How to perform Database failover from Active to Passive node in Cluster Continuous Replication - Exchange 2007

Before performing Database failover, we have to know few concepts related to Cluster concepts in Exchange server 2007

Storage Group – Storage group are the logical container for Database which share a common transactional log.

Storage Group Copy – It holds the exact replica of the active copy of the storage group with the Database and Transactional logs associated with the active copy.

Switch OverFailover – Switchover is the manual activation of secondary database to function as Primary, happens on scheduled maintenance, admin involves in performing the move and

Failover is the automatic activation of secondary database to primary, this happens when primary database or the services on the primary server is not available.

Copy Queue Length – The log files waiting to be copied to the passive node from active node.

Replay Queue Length – The log files are copied to the passive copies of the mailbox databases successfully and the log files are not replayed into the mailbox databases at the secondary node.
Pre-checks before moving the database from active node to Passive node

1. Check whether all the databases are mounted in Primary Node using

Get-MailboxDatabase -Server “Server Name” –Status |Ft Name, Mounted

1. Check whether the storage group Copy is in healthy and there is no copy queue and replay queues using

Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus –Identity “Server Name”

 

If any queues are visible, wait for some time get the log files committed. If you try to move the cluster when copyreplay queue length is more, you will get the below warning

 

 

Still if any issue, check whether the Replication service is started on both the nodes and again if issue, go for reseeding on the particular storage group.

1. Check which server is cluster mailbox server ( active) using

Get-ClusterMailboxServerStatus –Identity “Cluster Name”

 

I run this command from Test-EX-CCR1 and the OperationMachines shows that Test-EX-CCR2 was the Active Server and holds the Quorum Owner. We have Jump into Test-Ex-CCR2 to Move the Active Node to Passive Node

We can check the cluster status in Cluadmin using Start->Run-> Type Cluadmin on the cluster server

 

 

One the above figure

Cluster Group – It shows the status of Windows Cluster which is holding the cluster owner

TEST-EX-CCR – It is the Cluster Name of Exchange Server (CCR) and shows which node is active now

 

Moving Active Cluster Mailbox Server to Passive Server
To move the cluster mailbox server from active node to passive node use the below command and don’t use the Windows Cluster Administrator tool to move the cluster resources.
Move-ClusteredMailboxServer –Identity “CCR Name” –TargetMachine “Passive Node” -MoveComment:”Getting ready for maintenance on Active Node”



Below diagram shows the process of the cluster mailbox server move status



After the CMS move using the above shell command, Windows cluster will remain on the same passive node and if you perform the installation or maintenance and if you go for a reboot, automatically the windows cluster resource will move to other node.
Inform me if you are facing any issue on the above steps;

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