Exchange 2010 creating a database copy for the first time in a new DAG

[HMCTech]

I am about to create a new DAG in Exchange and have one issue that all of our mailbox databases are on our SAN and Exchange currently has the databases on the original mailbox server pointing to the SAN. I am confident of creating the DAG but when I go to use Add-MailboxDatabaseCopy I am unsure what this will do on the new Exchange mailbox server. Will this attempt to create the databases in the default C:\Program Files\Exchange location? Or can I somehow tell the new Exchange server where to put the incoming databases before I copy? I have an issue because our mailbox servers are VM's that only have 50GB as a hard drive and our mailbox databases are around 400GB.

[HMCTech]

Well I found the "msExchDataPath attribute on the Exchange Server object, viewable in ADSIEdit.msc." So I have a feeling I can move them to the default location on the SAN and I hope I can then dismount and move them on the new mailbox server and not break the DAG.

[Domino]

DAG members have to identical paths for DBs/logs for each database - so by default it'll use whatever the seeding member has

[HMCTech]

DAG members have to identical paths for DBs/logs for each database - so by default it'll use whatever the seeding member has

 

Just to confirm with thanks. The Original mailbox server has for example Database 1 at F:\Mailbox\database.edb and Database 2 at L:\Mailbox\database.edb so on the new server when I initiate the copy it will attempt to copy the databases to F: & L:

[Domino]

Yep - that's it, they go in exactly the same place on each member