Create New Exchange Database and Delete Existing One in Exchange 2013/16

Hello guys today I am going to discuss about new database creation in Exchange server 2013/2016 and deletion of default database. In the last post, I had discussed about Exchange Error 571 Delivery not Authorized Message Refused by Exchange Server. You may navigate to the link for reading my previous post.

Generally when an Exchange Server is installed then a database is already created which is called as Default database. But most of Exchange Admin do not want to go with default database cause of pre-configured settings and permissions, therefore they want to create new database then configure & assign permissions according to their need.

New Exchange Database Creation & Deletion of Default One

Follow below steps for creating New DB and deleting the default one:

1. First start Exchange Management Shell as Administrator by going through start menu and then type this command: Get-Service *Exchange*
   We run this command for checking all services which is running on exchange server.
2. Now go to Exchange Admin Center and then navigate to database where you will see the default database. So, we do not need to do anything with Default database right now.
3. Now we will go for creating new Database with naming policy, therefore just click on + symbol for new database creation. Now you will see a Database wizard in which enter new database name in “Mailbox” section, select server by clicking on browse button and then you will see the path of database and log file which you may change and at last make sure that Mount this database checkbox is checked and click on Save button to create new database.
4. After creating the database, restart Exchange Sever by running this command: Restart-Service MSExchangeIS
5. Don’t try to delete default database right now because it will show error cause of arbitrary mailboxes which may be hidden but we can view them by running this command: Get-Mailbox -Arbitration
6. As we have identified all arbitration mailboxes now therefore we can proceed for deletion of mailboxes by running this command: Get-Mailbox-Database “Mailbox Database Name” -Arbitration | New-MoveRequest -TargetDatabase “Target Database Name” This command will move all arbitrary mailboxes from old database to new database which we have created in above steps 2 & 3. We can check move-request process by running this command: Get-MoveRequest
7. After moving all arbitrary mailboxes to new database we have to move Admin mailbox to new database. Admin mailbox are those mailbox which is created for the user who has done the installation of exchange server. To move administrator mailbox navigate to recipients in Exchange Admin Center and then click on mailboxes. Then there will be one listed mailbox which belongs to admin. You just navigate to right bottom side if EAC and click on To another database under Move Mailbox section.
8. Now you will see New Migration Batch wizard in which enter new migration batch name at desired textbox. Then select Move the primary mailbox and the archive mailbox if one exists radio button and then browse for target database and proceed for next. Now you will see the status of process is written as syncing (In EAC then recipient & then migration).
9. As we have moved all mailboxes arbitrary as well as administrator to new exchange database. Therefore we can now proceed for deletion of default exchange database. So, just go to Exchange Admin Center and click on servers from left pane and then select databases at top middle. You will see two listed databases. Select the default database and click on deleted item icon at top. It will show you warning message, just click on Yes button for deletion.

Conclusion

In this post we discussed about deletion of default database in exchange server and created new database according to our decided configuration. During deletion we saw that It was not an easy task to delete default database without even moving the arbitrary mailboxes to new database. After migrating the arbitrary mailboxes to new database we also migrated Administrator mailbox to new database. At last we can say that we configured new database according to our need.

So, in next post I will post something new about Exchange on my Exchange Server Guide Blog.