Hi, This is a real basic question, but better safe than sorry.... We're running Exchange 2003 Enterprise (2-node cluster, Windows 2003 Ent SP2), with SAN-attached disks. We're getting ready to do some maintenance on the SAN, which may knock off some of the Exchange-to-SAN paths. To avoid any chance of Exchange database corruption, I was planning on manually dismounting all mailbox and public folder stores (16 total) during the maintenance, to stop all database I/O during that time. My question is - will it be sufficient just to dismount the stores, or should I also bring the Information Store resource offline for the cluster? Or will it be safest to bring the entire Exchange Virtual Server group offline? Thanks in advance for any insight.... Charles

Anytime you mess with storage for your Exchange server you want to take the servers offline. Trust me I have worked with many of customers that have done maintenance on their SAN storage and caused major issues because the TL driver, OS was booted off the SAN, page file was off the SAN, etc. I always think it is better to be safe then sorry. Chris cbfive.com

On Tue, 9-Feb-10 18:38:18 GMT, ccran556 wrote:>>>Anytime you mess with storage for your Exchange server you want to take the servers offline. Trust me I have worked with many of customers that have done maintenance on their SAN storage and caused major issues because the TL driver, OS was booted off the SAN, page file was off the SAN, etc. I always think it is better to be safe then sorry. I'll second that advice. With the databases offline you're not goingto be doing anything useful with the machine anyway. ---Rich MatheisenMCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Hi all, Thanks for your input; it's appreciated. A follow up question - what is the correct procedure for bringing an Exchange 2003 cluster offline? Do I dismount all stores, then bring the Exchange Virtual Server resource group offline, or bring the resource group offline first, then dismount the stores? I'm asking because I don't have a test environment to test this on. Thanks again for the assistance... Charles

You want to take the cluster service offline first then shut down the nodes of the cluster. You always want to avoid just shuting down the cluster nodes because when you bring the servers back online you could introduce new problems like split brain against the storage. Here is some more information give it a look over that is a lot of good information How to apply Exchange service packs and hotfixes http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328839 How to Take an Exchange Virtual Server or Exchange Resource Offline Using Cluster Administrator http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124682(EXCHG.65).aspxChris cbfive.com