Jaa


Get-Mailbox does not reflect the correct Server name for Mailboxes on databases for a DAG

We got notified from customers, that the powershell commandlet get-mailbox in Exchange 2010 (see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123685(v=exchg.141).aspx) and in Exchange 2013 (see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123685(v=exchg.150).aspx) do not always return the correct ServerName  or ServerLegacyDn for the given mailbox. Those customers often rely for their backups or customized mailbox processes on the information, on which server a given mailbox is currently located.

We told our customers, that their findings are indeed true and  that these attributes, which are returned via get-mailbox are written only at special events, like at creation time of the mailbox or after a move mailbox has taken place. On a DAG the mailbox database can be owned by any of the possible owners of that database. Changing the possible owner of that database is considered to be a circumstance of making sure, that this database is healthy. At any time the smooth switch to a different owner is much more important than the update of all the properties of the mailboxes on that database. The update of the ServerName property with a mailbox comes with a certain performance penalty. Our product group decided therefore not to take that penalty for Database moves to a different possible owner.

So how to overcome this "by design", if You need the Server name, where the mailbox is currently really located ?

The current proposal for a solution is to use "get-mailboxstatistics <mailboxID> | fl Displayname, ServerName" or "get-mailbox | get-mailboxstatistics |fl Displayname, ServerName". If Displayname is too ambiguous, you may use Identity or PrimarySMTPAddress instead.

Comments