Exchange 2013 to 2019 mailbox migration issue - StalledDueToTarget_MdbAvailability

[Deleted]

Hi all,

Some info first:

Migrating users from Exchange 2013 (DAG) to Exchange 2019 (DAG).  Have migrated all arbitration and user mailboxes except one.

This one user mailbox is 22GB in size, but isn't the biggest that has been migrated.

Using new-moverequest to move.  It sits at Stage: CreatingFolderHierarchy. Percent complete: 10 for a long time, and occasionally has status StalledDueToTarget_MdbAvailability.  By long time I mean I started it Friday night and it was at that stage Monday morning.  I have removed and retried the move request with the same result

Running get-moverequeststatistics with report occasionally shows this:

Relinquishing job because of large delays due to unfavorable server health or budget limitations with a request throttling state 'StalledDueToTarget_MdbAvailability'.

The 2013 and 2019 servers show as healthy. CPU and RAM usage is low. At least 60% free disk space on all drives.

Various health commands (test-mrshealth, test-replicationhealth) pass for all servers.

Here is the latest message from get-moverequeststatistics with report:

Request processing continued, stage CreatingFolderHierarchy.
Stage: CreatingFolderHierarchy. Percent complete: 10.
Initializing folder hierarchy from mailbox '811ba64d-9bdf-4f72-b10d-8c203b0202d0 (Primary)': 218 folders total.
Folder creation progress: 0 folders created in mailbox '811ba64d-9bdf-4f72-b10d-8c203b0202d0 (Primary)'.

Does anyone have any clues about why this one mailbox won't migrate?

thanks

jc

[#2]

Check your mailbox size limit in Target MailboxDatabase!

[#3]

Thanks for the reply @TAE_YOUN_ANN 

I've moved bigger mailboxes to the same database, so had to increase the values for our admittedly too big mailboxes.

Both servers have 2 databases. I tested by trying to move the mailbox to the other 2019 database but got the same result.

I tried another test, moving the mailbox to the other 2013 database. Initially it got to 95% and failed with too many corrupt items. I removed the request before seeing that I needed it there to find out what the items were. I started the move again and it completed successfully the second time!

I am now trying to move it again to 2019 but after 4 hours it is again stuck at:
Stage: CreatingFolderHierarchy. Percent complete: 10.
Initializing folder hierarchy from mailbox
Folder creation progress: 0 folders created in mailbox

It doesn't have have the previous StalledDueToTarget_MdbAvailability message though, nor any other message about why it has stalled.

EDIT: I have run the mailbox repair request on the users mailbox (in detect only mode) and it didn't find any issues.

[#4]

I tried migrating just using the GUI (Recipients/Migration) but it also seems to stall.  After 14 hours it is still just syncing.

EDIT: Finally got the failure notice with basically the same but a twist highlighted in bold:

[EX01] The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service 'EX01' (15.2.1258.12 caps:3FFFFF) is examining the request.
[EX01] Connected to target mailbox '811ba64d-9bdf-4f72-b10d-8c203b0202d0 (Primary)', database 'MailboxDatabase01', Mailbox server 'EX01' Version 15.2 (Build 1258.0).
[EX01] Connected to source mailbox '811ba64d-9bdf-4f72-b10d-8c203b0202d0 (Primary)', database 'MailboxDatabase04', Mailbox server 'EX02' Version 15.0 (Build 1497.0), proxy server 'ex02' 15.0.1497.43 caps:0400001F7FFFFFCB07FFFF.
[EX01] Request processing continued, stage CreatingFolderHierarchy.
[EX01] Stage: CreatingFolderHierarchy. Percent complete: 10.
[EX01] Initializing folder hierarchy from mailbox '811ba64d-9bdf-4f72-b10d-8c203b0202d0 (Primary)': 218 folders total.
[EX01] Folder creation progress: 0 folders created in mailbox '811ba64d-9bdf-4f72-b10d-8c203b0202d0 (Primary)'.
[DR-EX01] '' suspended move request.
[EX01] Suspending job.
[EX01] Relinquishing job.

DR-EX01 is the second 2019 server (DAG'ed with EX01).  Replication status is good between the two.

[#5]

I tried a MoveRequest again on Friday.

The report just has this repeated every three hours or so:
[EX01] The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service 'EX01' (15.2.1258.12 caps:3FFFFF) is examining the request.
[EX01] Connected to target mailbox '811ba64d-9bdf-4f72-b10d-8c203b0202d0 (Primary)', database 'MailboxDatabase01', Mailbox server 'EX01' Version 15.2 (Build 1258.0).
[EX01] Connected to source mailbox '811ba64d-9bdf-4f72-b10d-8c203b0202d0 (Primary)', database 'MailboxDatabase04', Mailbox server 'EX02' Version 15.0 (Build 1497.0), proxy server
'ex02' 15.0.1497.43 caps:0400001F7FFFFFCB07FFFF.
[EX01] Request processing continued, stage CreatingFolderHierarchy.
[EX01] Stage: CreatingFolderHierarchy. Percent complete: 10.
[EX01] Initializing folder hierarchy from mailbox '811ba64d-9bdf-4f72-b10d-8c203b0202d0 (Primary)': 218 folders total.
[EX01] Folder creation progress: 0 folders created in mailbox '811ba64d-9bdf-4f72-b10d-8c203b0202d0 (Primary)'.

It doesn't even have any stalled messages anymore. I really don't want to have to keep Exchange 2013 in place for one mailbox! Is there another way to try migrate?

EDIT: a colleague accidentally created a new mailbox on the old 2013 server.  I was able to successfully use new-moverequest to migrate it to one of the 2019 databases (although it was only 50MB).

[#6 · Accepted solution]

Let me make one suggestion
After backing up the problematic mailbox to PST using Outlook
Create a new mailbox and connect it to Outlook to restore PST!

[#7]

Thanks@TAE_YOUN_ANN that's what I ended up doing.

Caused some issues with internal users replying to old emails from the user but it got the job done!