Now that we have created a storage group, we can create a new database in it. While both Exchange Server 2007 Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition allow up to five mailbox databases in a storage group, we are going to limit our examples to a single mailbox database per storage group. This is the Microsoft recommendation, and one mailbox database per storage group is also a requirement of local continuous replication.
You can view the current mailbox database for each server using the EMC, or you can use the Get-MailboxDatabasecmdlet to list all of the mailbox databases in the entire organization:
Get-MailboxDatabase
Name Server StorageGroup Recovery
---- --- --- ---
Mailbox Database HNLEX03 First Storage Group False Engineering Mailb... HNLEX03 Engineering Mailb... False
Figure 6.8 Viewing a storage group’s properties
Of course, you can narrow the scope of this output to just a specific server or a specific storage group using theWherecmdlet. Here are two examples:
Get-MailboxDatabase | Where {$ .Server -eq ”HNLEX03”}
Get-MailboxDatabase | Where {$ .StorageGroupName -eq ”Executives SG”}
Tip
When creating a new mailbox database, name the database something that is standardized and descriptive. Making sure the filename matches the display name of the database will ensure that it is easier to manage.
To create a new mailbox database, highlight the storage group in which you want the mailbox database to be created and select the New Mailbox Database task from the Actions pane. This launches the New Mailbox Database Wizard that is shown in Figure 6.9. All that is required to create a new mailbox database is to provide the name; the path will automatically be completed and the database’s EDB file will be put in the same path as the transaction logs.
Figure 6.9 Creating a new mailbox database using the Exchange Management Console
Ideally, you should click the Browse button and select a correct location for the mailbox database now, but we will show you how to move the mailbox database here shortly. Note
Exchange 2000/2003 administrators may notice that the database has only an EDB file. Exchange 2007 does not have an STM file; each Exchange 2007 database consists of a single EDB file.
The wizard will also mount the database once the wizard creates the configuration for the database. This will initialize a new empty database file. The resulting commands are as fol- lows; theNew-MailboxDatabasecmdlet is used in the command to create the database and the Mount-Database cmdlet is used in the command to mount the database:
New-MailboxDatabase -StorageGroup ’CN=Executives SG,CN=InformationStore,CN=HNLEX03,CN=Servers, CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT), CN=Administrative Groups,CN=Volcano Surfboards, CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration, DC=volcanosurfboards,DC=com’ -Name ’Executives’ -EdbFilePath ’c:\executives-sg-logs\Executives.edb’ Mount-Database -Identity ’CN=Executives,CN=Executives
SG,CN=InformationStore,CN=HNLEX03,CN=Servers, CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT),
CN=Administrative Groups,CN=Volcano Surfboards,CN=Microsoft
Notice that when the database was created, the distinguished name of the storage group was used. However, if the storage group and database names were unique, you could also specify these commands:
New-MailboxDatabase -StorageGroup ’Executives SG’ -Name ’Executives’ -EdbFilePath ’c:\executives-sg-logs\Executives.edb’
Mount-Database ’Executives’
We created the database in the default path so we could illustrate the process of moving it. Using the EMC, we can move the database by choosing the Move Database Path task in the Actions pane. The only thing that needs to be provided in the Move Database Path Wizard is the new location of the database file.
When you specify that you are about to move the database, you are warned that the database will be dismounted while the files are being copied and that it will be inaccessible.
The amount of time that it takes to move the database file will depend both on the size of the database file and the speed of the disk subsystem. Once the file is moved, the Completion page of the Move Database Path Wizard will show the EMS command that was used to move the database file. Here is an example:
Move-DatabasePath -Identity ’HNLEX03\Executives SG\Executives’ -EdbFilePath ’D:\Executives-SG-DB\Executives.edb’
Now let’s look at some of the properties of a mailbox database. Figure 6.10 shows the General property tab of the mailbox database property page. At the top is the display name of the mailbox database. From here, you can rename the database if you need to conform to a new database naming standard. The path to the database is shown, but you cannot change the path here; you must use theMove-MailboxDatabasecmdlet or the Move Database Path task. The database copy path is set when you configure local continuous replication.
Figure 6.10
General property page of a mailbox database
There is a lot of dynamic information on the General property page of a mailbox database as well. This includes:
◆ The last full backup indicates the last time a full or normal backup was run using an Exchange API–based backup solution. Transaction logs would have also been purged at that time. ◆ The last incremental backup indicates the last time an incremental backup was run. This backup type will back up the storage group’s transaction logs and then it purges them. ◆ The status indicates if the database is mounted or dismounted.
