I am running Exchange 2007 SP2 on Windows 2008 server. CMS name is exchmbx1.domain.com. I have an SG named MBX1SG1, which contains a DB named MBX1SG1DB1. This has an SCR target at servername exchscr1.domain.com My understanding of SCR has been that: 1. Logs from MBXSG1 are copied to the corresponding location on the ExchSCR1 server. 2. The logs are copied as soon as they are generated but, by default, there is a 24 hour period (SCR lag time) until these copied log files are replayed into the target database. 3. If Exchmbx1 had some sort of failure, I could activate the SCR target by running Restore-StorageGroupCopy Exchmbx1\SG1 -StandbyMachine ExchSCR1 Now, assuming that what I've laid out above is correct, I've been reading an article at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb738132(EXCHG.80).aspx This Technet article talks about setting up ANOTHER SG/MBX on the target (SG1Port and MBX1Port), and then changing the paths of these from temp paths to the paths for the target's SG and and DB locations that I want to restore from. Not sure why we need to do this? Why can't we just 'activate' the target location straight away, what's the point of creating this extra SG/MBX? On a different note, if the SCR lag time is indeed 24 hours, how can I fail over without data loss?

Q: “Not sure why we need to do this?” “To save time during the SCR target activation process, EXMBX2 is preconfigured with a storage group and database that will be used as part of the database portability operations. The storage group and database are named SG1PORT and MBX1PORT, respectively” Q: “Why can't we just 'activate' the target location straight away” The “Restore-StorageGroupCopy” cmdlet is used to disable SCR and allow the passive copy for running the “Mount-Database” cmdlet. So, it’s just a part of database activation operation Q: “if the SCR lag time is indeed 24 hours, how can I fail over without data loss?” The time isn’t hardcoded, you can set it when enable SCR on the database. And, the final “Mount-Database” cmdlet will replay all the log filesPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.