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CadenL's avatar
CadenL
Level 6
7 years ago
Solved

Removing EV server from site

Hi

I have an EV 12.2 environment with 2 x EV servers. I archives out EV journal and the other the users mailboxes. We have about 800 user archives and 1 journal archive.

I no longer want to archive users mailboxes and need to decommission the EV mailbox archiving server - this is a physical server with local storage. 

I'm ok on how to decommission the server, but have a question on the partition data as I have the VSG configured as 'Share within Group'. If I decommission this server, what happens to the files that may be resident on the mailbox server vault store parition but are referenced by the journal archive for single instancing? I'm concerned the EV journal server may need to access some files on the EV mailbox server store paritions which are being decommissioned.

many thanks in advance 

  • GertjanA's avatar
    GertjanA
    7 years ago

    Hello,

    I would then see if you can keep the MBX archiving server for as long as it takes to delete the archives. Deleting archives (or expiring them) puts load on SQL and storage/indexes, which you might not have on the Journal Server.

    Indeed, after all mbx archives have been deleted, you need to move the VS anyway. I bet a beer there will still be items in there which are shared. But, it is better to move a few GB, then TB's :-)

    I'm not sure about the indexes, but if you remove the archives, the indexes will also be small/empty, just move them to be sure. Mailbox archiving tasks can be removed PROVIDED your users do not access the archived items anymore. Task is required to be able to restore items/open items.

    You could stop and disable the mbx archiving task, and then wait if users start complaining. If not, delete it after 1 or 2 weeks.

     

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  • GertjanA's avatar
    GertjanA
    Moderator
    7 years ago

    Hello,

    You're right in assuming that simply deleting data affects Journal Archives. It is virtually impossible to define which part is shared where.

    THIS document describes how to move a Vault Store from A to B. You will need to have storage on your Journal server to accomodate the mailbox archives, but that's how it is. This will have you running Journal and Mailbox store on 1 server. Then you also need This one, to move the indexes to the Journal Server.

    It does mean you need storage on the Journal server to accomodate the VS+the indexes of the MBX Archives.

    If you don't have that amount of storage available, the other option you have: If you have a seperate retention category for mailbox archives, change that to be 1 day. Run Storage Expiry. Eventually all mail archives should be empty. Data left on the data disk is data which is shared. Move that to the Journal server. (and the indexes too..).

    Another option: Delete the user archives. (or, delete the ones which are for mailboxes which are not used anymore.

    Another option: export mailbox archives to PST, make sure to select "remove items after export"

    The last 3 will take a considerable amount of time!

    Good luck!

    GJ

     

    • CadenL's avatar
      CadenL
      Level 6
      7 years ago

      Thanks Gertjan

      I don't think space will be an issue on the Journal server (I can easily add more) so moving the vault store onto the Journal server sounds like the way to go.

      One bit if info that I forgot to add and not sure if it's now relevent, but all the user archives have already been exported to PST in readiness for a future project to migrate users to O365. So this means that ALL user archives can be deleted if necessary as the users have access to their PSTs. The benefit of deleteing the user archives is that less storage will be required on the Journal server?

      But, despite deleting the user arhicves,  I WILL still need to move the vault store partition to the journal server as the shared data WON'T be deleted - is that correct?

      Does this also mean I won't need to move the Indexes from the mailbox server? or will the journal server still needs these? I only have a single journal archive which has it's own index location on the journal server.

      Once the VS partitions and Indexes have been moved canI then just delete the mailbox archiving tasks and delete the mailbox server from the EV site. I mainly need to decommissioned the server hardware as it is now out of support and no longer needed - the spec of the journal server is good for compute and storage and still in support. I move the mailbox archiving role to the journal server if absolutely necessary but would rather just delete all mailbox archiving roles from the EV site.

      thanks

      • GertjanA's avatar
        GertjanA
        Moderator
        7 years ago

        Hello,

        I would then see if you can keep the MBX archiving server for as long as it takes to delete the archives. Deleting archives (or expiring them) puts load on SQL and storage/indexes, which you might not have on the Journal Server.

        Indeed, after all mbx archives have been deleted, you need to move the VS anyway. I bet a beer there will still be items in there which are shared. But, it is better to move a few GB, then TB's :-)

        I'm not sure about the indexes, but if you remove the archives, the indexes will also be small/empty, just move them to be sure. Mailbox archiving tasks can be removed PROVIDED your users do not access the archived items anymore. Task is required to be able to restore items/open items.

        You could stop and disable the mbx archiving task, and then wait if users start complaining. If not, delete it after 1 or 2 weeks.