◆ The Modified field shows the date and time the database properties in Active Directory were last changed.
The Journal Recipient option allows you to specify a journaling recipient for all mailboxes located on this mailbox database. If this is enabled, a copy of any message or delivery receipt sent or received by a mailbox on this system will be sent to the journal mailbox.
The Maintenance Schedule drop-down list (or Customize button) allows you to specify when online maintenance is scheduled for this particular database. Online maintenance includes purg- ing deleted items permanently from the mailbox database, purging deleted mailboxes perma- nently from the database, verifying that mailboxes on the database are all connected to an Active
Directory account, cleaning up unused folder views, and rearranging white space. Online maintenance must complete periodically, otherwise the database will be come less and less efficient and the database file will continue to grow since the deleted items and mailboxes will never be completely purged.
The Do Not Mount This Database at Startup check box allows the administrator to prevent the database from being mounted after the information store service is restarted. This might be useful when the administrator wants to make the mailbox databases available one or two at a time rather than all at once.
The This Database Can Be Overwritten by a Restore check box is used when you must restore a database file from an offline backup. An offline backup occurs when the database file itself is backed up, such as making a file copy of the database file. This has no effect when restoring a database backup that was made from an online backup.
The next tab on a mailbox database property page is the Limits property page. We will look at different ways to establish limits on mailbox database in Chapter 9, ‘‘Imposing Limits and Why,’’ but let’s do a quick review here (see Figure 6.11).
The Storage Limits section allows you to specify the amount of storage that the mailbox is allowed to have. What you see in Figure 6.11 are the storage limit defaults; administrators of previous versions will be surprised to learn that newly created mailbox databases have defaults.
Everyone will be surprised to see the actual default values:
◆ Issue Warning at (KB) is set to 1,991,680KB. When a mailbox reaches this limit, the user will be sent an e-mail message that informs them that they have reached a limit on their mail- box and they should clean up some data in it.
◆ Prohibit Send at (KB) is set to 2,097,152KB. Once the mailbox hits this limit, user will be unable to send new messages or reply to existing messages. Both Outlook and Outlook Web Access will inform the user if they try to send a message and they are over this limit. ◆ Prohibit Send and Receive at (KB) is set to 2,411,520KB. When a mailbox exceeds this limit,
the mailbox is closed or disabled. Even though the user can access the mailbox, the server will not allow the user to send new messages or reply to existing messages. In addition, the mailbox will not receive any incoming mail from other Exchange users or from outside of the organization.
Outlook Web Access has a neat new feature that will inform the user of how close they are to their limit or if they are over their limit. Simply move your mouse pointer over the top of the mailbox in the folder listing pane of Outlook Web Access and you will see a pop-up box similar to one of the ones shown here.
Figure 6.11 Setting limits on a mailbox database
The limit that you see in this message is the Prohibit Send at (KB) limit, not the Prohibit Send and Receive at (KB) limit.
The Warning Message Interval drop-down list is the interval at which Exchange generates a warning message informing users that they are over their Issue Warning limit. By default, this is sent once daily at 1:00 a.m. local time. You can customize this to another time, but be careful. The Schedule dialog box (shown in Figure 6.12) has a detail view option of either 1 hour or 15 minutes. When using any schedule box that has a 1 hour and a 15 minute view, switch to the 15 minute view to set a schedule. If you select an entire hour, then whatever process you are scheduling will run four times per hour. In this case, if you select an entire hour, a warning message will be sent to all mailboxes over their warning limit four times per hour. The users would not be amused. An example of the warning message is shown in Figure 6.13.
The Deletion Settings section of the Limits tab allows you to configure how long the server will retain deleted items for this mailbox and how long the server will retain a mailbox once it is deleted. The Keep Deleted Items for (Days) options specifies how many days the Exchange server will keep items that have been deleted either from the Deleted Items folder or via a hard delete (Shift+Delete) from another folder. Once a message has been in the deleted item cache for longer than this period (14 days by default for Exchange 2007), the user will no longer be able to retrieve the message using the Outlook Recover Deleted Items feature.
Figure 6.12 Using the Customize Schedule dialog box
Figure 6.13
Warning message a user receives when their mailbox exceeds the Prohibit Send at (KB) limit
The Keep Deleted Mailboxes for (Days) option specifies how long the mailbox database will keep a deleted mailbox before it is permanently purged. The default is 30 days and that is reason- able for most organizations. A mailbox can be recovered using the EMC’s Disconnected Mailbox feature or via the EMSConnect-Mailboxcmdlet.
