16 Gig DB

[Yardyy]

We have a really weird problem where our private store keeps expanding in size dramatically. Two weeks ago i rebuilt the ex2003 server, which had a 16gig db, after exmerge complete data was only 3.8gig. few days later the db is growing again to 14 gig, after defrag it comes down to 6 gig.

The size of the mailboxes in system manager does not tally with the size of the db, initially i thought that the single instance storage feature of exchange had broken down, thats why i though that if i reinstall exchange it would fix it.

The size increases everyday, and after defrag comes down. Has anyone any idea what could be causing this, we have anti virus which is updated daily, and have run a full scan on all servers and computers in network.

Any help most appreciated, i am at a reall end here. ..

Many Thanks
Yardyy

 

[MoobyCow]

Could be that someone is using one of your computers to SPAM, it doesn't have to be a virus just a weakness somewhere in your security.

You can turn on SMTP logging to see where all the volume is coming from. With that much volume you can probably just watch the queue and get an idea of what is going on.

If you have a program that logs all your email traffic that could help as well. I use GFI Mail Essentials which will tell me how much email is going in and out of each account.

It's free to try and super easy to install, so that might be a good way to keep an eye on the traffic for a few days.

 

[penguin69]

I don't know if you have checked but have you looked to see if someone has the Journal turned on? This creates tons of extra storage.

Just an idea!

Ken

 

[Yardyy]

Lets say for instance that someone has got the journal turned on, is there a central location that i could look to find that out.

In ESM the size of the mailboxes does not total the size edb`s.

Many Thanks
Yardyy

 

[analogia22]

It's not just the EDB files that you have to account for. Also, add the log files (STM) in there.

 

[stupman]

Check antivirus soft. Sometimes, when scanning store and Exch prog files & qeues, Exchange can do some tricky things.
Check your Antivir provider and see what they advise. Normally the stores should be excluded.

 

[Yardyy]

I have ensured that the whole exchange dir is excluded as well as anything that is remotely to do with exchange. That was one of the first things that i checked.

Many Thanks
Yardyy