Exchange DB White Space Sequence

Question

I am looking for some insights on how to clean up the white space on my exchange 2016 databases.

1. all mailboxes have been moved from the source DB to alternate DB
2. Dismount the primary source DB
3. Delete the EDB and Log files - (Do I delete from Windows Explorer)
4. Remove the DAG DB copies - ( Use the Remove-MailboxDatabaseCopy ? )
5. Create new EDB and DAG DB copies
6. Mount the new Primary source DB

Answer 1

Your steps are in the wrong order :)
I assume you want to keep the same DB, just create a new fresh EDB.

1. Remove all the DAG DB passive copies via Exch mgmt tools( https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/high-availability/manage-ha/remove-db-copies?view=exchserver-2019)
2. Dismount the last and only copy of the database.
3. Delete the EDB and Log files via Windows Explorer from all the servers that had copies ( and the catalog index files) You may need to wait a few minutes before it lets you from all the servers that had copies.
4. Re-Mount database to create new, empty database
5. Re-add copies to other servers in the DAG.