After the post on Exchange 2010’s Active Manager I received a question on the possibilities to block automatic activation of database copies in a DAG. There could be legitimate reasons for wanting this, like when you want to prevent remote database copies in a secondary data center from being activated automatic.

The blockade can be created on two levels:

• Server – this prevents automatic activation for any database copy hosted on that server;
• Database Copy – this prevents automatic activation for a specific database copy hosted on a specific server.

To block all database copies on DAG member <ServerID> from becoming activated automatically, use:

Set-MailboxServer –Identity <ServerID> – DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy Blocked

To enable all database copies on DAG member <ServerID> for automatic activation again, use:

Set-MailboxServer –identity <ServerID> –DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy Unrestricted

To block automatic activation on the database copy level, use the Suspend-mailboxDatabaseCopy. For example, to block the database copy of DatabaseID from automatic activation on ServerID, use:

Suspend-MailboxDatabaseCopy –identity <DatabaseID>\<ServerID> –ActivationOnly

To enable automatic activation again for this database copy on the specified server, use Resume-MailboxDatabaseCopy, like:

Resume-MailboxDatabaseCopy –identity <DatabaseID>\<ServerID>

Be advised that contrary to what the name of the cmdlet might suggest, using Suspend in conjunction with ActivationOnly and Resuming an activation blocked database copy does not affect the replication process for that database copy.