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Exchange 2007 Standby Continuous Replication - Configuration & Testing

Tariq M. Jaber [MCSE 2003, MCTS (ISA 2006, Exchange 2007)]

Tariq M. Jaber [MCSE 2003, MCTS (ISA 2006, Exchange 2007)] Photo

Tariq is a senior Microsoft Systems Engineer. He implemented several Microsoft infrastructure projects for various major companies. He is now focusing on Active Directory and Exchange server administration and implementation.

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In this article we will explain Standby Continuous Replication (SCR); an overview, how it works and how to enable it. We finally test SCR by moving the Exchange service to the disaster recovery (DR) site.

Testing SCR

Now that we enabled and checked the replication health, we will test and move one of the databases to be mounted on the target server.

Create a test storage group with one database on the source mailbox server, in my example I'll create the storage group Tj-Users at E:\Storage-Group-01\Logs for logs and F:\Storage-Group-01 for the database.

Create a test mailbox, and send emails to it. Send emails with large attachments to quickly generate logs. As we already said, the database will only be created after the first 50 logs have been replicated to the target mailbox server.

Enable and test the replication for this storage group then follow these steps to mount the database at the target server:

  1. Create a temporary Storage Groups on the SCR target server.

    New-StorageGroup -Name SCRTj-Users -Server Tj-SCR -LogFolderPath:"D:\SCR\SCRTj-Users" -SystemFolderPath:"D:\SCR\SCRTj-Users"

    New-StorageGroup

  2. Create and dismount a temporary Database on the SCR target server.

    New-MailboxDatabase -StorageGroup "Tj-SCR\SCRTj-Users" -Name "SCRTj-scrDB" -EdbFilePath D:\SCRDBs\SCRTj-Users\SCRTj-scrDB.edb

    Dismount-Database SCRTj-Users\SCRTj-scrDB

    New-MailboxDatabase

  3. Dismount the Source database (if the source server is available).

  4. Activate the Storage Groups on the target server:

    Restore-StorageGroupCopy Tj-Ex1\Tj-Users -StandbyMachine Tj-SCR

    Restore-StorageGroupCopy

    You may need to use the "-Force" parameter if the source server can't be contacted.

    Restore-StorageGroupCopy Tj-Ex1\Tj-Users -StandbyMachine Tj-SCR -Force

  5. Check if the database is in a Clean Shutdown state:

    eseutil /mh F:\Storage-Group-01\Database-01.edb

    Note that the path is the same as the source database on the source server.

    Check for clean shutdown with eseutil

  6. If the database is in a Dirty Shutdown state, then we need to fix it using the command:

    eseutil /r E08 /dF:\Storage-Group-01\Database-01.edb /lE:\Storage-Group-01\Logs

    Fix Dirty Shutdown eseutil

  7. Check again if the database is in a Clean Shutdown state:

    eseutil /mh F:\Storage-Group-01\Database-01.edb

    Confirmed clean shutdown with eseutil

  8. Set the paths of the storage group and the database on the target SCR server to the path of the replicated storage group and database:

    Move-StorageGroupPath Tj-SCR\SCRTj-Users -SystemFolderPath E:\Storage-Group-01\Logs -LogFolderPath E:\Storage-Group-01\Logs -ConfigurationOnly

    Move-DatabasePath Tj-SCR\SCRTj-Users\SCRTj-scrDB -EdbFilePath F:\Storage-Group-01\Database-01.edb -ConfigurationOnly

    Move-StorageGroupPath

  9. Allow the Databse to be restored

    Set-Mailboxdatabase Tj-SCR\SCRTj-Users\SCRTj-scrDB -AllowFileRestore:$true

  10. Mount the Database on the Target SCR Server

    Mount-Database Tj-SCR\SCRTj-Users\SCRTj-scrDB

  11. Move the Mailboxes configuration to the Database on the Target SCR server

    Get-Mailbox -Database Tj-Ex1\Tj-Users\Database-01 |where {$_.ObjectClass -NotMatch '(SystemAttendantMailbox|ExOleDbSystemMailbox)'}| Move-Mailbox -ConfigurationOnly -TargetDatabase Tj-SCR\SCRTj-Users\SCRTj-scrDB

    Move Mailbox Configuration with Move-Mailbox

  12. Replicate the Domain Controllers in both the mail and the DR sites.

Conclusion

In this article we went through a brief overview of SCR. We covered the basic requirements for the source and target servers, enabled and tested the replication between the source and target SCR servers. Finally we also tested moving the database and mounting it at the target SCR server.

References

TechNet: Standby Continuous Replication

TechNet: Managing Standby Continuous Replication

User Comments - Page 1 of 1

RAPel 12 Jul 2016 19:14
simply: you cannot . powershell only.
Sudhir 23 Sep 2013 00:56
how to do these procedure via UI instaed of powershell?
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