Last updated on Jun 4, 2018

Remove Exchange Mailbox Database

This post, will provide details on How to remove an Exchange 2016 Mailbox Database. The Exchange Admin Console (EAC) and PowerShell, will be used to remove the the Mailbox Database in this post..

To Get started we will first look at how we can remove a Mailbox Database using the Exchange Admin Console.

Login to the Exchange Admin Console and navigate the Servers – Database

Before we can remove the Database, we need to first move all mailboxes to another database. To verify if there are any mailboxes on this database we can run the following in PowerShell.

 

Now that we have the User mailboxes busy being moved, we also need to move the Monitoring Mailboxes as well as the Arbitration Mailboxes.

 

Lastly, we will move the Monitoring Mailboxes to a new Database.

To verify the Status of the move requests we have created now, we will run the following.

As we can see them job has been completed already and some is still in progress. Once all the Move-Request jobs have been completed, we can then move on to remove the Mailbox Database in the EAC.

From the EAC console select the Database and click on the …. And then select Dismount.

Click on “Yes” to continue to Dismount the Database.

Now Select the Database again and click on the “Trash Bin” icon to remove the selected Database.

Click on “Yes” to Remove the Database.

Now let’s look at how to remove the Mailbox Database using PowerShell.

We have to follow the same process as on top to Move all the Mailboxes from the Database which we will be removing.

To remove the Database using PowerShell, can run the following one-liner.

All that is left now is to remove the Files in the location where the Database was stored.

#ThatlazyAdmin

@ShaunHardneck

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