Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2
Topic Last Modified: 2012-07-23
A move request is the process of moving a mailbox from one mailbox database to another. A local move request is a mailbox move that occurs within a single forest. For more information, see Understanding Move Requests.
In Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1), mailboxes and personal archive mailboxes can reside on separate databases. Using the move request functionality, you can move the primary mailbox and the associated archive to the same database or to separate ones. For more information about personal archive mailboxes, see Understanding Personal Archives.
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If you're moving a mailbox from an Exchange 2003 database, the mailbox move will be offline. |
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To view all move requests in a multiple-domain environment in the Exchange Management Console, the recipient scope needs to be modified to view the entire forest. For more information, see Change the Recipient Scope. |
Looking for other management tasks related to move requests? Check out Managing Move Requests.
What Do You Want to Do?
Use the EMC to create a local move request
You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Mailbox moves" entry in the Mailbox Permissions topic.
- In the console tree, navigate to Recipient Configuration
> Mailbox.
- In the result pane, select one or more mailboxes that you want
to move.
- In the action pane, click New Local Move Request.
- On the
Introduction page, configure the following settings:
- A new move request will be placed for the following
mailboxes This box displays the mailboxes that
you selected in the result pane. If you want to add or remove
mailboxes, click Cancel, and then make the changes in the
result pane.
- Target mailbox database Click
Browse to open the Select Mailbox Database dialog
box. Use this dialog box to select the mailbox database to which
you want to move the mailboxes. Click OK to return to the
wizard.
If the mailbox has an archive associated with it, the following options are displayed:
Move only the user mailbox Click this button if you want to move only the user's primary mailbox to the new database. This is selected by default.
Move only the archive mailbox Click this button if you want to move only the user's archive mailbox to the new database.
Move both the mailbox and the archive Click this button if you want to move both the user's primary mailbox and the associated archive mailbox to the new database.
- A new move request will be placed for the following
mailboxes This box displays the mailboxes that
you selected in the result pane. If you want to add or remove
mailboxes, click Cancel, and then make the changes in the
result pane.
- On the Move
Settings page, specify how you want to manage corrupted
messages:
- Skip the mailbox Click this button to
specify that mailboxes containing corrupted messages won't be
moved. We recommend selecting this option.
- Skip the corrupted messages Click this
button to move the mailbox, but not to move any corrupted messages.
If you select this option, you need to set the Maximum number of
messages to skip. We recommend selecting this option only if
the move request failed in a previous attempt.
- Maximum number of messages to skip If
you select Skip the corrupted messages, use this list to
specify a number from 1 through 50.
Note: If you specify a value higher than 50, the task will fail, and you need to use the Shell to create the move request. For details, see Move a user's primary mailbox and allow a large bad item limit later in this topic. - Suspend this move when it is ready to
complete Select this check box to suspend the
move request before the completion stage begins. You can resume the
move request at a later time. For details, see Complete or Resume a
Move Request.
Note: You can use this feature only for online mailbox moves and when moving mailboxes from Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 mailbox databases. You can’t use this feature for offline moves or when moving from Exchange 2003 mailbox databases. - Skip the mailbox Click this button to
specify that mailboxes containing corrupted messages won't be
moved. We recommend selecting this option.
- On the New Local Move Request page, review your
configuration settings. Click New to create the move
request. Click Back to make changes.
- On the Completion
page, review the following, and then click Finish to close
the wizard:
- A status of Completed indicates that the wizard
completed the task successfully.
- A status of Failed indicates that the task wasn't
completed. If the task fails, review the summary for an
explanation, and then click Back to make any configuration
changes.
- A status of Completed indicates that the wizard
completed the task successfully.
Use the Shell to create a local move request
You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Mailbox moves" entry in the Mailbox Permissions topic.
Test whether a mailbox is ready to move
This example uses the WhatIf switch to test whether Tony Smith's mailbox is ready to move to the new database DB01 and if there are any errors within the command. When you use the WhatIf switch, the system performs checks on the mailbox. If the mailbox isn't ready to move, you receive an error.
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New-MoveRequest -Identity 'tony@alpineskihouse.com' -TargetDatabase DB01 -WhatIf |
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-MoveRequest.
Create a local move request
This example moves Tony Smith's mailbox to the new database DB01. If Tony's mailbox has an associated archive, it's also moved to the same database.
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New-MoveRequest -Identity 'tony@alpineskihouse.com' -TargetDatabase DB01 |
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-MoveRequest.
Create a batch move request
This example creates a batch move request for all mailboxes on the database DB01 and moves them to the database DB02 with the BatchName parameter value DB01toDB02.
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Get-Mailbox -Database DB01 | New-MoveRequest -TargetDatabase DB02 -BatchName "DB01toDB02" |
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Get-Mailbox and New-MoveRequest.
Create a move request that suspends before completion
This example creates a move request that's suspended after the initial content is moved, but before the mailbox is locked down and switched over to the new location.
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New-MoveRequest -Identity 'tony@alpineskihouse.com' -TargetDatabase DB01 -SuspendWhenReadyToComplete |
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-MoveRequest.
Create a move request processed by a specific server
This example creates a move request processed by the Client Access server CAS1.contoso.com, which has the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service installed.
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New-MoveRequest -Identity 'tony@alpineskihouse.com' -TargetDatabase DB01 -MRSServer CAS1.contoso.com |
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-MoveRequest.
Create a suspended move requests
This example creates a batch move request that's suspended for all mailboxes on database DB01. Run this command if you want to create the move request during business hours, and then resume at a later time, when e-mail traffic is low.
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Get-Mailbox -Database DB01 | New-MoveRequest -TargetDatabase DB02 -BatchName "26August" -Suspend |
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Get-Mailbox and New-MoveRequest.
Move only a user's primary mailbox
This example moves only Tony Smith's primary mailbox to DB01. The archive isn't moved.
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New-MoveRequest -Identity 'tony@alpineskihouse.com' -PrimaryOnly -TargetDatabase "DB01" |
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-MoveRequest.
Move only an archive mailbox
This example moves only Tony Smith's archive mailbox to DB03. The primary mailbox isn't moved.
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New-MoveRequest -Identity 'tony@alpineskihouse.com' -ArchiveOnly -ArchiveTargetDatabase "DB03" |
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-MoveRequest.
Move a user's primary mailbox and archive mailbox to separate databases
This example moves Ayla's primary mailbox and archive mailbox to separate databases. The primary database is moved to DB01, and the archive is moved to DB03.
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New-MoveRequest -Identity 'ayla@humongousinsurance.com' -TargetDatabase DB01 -ArchiveTargetDatabase -DB03 |
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-MoveRequest.
Move a user's primary mailbox and allow a large bad item limit
This example moves Kweku's primary mailbox to mailbox
database DB01 and sets the bad item limit to 100
. To
set a large bad item limit, you must use the
AcceptLargeDataLoss parameter.
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New-MoveRequest -Identity 'Kweku' -PrimaryOnly -TargetDatabase "DB01" -BadItemLimit 100 -AcceptLargeDataLoss |
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-MoveRequest.
Other Tasks
After you move the mailboxes, you may also want to: