Change web application's content database

Question

Is it possible to configure my existing SharePoint 2010/2013 web application to point to a new/existing content database residing on another database server? If yes then how could I do it.

Answer 1

Yes you can, but be sure to try this in your test environment first. Follow the steps in the article SharePoint with more than one SQL instance: possible or not possible

On the SQL server

1. Backup the content database.

2. Restore the database on the second instance

3. Add the same permissions for the content database that you had on the source instance.

On the SharePoint Server

4. Detach the content database from the web application :

stsadm.exe -o deletecontentdb -url <URL name> -databasename <database name>

5. Attach the content database from the new instance to your web application :

stsadm.exe -o addcontentdb -url <URL name> -databasename <database name> -databaseserver <database server name>