Quick and Dirty Evacuate an Exchange 2013 Mailbox Server

If you need to VMotion or generally work on an Exchange 2013 mailbox server, it is better to move the mailbox databases off of the server using the Exchange PowerShell shell and not just shut the mailbox server down. Lets say you need to perform maintenance on servers MBX1, MBX2 and MBX3. This is what I would do:

• Using the Exchange Shell, evacuate MBX1
• Move-ActiveMailboxDatabase -Server MBX1
• Perform the maintenance on MBX1

• Using the Exchange Shell, evacuate MBX2
• Move-ActiveMailboxDatabase -Server MBX2
• Perform the maintenance on MBX2

• Using the Exchange Shell, evacuate MBX3
• Move-ActiveMailboxDatabase -Server MBX3
• Perform the maintenance on MBX3

• Now re-balance the databases across the servers
• RedistributeActiveDatabases -BalanceDBsByActivationPreference

Remember RedistributeActiveDatabases is not a PowerShell command, it is a script typically found in the:

\install\Exch2013CUxx64\scripts folder, or thereabouts.

Cheers!