Move Exchange Server Task - New Enterprise vault Server

[AKL]

Hello Guys

Today I added an additional Enterprise vault server in an Enterprise vault 9.0.1.1073 environment along with Exchange 2003/2010 & SQL 2008 R2 (already existing).

I wish to move some Exchange server tasks to this new server. EV Services on this new server is running without issue.

I cannot find a direct way in admin console which says move Exchange server target from 1 EV server to another and I couldn't find anything in this direction through EV guides.

I am bit reluctant to remove Exchange server from target list and re-add it as I am not sure what will be consequences (like user shortcut inaccessible or OWA etc - Though theoritically that shouldn't happen) - So I wanted to confirm with someone who has already done it perhaps? i.e. moved an existing Exchange server target & its related task under new Enterprise vault server and if there're any pitfalls which I should be watching for before doing so?

Thanks in advance.

[WiTSend · Accepted solution]

Moving the archiving task from one server to another is as simple as it looks.  You just stop the task on server 1, wait for the MSMQ queues to clear, create the task on server 2, start the task and delete the old task.

Now, one caution, if you have all of your vault store and indexes on server 1 then the data being archived via server 2 will still write and index to it's original locations on server 1.  Server 2 will only be pulling the data off of Exchange, not indexing or storing.  When you upgrade to EV10 you can create Indexing pools to "balance" the indexing load.  To balance the storage load you may want to create a new vault store associated with server 2 and begin moving some archives to it over time.

[AKL]

I was actually planning to configure provisioning group so that all new mailboxes are being written to new vault store created along with new EV server.

1. Put vault stores in backup mode.

2. Configure tasks to run in report mode for a while so MSMQ clears out.

3. Move the task as you mentioned.

4. Start tasks back in normal mode.

Does that sounds right? And there'll be no issue with existing shortcuts? (Again there shouldn't be but I am re-confirming rather than getting into deep trouble ;)

[Ameen]

Its not a big deal,

1. just stop the task

2. Delete it.

3. create a new one in the second/new server.

4. Run sync now for the new task.

[Joe_Larson]

We've done this a few times with mailbox and journal archive tasks.  If you follow the steps above it should work fine.  Access catches up after sync and provisioning tasks run.  Do wait for the MQ queues to clear out before stopping the old task.  The old queues don't go away on their own.  If you are working only with mailbox archives there will be little or no impact on the end users.

If you are moving an Exchange journal archive task there could be another concern.

When you stop archiving, the Exchange journal mailbox will start filling up with mail waiting to be archived.  If it takes some time to get a new task going, this may be an issue.  We experienced a back end hardware problem and archiving was stopped for several days.  We needed to add free space to the Exchange server mailbox and log drives.

[AKL]

Thanks all

I moved the archives as per steps discussed above, I kept the old task in reporting mode for a day to make sure all queues are cleared out before hand.

So far its looking good, I'll confirm more how it looks from end user perspective...