How to keep Exchange 2013 and Exchange 2010 servers are in maintenance mode

This article is about how to keep Exchange 2013 and Exchange 2010 servers are in maintenance mode

In Exchange 2013:-

So what’s the procedure for putting Mailbox Servers that are not Database Availability Group Members into Maintenance mode?

1. Drain active mail queues on the mailbox server
Set-ServerComponentState <ServerName> -Component HubTransport -State Draining -Requester Maintenance
2. To help transport services immediately pick the state change run:
For Mailbox Server role:
Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport
If the server is a multi-role server(CAS/MBX) you need to run
Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport
Restart-Service MSExchangeFrontEndTransport
3. To redirect messages pending delivery in the local queues to another Mailbox server run:
Redirect-Message -Server <ServerName> -Target <MailboxServerFQDN>

Note: The target Server value has to be the target server’s FQDN and that the target server shouldn’t be in maintenance mode.

4. Since the server is not a DAG member, the only step left to put the server into maintenance mode is to run:
Set-ServerComponentState <ServerName> -Component ServerWideOffline -State Inactive -Requester Maintenance
Note: Closely monitor the transport queue before running the step above, queues at this stage should be empty or nearly empty, as we are disabling all server components, any mails still pending in the queues will have delay in delivery till the server is taken out from maintenance mode.
And what’s the procedure for putting Mailbox Servers that are Database Availability Group Members into Maintenance mode?
1. Drain active mail queues on the mailbox server
Set-ServerComponentState <ServerName> -Component HubTransport -State Draining -Requester Maintenance
2. To help transport services immediately pick the state change run:
For Mailbox Server role:
Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport
If the server is a multi-role server(CAS/MBX) you need to run
Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport
Restart-Service MSExchangeFrontEndTransport
3.To redirect messages pending delivery in the local queues to another Mailbox server run:
Redirect-Message -Server <ServerName> -Target <MailboxServerFQDN>
Note: The target Server value has to be the target server’s FQDN and that the target server shouldn’t be in maintenance mode.
4. To prevents the node from being and becoming the PAM, pause the cluster node by running
Suspend-ClusterNode <ServerName>
5. To move all active databases currently hosted on the DAG member to other DAG members, run
Set-MailboxServer <ServerName> -DatabaseCopyActivationDisabledAndMoveNow $True
6. Get the status of the existing database copy auto activation policy, run the following and note the value of DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy, we will need this when taking the server out of Maintenance in the future
Get-MailboxServer <ServerName> | Select DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy
To prevent the server from hosting active database copies, run
Set-MailboxServer <ServerName> -DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy Blocked
7. To put the server in maintenance mode run:
Set-ServerComponentState <ServerName> -Component ServerWideOffline -State Inactive -Requester Maintenance
Note: Closely monitor the transport queue before running the step above , queues at this stage should be empty or nearly empty, as we will be disabling all server components, any mails still pending in the queues will have delay in delivery till the server is taken out from maintenance mode.

How can I verify that the server is into Maintenance mode?
To verify the server has been placed into maintenance mode, run:
Get-ServerComponentState <ServerName> | ft Component,State –Autosize
All components should show “Inactive” except for Monitoring and RecoveryActionsEnabled
 

How do I take the sever Servers out of Maintenance Mode?
For Mailbox Servers that are not Database Availability Group Members
1. Run
Set-ServerComponentState <ServerName> -Component ServerWideOffline -State Active -Requester Maintenance
2. To help transport services immediately pick the state change run:
Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport
If the server is a multi-role server (CAS/MBX) you need to run
Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport
Restart-Service MSExchangeFrontEndTransport

For Mailbox Servers that are Database Availability Group Members
1. To designate that the server is out of maintenance mode and be able to resume its previous tasks, run:
A. Set-ServerComponentState <ServerName> -Component ServerWideOffline -State Active -Requester Maintenance
B. Resume-ClusterNode <ServerName>
C. Set-MailboxServer <ServerName> -DatabaseCopyActivationDisabledAndMoveNow $False
D. Set-MailboxServer <ServerName> -DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy Unrestricted
Note: If the activation policy value was set to blocked before you started Maintenance, you must skip “D”
E. Set-ServerComponentState <ServerName> -Component HubTransport -State Active -Requester Maintenance
2. To help transport services immediately pick the state change run:
Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport
If the server is a multi-role server (CAS/MBX) you need to run
Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport
Restart-Service MSExchangeFrontEndTransport
How can I verify that the server is out of Maintenance mode?
To verify the server is not maintenance mode, run:
Get-ServerComponentState <ServerName> | ft Component,State –Autosize
All server components should show as “Active”