Extend vmdk for exchange 2016 Mailbox Database

[Wajeeh]

Dear All,

We have Exchange 2016 running on VSphere 5.5, it have a seperate vmdk for mailbox database (.edb files), there is a requirement to extend the disk. I want to ask for any experience on this. Can this be done live while exchange is working, we add space from vsphere client and later rescan in windows Mailbox Drive and extend, OR first we dismount the DB's of exchange and do the steps to extend the disk.

Appreciate all your help in advance.

regards,

[ThompsG · Accepted solution]

Hi Wajeeh,

We do it all the time - extend the drive LIVE. Only process or checks we have in place are:

1. Do the extension in a relatively low IO periods for the array, i.e. not during the middle of a production day unless absolutely necessary
2. Expand the passive drives first then the active. This step is only if you are running the databases in a DAG.
3. Don't do it during backups otherwise the logs will not truncate. This could be our backup software but think this is more likely to do with the VSS provider.

That's it. No worries about doing it and don't bother failing over databases or the like. Most of the above is just cautionary.

Hope this helps and gives you a level of comfort.

[Wajeeh]

Hello Thomp,

thank you for reply, step number 2 not applicable to us no DAG, point 1 and 3 noted.

I am only getting worried due to Exchange database continues activity on drive case any problem during extension, but like you are saying you have done it on your exchange server with no problem.

[ThompsG]

Hi Wajeeh,

Not sure the size of your environment but perhaps these stats might give a level of confidence:

• Mailbox servers hosts ~800 users each
• Each active database drive has ~200 users running from it
• On average each mailbox sends and receives 153 messages daily at 870KB in size
• Exchange servers are located on 40 X 1 TB SATA drives in RAID10 configuration

In our experience the expansion of the Exchange database or log drives is seamless however as with any change, you make sure you have a good backup. Something you did remind me of, that I forgot to include in my previous steps, i.e. Drive expansions happen after backup

Kind regards.

[Wajeeh]

Hello Thompsg,

Thank you for reply, our environment is not that big, 180 users, I will do it as suggested and update here once done.

regards,

[Wajeeh]

Hello,

Just updating, I performed this step without dismounting database and it is done successfully.

thanks for your assistance.

regards,

[ThompsG]

Hi Wajeeh,

Excellent and glad to hear that. Have a great day!