A new Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox server installation is configured with one storage group and mailbox database by default. Depending on your environment and selections made during the server install it may also have a public folder database configured.
The default folder paths for the storage group and mailbox database are the within the installation folder for Exchange Server 2007, which is C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\ by default.
[PS] C:\>Get-StorageGroup -server br-ex2007-mb | fl name,logfolderpath,systemfolderpath Name : First Storage Group LogFolderPath : C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\First Storage Group SystemFolderPath : C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\First Storage Group
[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabase -server br-ex2007-mb | fl name,edbfilepath Name : Mailbox Database EdbFilePath : C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\First Storage Group\Mailbox Database.edb
The best practice in any environment is to configure the mailbox database and transaction log files on different disks, so that a failure of one disk allows database recovery using the remaining disk. This means that the default storage group and mailbox database should be moved after an Exchange 2007 Mailbox server is first installed.
This procedure involves an outage because the database gets dismounted when file paths are changed, so please keep that in mind when you are planning to do the work.
Changing an Exchange Server 2007 Storage Group Path
To move the storage group paths first, use the Move-StorageGroupPath cmdlet. Launch the Exchange Management Shell and run the following command, substituting the correct folder paths for your server.
[PS] C:\>Move-StorageGroupPath -Identity "First Storage Group" -SystemFolderPath E:\SG1 -LogFolderPath E:\SG1
You will be prompted to confirm the change.
Confirm Are you sure you want to perform this action? Moving path of storage group "br-ex2007-mb.exchangeserverpro.net\First Storage Group". [Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"):y Confirm To perform the move operation, all the databases in storage group "br-ex2007-mb.exchangeserverpro.net\First Storage Group" must be temporarily dismounted, which will make them inaccessible to any user. Do you want to continue? [Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"):y
After the command has completed you can see the new settings have been configured for the storage group, and the existing transaction log files were automatically moved to the new location as well.
[PS] C:\>Get-StorageGroup -server br-ex2007-mb | fl name,logfolderpath,systemfolderpath Name : First Storage Group LogFolderPath : E:\SG1 SystemFolderPath : E:\SG1
Changing an Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox Database Path
To move the mailbox database path use the Move-DatabasePath cmdlet. In the Exchange Management Shell run the following command substituting the correct folder paths for your server.
Move-DatabasePath -Identity "Mailbox Database" -EdbFilePath "F:\DB1\Mailbox Database.edb"
You will be prompted to confirm the change due to the outage involved with dismounting the database to move it.
Confirm Are you sure you want to perform this action? Moving database path "br-ex2007-mb.exchangeserverpro.net\Mailbox Database". [Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"):y Confirm To perform the move operation, the database "br-ex2007-mb.exchangeserverpro.net\Mailbox Database" must be temporarily dismounted which will make it inaccessible to all users. Do you want to continue? [Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"):y
After the move is complete you can see that the path settings for the mailbox database have changed, and the file moved to the new location.
[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabase -server br-ex2007-mb | fl name,edbfilepath Name : Mailbox Database EdbFilePath : F:\DB1\Mailbox Database.edb
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