Creating a new storage group is a simple process in either the Exchange Management Console (EMC) or the Exchange Management Shell (EMS). Storage groups for each Mailbox server role are created and managed from within the EMC within the Mailbox subcontainer of the Server Configuration work center. Figure 6.5 shows the Mailbox subcontainer of the Server Configuration work center along with the Database Management work pane.
Figure 6.5
Managing storage groups and mailbox databases using the Exchange Management Console
All EMC-based storage group, mailbox database, and public folder database management is performed through the Database Management pane. However, the Database Management pane is shown below the Results pane only if you have selected the Mailbox subcontainer. The EMC Actions pane is the on the right side of the EMC interface and gives you access to the following storage group management tasks:
◆ Creating a new storage group ◆ Moving existing storage group files
◆ Creating a database (mailbox or public folder) within the storage group ◆ Enabling local continuous replication
You can also retrieve a list of storage groups using theGet-StorageGroupEMS cmdlet. Here is an example:
[PS] C:\>Get-StorageGroup
Name Server Replicated Recovery
---- --- --- ---
First Storage Group HNLEX03 None False
Public Folder SG HNLEX03 None False
Engineering Mailboxes SG HNLEX03 None False
Executives SG HNLEX03 None False
We could have narrowed the scope of that query using theWherecmdlet so that only the storage groups from a specific server are listed. Here is an example that lists only the storage groups on server HNLEX03:
Get-StorageGroup | where {$ .Server -eq ”HNLEX03”}
To create a new storage group, chose the New Storage Group task from the Actions pane to run the New Storage Group Wizard. The wizard is quite simple and has only two pages; the New Storage Group page (shown in Figure 6.6) prompts for the name of the storage group, the path to the transaction log files, and the path to the system files.
Figure 6.6 Creating a new storage group using the Exchange Management Console
You can also enable local continuous replication when you create the storage group, but we will come back and do that later. Notice also in Figure 6.6 that we are selecting the default location for the transaction logs and system files. We will come back and move them later.
When you click the New button on the New Storage Group Wizard, the task is executed and the new storage group is created; the EMS cmdlet that is executed is theNew-StorageGroup cmdlet. The Completion page shows the EMS command that was executed to create this storage group:
New-StorageGroup -Server ’HNLEX03’ -Name ’Executives SG’ -LogFolderPath ’C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange
Server\Mailbox\Executives SG’ -SystemFolderPath
’C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\Executives SG’
Now that the storage group is created, the first thing you should do is move the transaction log and system files to an alternate path. This can also be accomplished via the EMC or the EMS. In the EMC, you just need to select the storage group you want to move and then choose the Move Storage Group Path task from the Actions pane. The Introduction page of the Move Storage Group Path task is shown in Figure 6.7.
Figure 6.7 Moving a storage group’s transaction logs and system files
The only information that is required to move the storage group is the new location of the log files path and/or the system files path. When you click the Move button, the task is executed. The EMS cmdletMove-StorageGroupPathsets the storage group’s path and moves the existing system
and/or log files. The following command was executed:
move-StorageGroupPath -Identity ’HNLEX03\Executives SG’ -LogFolderPath ’C:\Executives-SG-Logs’
-SystemFolderPath ’C:\Executives-SG-Logs’
However, if no mailbox stores have been created and mounted in the storage group, then there will be no system or transaction log files. The wizard will actually tell you this if it does not find any files. Therefore, you would need to run a slightly modified version of the cmdlet since the files do not need to be moved. You would need to include the-ConfigurationOnlyswitch in the command line:
Move-StorageGroupPath ’HNLEX03\Executives SG’
-LogFolderPath ’C:\Executives-SG-Logs’ -SystemFolderPath ’C:\Executives-SG-Logs’ -ConfigurationOnly -Confirm:$False
You can view the properties of the storage group by selecting it in the Database Management work pane and then selecting the Properties task on the Actions pane. In this case there are two Properties tasks on the Actions pane, so select the one in the storage group portion of the pane.
The storage group properties are shown in Figure 6.8. From here you can change the storage group’s display name or enable circular logging. Circular logging tells the Exchange database engine not to keep more than a few of the previous transaction log files. Enabling circular logging will prevent up-to-the minute recoverability of databases from a restore since there will not be enough transaction logs available after the most recent backup.
The storage group’s properties also include the transaction log path, the system files path, the log file prefix, and the date on which the storage group was last modified. The log file prefix is used when creating log files for this storage group; this is a system-assigned value and cannot be changed. In the case of the storage group shown in Figure 6.8, the log file prefix is E03; a sample log filename would look like this:E03000011A0.log.
You can also retrieve the storage group’s properties using theGet-StorageGroupcmdlet. The following example shows all of the properties of the Executives SG storage group:
[PS] C:\>Get-StorageGroup ”Executives SG” | FL LogFolderPath : c:\executives-SG-Logs SystemFolderPath : c:\executives-sg-Logs CircularLoggingEnabled : False ZeroDatabasePages : False LogFilePrefix : E03 LogFileSize : 1024 RecoveryEnabled : True OnlineDefragEnabled : True IndexCheckingEnabled : True EventLogSourceID : MSExchangeIS LogCheckpointDepth : 20971520 CommitDefault : False DatabaseExtensionSize : 256 PageFragment : 8 PageTempDBMinimum : 0
Server : HNLEX03 ServerName : HNLEX03 CopyLogFolderPath : CopySystemFolderPath : Recovery : False Name : Executives SG Replicated : None HasLocalCopy : False MinAdminVersion : -2147453113 AdminDisplayName : ExchangeVersion : 0.1 (8.0.535.0) DistinguishedName : 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
Guid : 772e9d5a-0b82-4cdc-867b-8922ed55215f ObjectCategory : volcanosurfboards.com/Configuration/ Schema/ms-Exch-Storage-Group
ObjectClass : {top, container, msExchStorageGroup} WhenChanged : 12/6/2006 7:35:13 PM
WhenCreated : 12/6/2006 7:13:46 PM
OriginatingServer : HNLDC01.volcanosurfboards.com
IsValid : True
Many of these values can be changed by theSet-StorageGroupcmdlet. If you want to enable circular logging, you would type this command:
Set-StorageGroup ”Executives SG” -CircularLoggingEnabled:$True