Running out of Disk Space? Toss the Big Dog on a New Volume. [aka move the Exchange Store]

Sometimes when you're running out of space, you need to take action: Fast. Here is the simple (no explanation) method for moving the Exchange store to a new location, preferably a new volume.

Moving the database & Log files:

1. Open Server Management


2. Expand " (Exchange)"


3. Expand "Servers"


4. Expand "<server name>"


5. Expand "First Storage Group"


6. Right Click "Mailbox store"


7. Click on "Properties"


8. Select the "Database" tab
   

   Change the location of the "Exchange Database" by browsing to a volume with more space        -Note: DO NOT CHANGE THE DATABASE NAME Change the location of the "Exchange streaming database" to the same location        -Note: DO NOT CHANGE THE DATABASE NAME

9. Choose OK
          ** This dismounts, moves and remounts the store and make take some time to complete.
   

Repeat the same steps for the "Public Folder Store" (If you want to move these)

Next, if you want to move the log files to another location too, you can follow these steps:

1. Right Click on First Storage Group


2. Choose Properties


3. On the General tab
   

   Choose Browse for each of the "Transaction Log Location" and "System Path location"



4. Choose Yes to the: Are you sure dialog
          ** This dismounts, moves and remounts the store and make take some time to complete.
   

Also note, that while you do this your Exchange Server is down, meaning you cannot send or receive mail, your Outlook clients will not be able to connect to the server.

Also, if you're running out of space, make sure you're doing Exchange-aware backups (either with a 3rd party backup solution or the SBS 2003 backup solution). If you don't do an Exchange-aware backup, the Exchange log files will grow indefinitely using up all your space until the volume fills up! This can lead to very bad news if these files are left on the system drive.

Disclaimer, I stole this information from KB 257184 but I still get questions on how to do it, so I'm posting to my blog. Perhaps these steps aren't as scary looking? Sure, Exchange is the big dog of SBS, but deep down it's just a big puppy! :)