Exchange 2016 Transaction Logs for Migration aren't in Migration Arbitration Mailbox Log Location

Question

I've read in a few places that doing a migration with Exchange 2016 should cause all the transaction logs to be located depending on the location of the Migration arbitration mailbox.

I have an Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016 migration where all the logs are going to the log location defined by the destination mailbox database. What I was expecting was that those logs would instead follow the mailbox database log location that holds the migration arbitration mailbox.

I have E:\EXCH16-MailboxDB1 with log location F:\EXCH16-DB1-Logs. I also have G:\EXCH16-MigrationMB with log location H:\EXCH16-Migration-Logs.

I recently ran an unfinalized batch migration to move several mailboxes to EXCH16-MailboxDB1. All the logs for migration went to F:\EXCH16-DB1-Logs.

What I'm trying to figure out is why my logs didn't go to H:\EXCH16-Migration-Logs since the migration arbitration mailbox is in G:\EXCH16-MigrationMB and has H:\EXCH16-Migration-Logs configured as the log location.

Answer 1

I spent more time looking into this and I think I found the answer. The behavior I was expecting only applies to migrations involving Exchange 2013 and later. I believe I am seeing the "old" way migrations worked because the source server is Exchange 2010.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2800556/large-transaction-logs-are-generated-when-you-move-mailboxes-in-exchan