Database Portability

Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2

Topic Last Modified: 2009-12-09

Database portability is a feature that enables a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 mailbox database to be moved to or mounted on any other Mailbox server in the same organization. By using database portability, reliability is improved by removing several error-prone, manual steps from the recovery processes. In addition, database portability reduces the overall recovery times for various failure scenarios.

Note:
Database portability is for Exchange 2010 mailbox databases only. Public folder databases aren't portable. This is because replication between public folder databases is controlled by each database being linked to and accessed through a specific server. The preferred way to move public folder data between servers is to use public folder replication to replicate it to a different server. If you instead simply copy a public folder database to a different server, it will no longer replicate with other databases.

Note:

Database portability is for Exchange 2010 mailbox databases only. Public folder databases aren't portable. This is because replication between public folder databases is controlled by each database being linked to and accessed through a specific server. The preferred way to move public folder data between servers is to use public folder replication to replicate it to a different server. If you instead simply copy a public folder database to a different server, it will no longer replicate with other databases.

Mailbox databases from previous versions of Exchange can't be moved to a Mailbox server running Exchange 2010.

For information about how to perform a database recovery using the database portability feature, see Move a Mailbox Database Using Database Portability.