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Remove a mailbox database copy in Exchange Server

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You can use these procedures to remove a copy of a mailbox database, but you can't use them to remove the last copy of a mailbox database. For detailed steps about how to remove the last copy of a mailbox database, see Remove a mailbox database or Remove-MailboxDatabase.

Looking for other management tasks related to mailbox database copies? Check out Manage mailbox database copies.

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Estimated time to complete this task: 1 minute

  • Mailbox database copies can only be removed from a healthy database availability group (DAG). If the DAG isn't healthy (for example, the DAG's underlying cluster is down because quorum was lost), you won't be able to remove any mailbox database copies.

  • If you're removing the last passive copy of the database, continuous replication circular logging (CRCL) must not be enabled for the specified mailbox database. If CRCL is enabled, you must first disable it. After the mailbox database copy has been removed, circular logging can be enabled. Once enabled for a non-replicated mailbox database, JET circular logging is used instead of CRCL. If you aren't removing the last passive copy of a database, CRCL can remain enabled.

  • After removing a database copy, you must manually delete any database and transaction log files from the server from which the database copy is being removed.

  • To open the EAC, see Exchange admin center in Exchange Server. To open the Exchange Management Shell, see Open the Exchange Management Shell.

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Mailbox database copies" entry in the High availability and site resilience permissions topic.

  • For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this topic, see Keyboard shortcuts in the Exchange admin center.

Tip

Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at: Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Exchange Online Protection.

Use the EAC to remove a mailbox database copy

  1. In the EAC, go to Servers > Databases.

  2. Select the mailbox database whose copy you want to remove.

  3. In the Details pane, locate the passive copy you want to remove and click Remove.

  4. Confirm the removal on the warning dialog box by clicking yes.

  5. Click ok to confirm the removal after reviewing any messages.

  6. Manually delete any database and transaction log files from the server from which the database copy is being removed.

Use the Exchange Management Shell to remove a mailbox database copy

This example removes a copy of the mailbox database DB1 from the Mailbox server MBX1.

Remove-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity DB1\MBX1 -Confirm:$False

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Remove-MailboxDatabaseCopy.

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you've successfully removed a mailbox database copy, do one of the following:

  • In the EAC, navigate to Servers > Databases. Select the appropriate database, and in the Details pane, the removed passive copy is no longer listed.

  • In the Exchange Management Shell, run the following command to verify removal of the copy.

    Get-MailboxDatabase <DatabaseName> | Format-List DatabaseCopies

    The removed passive copy is no longer listed.