Controlling the database path/location for Exchange 2013 database

As Exchange 2013 comes with the new management paradigm Exchange Administration Center ( EAC ) which is a web based management interface some of the basic functions were found to be missing. One of the missing functions is the ability to relocate ( move ) mailbox database(s) and log files via the console !

In order to overcome this there are some tips that will help you in minimizing the need of moving the databases of your Exchange 2013 servers , as below :

- Use the command line for installing the mailbox servers to control the name and the path of the initial server’s mailbox database by using /MdbName , /DbFilePath and /LogFolderPath switches :

Setup.exe /Mode:Install /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms /Roles:Mailbox /MdbName:MBDB-01 /DbFilePath:”D:\Exchange Databases/MBDB-01/MBDB-01.edb” /LogFolderPath:”L:\Exchange Logs”

Once completed both database and logs will be at the assigned within the installation paths .

- You can also modify the default path for any to-be-created mailbox database by modifying the value of msExchDtaPath on the mailbox server object ( Using ADSIEdit ) . Unfortunately it unifies the path of both databases ( .EDB files ) and logs files .

- Finally , if you have just installed with defaults you can use Move-DatabasePath cmdlet to modify the path for either/both the database and the logs . Here is what I used to move my MBDB-02 database EDB file to D:\Exchange Databases and logs files to L:\Exchange Logs

Move-DatabasePath –Identity MBDB-02 –EdbFilePath “D:\Exchange Databases\MBDB-02\MBDB-02.edb” –LogFolderPath “L:\Exchange Logs”

Hope that was helpful .