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EXCHANGE 2007, STORAGE , DRIVE LETTERS

we have exchange 2007 enterprise on windows server 2008 standard

I am trying to move storage groups and its associated mailbox database and logs to new drives created by storage admin guy

I want to reuse some drive letters once I have already migrated 1 storage group to new drive.

let say for ex. I migrated accounting storage group from G drive to N drive. so now G drive has nothing in it .

I want to use G drive now for finance storage group. there is already unallocated drive disk created but it is not assigned to any drive letter.

so here are my steps, please correct me if I am mistaking anywhere

1) rename the present G drive as old and format it ( DO I NEED TO FORMAT ON THE DRIVE WHICH I AM GOING TO USE FOR ANOTHER STORAGE GROUP)
2) once formatting is done I will go to disk management and use the disk drive which has same space as present finance storage group is mapped to let us say finance storage group is mapped to P drive which has 150gb so I will make sure that unallocated disk drive has 150 GB and then create simple volume

anything I missed

Ogandos

Format/Partition the drive or not is not relevant. Unless you plan to change the cluster disk size.

Your plan is ok, there is nothin bad with this. Take in consideration that there are multiple ways of finishing getting the same objective. But the one that you are using even if it includes moving the data twice, is less risky and complex that other possible methods that could be faster.

Just for telling another example (and again, it is ok with the plan that you already have). But just for telling you an extra one of many approaches that you can have...

1. Dismount your database
2. Transfer the data manually to the new volume (Even if your storage system has any util to transfer the data you can use it for making it even faster).
3. Ensure that you are using the same path for logs, databases, and system log file on your new drive and then switch over the drive letters.

The benefit of this is that you stay with your same drive letters and you just need to make the transfer once. Maybe it means that you will not bring your service down more than once.

Even another idea is that you just create new databases (if your exchange version allows you) and move the users gradually to a new volume. Then eliminate the original databases, perform your maintenance tasks on the disks and create new databases with the new original names. After it move your data back gradually.

With this last example you have the benefit of reducing the downtime, but you will have other challenges such as work with a different database, which could interfere with your backup arrangements and some clients configuration.

So... at the end... your method is Ok, is simple and is reduce many risks.

pramod1

ASKER

once formatting is done I will go to disk management and use the disk drive which has same space as present finance storage group is mapped to let us say finance storage group is mapped to P drive which has 150gb so I will make sure that unallocated disk drive has 150 GB and then create simple volume and name the drive letter as G ? where I am moving to

will the old G drive let say had 200 GB will get converted to 150gb as unassigned disk is 150gb

what if I don't format the old G drive, and mapto G drive the finance storage group?

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Ogandos

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pramod1

ASKER

yes. what I meant was after formatting the G Drive which is empty and having 200 gb and when I create simple volume on assigned disk and name it G will be 150gb then

Ogandos

Yes. You can make it