How to Remove Content Database in SharePoint using PowerShell?

SharePoint content databases are the most important artifacts in SharePoint platform as they hold majority of the data. However, at times we may have to delete the content database from SharePoint. Here is how you can utilize PowerShell to delete database:

How to delete a content database in central administration?

Login as a Farm administrator and follow these steps to delete content database in central administration.

• Go to SharePoint Central Administration >> Application Management >> Manage Content Databases in the Databases section
• Select the web application from the dropdown menu and click on the name of the content database. 
• In the Manage Content Database Settings page, select the “Remove content database” check box.  Confirm the prompt and click on OK to delete a content database in SharePoint.

  

This detaches and removes the association of the content database from SharePoint. However, the content database still exists in SQL Server. If you want to permanently remove the content database, you must manually remove it from SQL Server as well. Just Open SQL Server Management Studio, From the list of Content Databases find the one that needs to be deleted, Right-click, and delete! That’s all!!

SharePoint 2013: Remove content database using PowerShell

To delete a content database from SharePoint, use: Remove-SPContentDatabase cmdlet, which removes the content database from SharePoint web application and deletes it from the SQL Server also.

Syntax:
Get-SPContentDatabase -Identity "ContentDB-Name" | Remove-SPContentDatabase

E.g. 
Get-SPContentDatabase -Identity "SP10_Intranet_Content02" | Remove-SPContentDatabase

This deletes SharePoint Content database from SharePoint as well as from SQL Server permanently! As stated, use: Dismount-SPContentDatabase cmdlet if you want to remove the database from SharePoint alone!

Related Posts:

• To add content database in SharePoint using PowerShell, Refer:  How to Create a New Content Database in SharePoint 2013 using PowerShell
• How to Find and remove unused content databases in SharePoint: Find and Delete Unused Orphan Databases in SharePoint