Arbitration mailboxes

Question

Hi Guys,

I am seeking your advise regarding the Arbitration mailboxes. There are the following Arbitration mailboxes including System mailbox and Federation mailbox in Exchange 2010 in Hybrid environment. I need to delete the databases where arbitration mailboxes reside but I can not move them to different DB due to the following reason (inconsistent state). The databases have no mailboxes except arbitration mailboxes but the size is too big. I wanted to seek your advise that if I dismount the database and delete the large DB file and mount the DB then it will create a vey small DB size file but I do not know the repercussion whether is it safe to do or not. I am not worried about data as i dot not know if there is any data associated with arbitration mailboxes.

Your expert advise will be highly appreciated.

The DB is mounted but as mentioned what happens if I dismount the DB, delete the DB file and mount the DB to create new fresh DB file ?

SystemMailbox{1f05a927... SystemMailbox{1f0... exchange-1 unlimited
WARNING: The object grammar.local/Users/SystemMailbox{1f05a927-f89d-4056-8e35-b8e90bdc0abf} has been corrupted, and it's in an inconsistent state.
The following validation errors happened:
WARNING: Database is mandatory on UserMailbox.
WARNING: Database is mandatory on UserMailbox.
FederatedEmail.4c1f4d8... FederatedEmail.4c... exchange-1 1 MB (1,048,576 bytes)
WARNING: The object grammar.local/Users/FederatedEmail.4c1f4d8b-8179-4148-93bf-00a95fa1e042 has been corrupted, and it's in an inconsistent state.
The following validation errors happened:
WARNING: Database is mandatory on UserMailbox.
WARNING: Database is mandatory on UserMailbox.
SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29... SystemMailbox{e0d... exchange-2 unlimited

Answer 1

Hi anonymous user ,
In order to better solve your issue, please allow me to reconfirm with you that your purpose is to uninstall the database where the arbitration mailbox is located. If I understand the error, please correct me in time.
First of all, according to my test results, I tried to unmount the database and delete the .edb file, then try to mount the database again, and found that an error will be reported, so I think the method you proposed is not suitable for this situation.

You could following the methods to delete the database.
1.You could repair the arbitration mailbox first, and move them to a different database, then delete the database. According to the information you provide and the test in my lab environment, It’s may caused by your arbitration mailbox pointing to a unmounted or non-existing database.Please check your HomeMDB attribute of your arbitration mailbox in AD. If the HomeMDB attribute is the wrong path or "not set", you can run the following command line to set a correct path.

 Get-Mailbox -Arbitration | Set-Mailbox -Arbitration -Database "NewDatabase"  

2.In addition, you could delete the arbitration mailbox , and delete the databse, then run the first command line below to recreate the arbitration mailbox.

<Virtual DVD drive letter>:\Setup.exe /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms /PrepareAD  

Then run the following command lines to enable the arbitration mailbox:

Enable-Mailbox –Arbitration –Identity “FederatedEmail.4c1f4d8b-8179-4148-93bf-00a95fa1e042”  
Enable-Mailbox –Arbitration –Identity “SystemMailbox{1f05a927-8668-4003-adad-9b80758e86db}”  
Enable-Mailbox –Arbitration –Identity “SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9}”  

For more information: Exchange Server 2010: Recreate and enable missing arbitration user accounts and mailboxes

It’s should be noted that if the arbitration mailbox is missing in the organization, it will cause unexpected errors. So if you delete the arbitration mailbox, please remember to create it. And Exchange server 2010 reached its end of support on October 13, 2020, it's recommend to upgrade your Exchange server to new version.
For more information: Exchange 2010 end of support roadmap

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