The Do Not Permanently Delete Items Until the Database Has Been Backed Up check box tells the server that it should not permanently purge an item or a mailbox until the mailbox database has been backed up. This ensures that a copy of the deleted item or deleted mailbox could be recovered from backup media if necessary.
The Client Settings tab of a mailbox store (shown in Figure 6.14) allows the administrator to specify two configuration settings that affect the mailboxes on this store. The first is the Default Public Folder Database setting; this field contains the name of the public folder database that MAPI clients should connect to first when retrieving information about public folder hierarchy or content.
Figure 6.14 Client Settings properties of a mailbox database
The other setting affects clients that work in offline mode or local cache mode. This is the Offline Address Book setting; here you specify which offline address book (OAB) a MAPI client should download. The default is the default offline address book; this OAB contains the default global address list and is sufficient for most small and medium-sized businesses.
The properties we have just examined using the graphical user interface can also be exam- ined using theGet-MailboxDatabasecmdlet. The following is an example of retrieving mailbox database properties and sending them to a formatted list:
Get-MailboxDatabase ”Executives” | FL
JournalRecipient :
MailboxRetention : 30.00:00:00
OfflineAddressBook : \Default Offline Address List
OriginalDatabase :
PublicFolderDatabase : HNLEX03\Public Folder SG\Public Folders ProhibitSendReceiveQuota : 2355MB
Recovery : False
ProhibitSendQuota : 2GB
IndexEnabled : True
AdministrativeGroup : Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT) AllowFileRestore : False
BackupInProgress :
CopyEdbFilePath :
DatabaseCreated : True
Description :
EdbFilePath : D:\Executives-SG-DB\Executives.edb
ExchangeLegacyDN : /o=Volcano Surfboards/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers /cn=HNLEX03/cn=Microsoft Private MDB HasLocalCopy : False DeletedItemRetention : 14.00:00:00 LastFullBackup : LastIncrementalBackup :
MaintenanceSchedule : {Sun.1:00 AM-Sun.5:00 AM, Mon.1:00 AM-Mon.5:00AM, Tue.1:00 AM-Tue.5:00 AM, Wed.1:00 AM-Wed.5:00 AM, Thu.1:00 AM-Thu.5:00 AM, Fri.1:00 AM-Fri.5:00 AM, Sat.1:00 AM-Sat.5:00 AM}
MountAtStartup : True
Mounted :
Organization : Volcano Surfboards
QuotaNotificationSchedule : {Sun.1:00 AM-Sun.1:15 AM, Mon.1:00 AM-Mon.1:15AM, Tue.1:00 AM-Tue.1:15 AM, Wed.1:00 AM-Wed.1:15 AM, Thu.1:00 AM-Thu.1:15 AM, Fri.1:00 AM-Fri.1:15 AM, Sat.1:00 AM-Sat.1:15 AM}
RetainDeletedItemsUntilBackup : False
Server : HNLEX03
ServerName : HNLEX03
StorageGroup : HNLEX03\Executives SG StorageGroupName : Executives SG IssueWarningQuota : 1945MB EventHistoryRetentionPeriod : 7.00:00:00 Name : Executives MinAdminVersion : -2147453113 AdminDisplayName : Executives ExchangeVersion : 0.1 (8.0.535.0)
DistinguishedName : CN=Executives,CN=Executives SG, CN=InformationStore,CN=HNLEX03,CN=Servers,CN=Exchange
Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT),CN=Administrative Groups, CN=Volcano Surfboards,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,
CN=Configuration,DC=volcanosurfboards,DC=com
Identity : HNLEX03\Executives SG\Executives Guid : 99c3570b-d19b-493b-aec6-4da1b2c3bbb3 ObjectCategory : volcanosurfboards.com/Configuration/Schema/ ms-Exch-Private-MDB
ObjectClass : {top, msExchMDB, msExchPrivateMDB} WhenChanged : 12/6/2006 8:32:31 PM
WhenCreated : 12/6/2006 8:27:15 PM
OriginatingServer : HNLDC01.volcanosurfboards.com
IsValid : True
Not all of these properties that you see in the output of theGet-MailboxDatabasecmdlet can be changed, of course. The mailbox database location must be changed using theMove- MailboxDatabasecmdlet and some of these are system properties.
The properties that you are able to change can be changed through the EMS using theSet- MailboxDatabasecmdlet. For example, to change the Prohibit Send At (KB) quota to 100MB, you would type this:
Set-MailboxDatabase ”Executives” -ProhibitSendQuota:100MB