We run two DAGs each with an equal number of member servers* at each of two 
datacenters.  Over the weekend we suffered an extended power outage at Site 1.  
After the Site 1 servers were shutdown we went thru the process of correcting a 
member server imbalance (i.e., there were more member servers at Site 1 in DAG1 
than in Site 2).  That was a careless oversight, but it was corrected by 
removing the 'extra' servers with Remove-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupServer 
-Identity DAG1 -MailboxServer ExchSvr1 –ConfigurationOnly.  Once that completed 
we had to Stop the remote DAG servers in the down Site 1 using 
Stop-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup –Identity DAG1 -ActiveDirectorySite Site1 
-ConfigurationOnly:$True.  Then since we had already set the WitnessServer, and 
AlternateWitnessServer values with both Site values we ran 
Restore-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup -Identity DAG1 -ActiveDirectorySite Site2, 
and that allowed us to mount all the databases at Site 2.   Fast forward to the 
restore of power at Site 1.  We powered back on the exchange servers after a 
good delay for Site 1 DCs to complete replication of changes made at Site 2, 
and resumed all the mailbox database copies.  All but two resumed without 
issue, but it was a 10 hour outage and mail flow was active the whole time.

So my question to you is should I now run the Start-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup 
in the same way to bring these Site 1 servers back to an operational state 
(i.e., so they can participate in future failovers).  Initially I didn’t detect 
that the DAGs were still reporting Stopped Mailbox Servers, so my 2nd  question 
is will there be any impact to services when I run that command, assuming I am 
on the right track to begin with.

The environment is Exchange 2010 SP2 RU4, and Server 2008 R2 SP1.  Both DAGs 
have DatacenterActivationMode set to DagOnly.

Thank you for your time and effort, any suggestions would be appreciated.  And 
yes there is already a plan in place to apply SP3 RU14.



Keith D. Beahm | Messaging and Storage Architect | Stinson Leonard Street LLP
1201 Walnut Street, Suite 2900 | Kansas City, MO 64106-2150
T: 816.691.3374 | M: 816.808.8983 | F: 816.412.1022
[email protected] | www.stinson.com<http://www.stinson.com>

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