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MaxMDF3's avatar
MaxMDF3
Copper Contributor
Apr 19, 2023

Exchange 2019 switch to empty DB

Good morning, I have my exchange server 2019 on win2019 server. The user's mailbox database, .edb file is too big (more than 30GB). I need to archive this database and start with a new empty database. The users (outlook 2019) must view the new and the old email. How can I do this change of DB? Thanks.

Exchange Server
  • Andres-Bohren's avatar
    Andres-Bohren
    Steel Contributor
    Apr 19, 2023

    Hi MaxMDF3 

     

    Check your "Whitespace". Remember Exchange does not release available Mailbox Space. You have to move to a new Mailbox in Order to end up with a smaller Database

     

    Get-MailboxDatabase -Status | Select-Object Name, DatabaseSize, AvailableNewMailboxSpace | Format-Table -AutoSize

     

    Create a new Mailbox Database and use the New-MoveRequest commandlet to move the Mailboxes to a new Mailbox Database.


    Get-Mailbox -Database OldDatabase

    New-MoveRequest -Identity <Identity> -TargetDatabase "NewDB"

     

    Regards

    Andres

  • Dan_Snape's avatar
    Dan_Snape
    Steel Contributor
    Apr 20, 2023
    I'm not sure you have the terminology correct. The mailbox database contains multiple mailboxes. Each mailbox does not have it's own EDB file. To reduce the size of a mailbox you can create an archive mailbox and move the items to that mailbox, or you can export the items to PST (not recommended). In these scenarios the user can have access to both mailboxes. As Andres stated, this won't reduce the size of the underlying EDB file, but will reduce the size of the individual mailbox.

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