Exchange 2010 - DAG (Database Availability Group) - Part 3 - "Status - Fail" - suspend and reseed

The Problem

The mailbox databases in a DAG can be in a failed state (for whatever reason). If we compare the Get-MailboxCopyStatus output for two DAG partners, we may see something like this:

Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus DB1\EX13-1 | fl Name,Status,CopyQueueLength,ReplayQueueLength,ContentIndexState

Name                 : DB1\EX13-1
Status               : Mounted
CopyQueueLength      : 0
ReplayQueueLength    : 0
ContentIndexState    : Healthy

Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus DB1\EX13-2 | fl Name,Status,CopyQueueLength,ReplayQueueLength,ContentIndexState

Name                 : DB1\EX13-2
Status               : Failed
CopyQueueLength      : 3
ReplayQueueLength    : 0
ContentIndexState    : Healthy

The "ContentIndexState" for both copies is "Healthy" but the status for database copy DB1\EX13-2 is "Failed".  We can see the status for the mounted database in the output for DB1\EXCH-1 ("Mounted").

I do not have a screenshot of this particular situation but in the EMC, at the Organization level, Mailbox (role) section, we would see what we see here, except that the Copy Status for DB1 on the EX13-2 server would be "Failed" instead of Healthy.

The Solution

We have to reseed the database with the data from a healthy copy.

But first, we must suspend replication (no reseed possible if replication is not suspended).

So we suspend replication with this command:

[PS] C:\>Suspend-MailboxDatabaseCopy DB1\EX13-2

This would produce the same result in the EMC:

That operation changes the copy status of the database:

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus DB1\EX13-2 | fl Name,Status,CopyQueueLength,ReplayQueueLength,ContentIndexState

Name                 : DB1\EX13-2
Status               : FailedAndSuspended
CopyQueueLength      : 3
ReplayQueueLength   : 0
ContentIndexState    : Failed


We then update (or reseed) the failed database copy with the data from a good copy:

[PS] C:\>Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy DB1\EX13-2 -DeleteExistingFiles

Note: we have to overwrite the existing files, if present.

Here is the EMC equivalent:

We can select various options on this screen:

We click on "Update" to start the operation.

Note: heed the warning about the possible duration of the reseeding operation which could require several hours for larger databases.

In my case, the update process requires less than a minute (small test databases).

This is the result (to be compared to the original output above):

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus | fl Name,Status,CopyQueueLength,ReplayQueueLength,ContentIndexState

Name                 : DB1\EX13-1
Status               : Mounted
CopyQueueLength      : 0
ReplayQueueLength   : 0
ContentIndexState    : Healthy

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus DB1\EX13-2 | fl Name,Status,CopyQueueLength,ReplayQueueLength,ContentIndexState

Name                 : DB1\EX13-2
Status               : Healthy
CopyQueueLength      : 0
ReplayQueueLength   : 0
ContentIndexState    : Healthy

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