A mailbox Database is the core component of Microsoft Exchange Architecture. Each Mailbox Server installed in the organization has an information store. The information store operates as a service and manages the Server’s databases. Each mailbox database has a database file associated with it. This file is basically an .EDB file which is stored in a location that you specified when you create or modify the database. Mailbox Database in Exchange 2010 is a repository for mailbox data. They’re accessed by the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) directly and have a B-tree structure designed for quick access. When you install Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server Role, it will create a default database in Exchange Server installation path of C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Mailbox\. When you create a mailbox database in Exchange 2010, a set of transaction logs and index files are also created in the same directory as the mailbox database. As a best practice you should create the mailbox databases in the drive other than the system drive. While creating the mailbox Database in Exchange 2010, you also need to specify the log folder path. In this article I will create mailbox database in Exchange 2010 using Exchange Management Shell and Exchange Management Console.
Create Mailbox Database in Exchange 2010
To create a mailbox database in Exchange 2010 using Exchange Management Console, Open Exchange Management Console. Expand Organization Configuration → Mailbox → Navigate to Database Management Tab → Click on New Mailbox Database.
This will open the New Mailbox Database wizard. Enter the database name in the Mailbox database name field, click on Browse and select the server where you want to host this database and then click Next.
Next, specify the mailbox database and log path in the Database file path and Log Folder path fields respectively. In this scenario I am specifying D:\Exchange_Databases\DB01 for mailbox database path and E:\Logs\DB01 for Log folder path. If there are no DAG or if the DAG members are not more than two mailbox servers then it is best to separate the database file and transaction logs in different disk drives. Click Next.
The next screen in the wizard will show the configuration summary as below. Click New to create the database.
After creating the mailbox database successfully, the wizard will show the completion screen as below. Click on Finish to complete the database creation wizard.
Create a Mailbox Database using Exchange Management Console
To create a mailbox database using the Exchange Management Console use the following command.
New-MailboxDatabase -Name DB01 -Server MBG-MBX01 -EdbFilePath "D:\Exchange_Databases\DB01\DB01.edb" -LogFolderPath "E:\Logs\DB01"
This will create the mailbox database with database in D:\Exchange_Mailboxes\DB01\ location and logs folder location in E:\Logs\DB01 as shown below.
After creating the mailbox database you should mount it before you can use this mailbox database. Type the following command in Exchange Management Shell to mount the database.
Mount-Database DB01
When you browse through the database path, you will be able to see the .EDB file created the mailbox database location you specified. This is the database file where mailboxes created in this database will be stored.
When you look into the Log folder location you will see that there are logs, checksum and other files in the folder path you specified.
In this way you can create Mailbox Databases in Exchange 2010 using Exchange Management Console and Exchange Management Shell.
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