchange is a passion not just a collaboration software.

Hi Martin, Thanks for your prompt reply, I would have to take the existing DB Drives out to be able to install the new Drives. Installing on a new server / hardware may be an option but not yet confirmed. First plan was and is so far to replace the disks with more capacity, then restore the DB onto it and power on the server. Then upgrade it to SP3 We have all roles installed on ONE Server, so I guess a straight forward SP3 upgrade should be fine by just double clicking the SP3 setup files. --- Also, if I had a new server, can you provide a step by step as to how I would go about that ? I mean do I use the exchangesetup switches on the new server so it gets all the details from AD ? setup.com /recover ? Thanks alot ! Regards

Hi, If you do have the option of a new server it would be a pretty simple task. You would install the new server with OS, then install Exchange 2007 SP3 with the typical server installation, this can be done just using the guide. Then you will have both servers listed in the Exchange Organization so you can move mailboxes between the servers. You will then make sure that the new server is added to the send connector so it can take the role of sending mails. It will be the same with receive connectors that has to be created with the same permissions so you will have the same mailflow. Next up is the CAS server, in this case you need to get the certificate reissued from the thirdparty CA i.e. godaddy or digicert or what you are using. This is not a problem normally, but you need to get the certificate reissued so that it fits with the new internal server names. When all is in place you can move the pointers from your firewall or TMG to the new server and if all is well you can begin to plan the uninstallment of the old Exchange server. If you want to swap disks in the current server you can install SP3 before or after the swap, just remember to have a valid backup before starting either new disks and SP3 installation. The installation of SP3 itself is straightforward with setup and next next. /MartinExchange is a passion not just a collaboration software.

Hi Martin, Thank you for your prompt responses, while we are at backup / restore, I had another thought : All of our users are on cached exchange mode in MS Outlook 2007, for e.g. if there was a server crash (complete dead server) and I were to install Exchange via setup.com /recover switch (so it gets all info from AD and I will even name the New server as the OLD / Original Exchange server), Once that was setup, would it also retrieve the list of Mailboxes, Mail contacts, distribution lists etc..? Now the Mailbox data, how would cached exchange mode of outlook would have helped in this recovery scenario ? I am just trying to clear the recovery scenarios in my head :-) Thanks so much !!

Hi, Well the Cached mode won't help much in the matter of backup. When the Exchange server is up and running again you would still have to restore the databases. If for some reason your backup isn't valid, then cached mode can contribute to saving data by creating PST files from the local outlook and then import them to the new database. Normal mailboxes, distribution list and mail contacts are AD objects so a failure in the Exchange server should not delete any of this information. The recovery switch is using AD to see what objects are stored on the Exchange server so that it can connect them to the new one. /MartinExchange is a passion not just a collaboration software.

Thank you so much Martin ! this has clear some confusion I had. I will open another question related to a powershell command (get-mailboxpermission) - please check there if you have some time ! Thanks and Kind Regards