Moving the Primary Active Manager

If, for some reason, the server currently hosting the Active Manager role of Primary Active Manager [PAM] fails, this role should automatically move to a surviving server of the Database Availability Group [DAG] which then takes ownership of the cluster quorum resource.

However, you might face a (rare) scenario where this doesn’t happen and you end up with a failed server and with Exchange still thinking that server is the PAM. Among other things, you will not be able to add/remove members to/from the DAG...

PAM decides which database copies will be active and passive, is responsible for getting topology change notifications and reacting to server failures. The DAG member that holds the PAM role is always the member that currently owns the cluster quorum resource (default cluster group).

So how do we move the PAM to one of the surviving servers? To achieve this, we need to use the command line and use the following Windows Clustering command to move the cluster quorum resource:

cluster.exe “DAG Name” /MoveTo:NewDAG

where “DAG Name” is your DAG Cluster Name and NewDAG is the node where you want to move the PAM to.