Backing up exchange edb database

[baggies1]

ok so its been a loong time since i've done this on 2000 but can someone advise on the following:

i need to run eseutil defrag.

if it goes wrong, i need to recover the databsae.

provided i have backed up the edb file is it just a matter of restoring that file and running the eseutil repair option to get the information store back up again?

sound about right?

doesnt the repair have something to do with tying up the transaction logs with the database itself?

 

[58sniper]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc164317(EXCHG.65).aspx

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[xmsre]

If you do an exchange aware backup prior to the defrag attempt, then a restore gets you back where you started.

An offline defrag is just that, offline. The database will be offline and your users will be down for the duration of the offline defrag. There are actually very few situation where you would consider an offline defrag. May I ask why you are considering putting yourself and your users through this level of pain?

XMSRE

 

[baggies1]

there are a number of seasonal users created and deleted over a period of 2.5 years.

the admin windows in exchange run very slowly and whilst this can be the server itself it is thought that a defrag of the database will save a lot of space and perhaps speed up operations.

currently its at 330gb for 125 odd users.

 

[baggies1]

oh btw we are using Exchange 2007.

 

[58sniper]

330GB defrag is going to take FOREVER. You'd be better off creating new databases of smaller sizes, and moving mailboxes across them. Then, once the big one is empty, delete it.

You're way above best practices for database size.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[baggies1]

ok perhaps i should clarify.

we have two databases with different store limits

one is 181gb

the other is 150gb.

to save me reading a large white paper whats the max size for best practice?

 

[58sniper]

For non replication servers (no CCR or SCR), the recommended maximum is 100GB. For replication servers, the maximum recommended size is 200GB.

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/01/15/432199.aspx

Remember, the bigger the database, the longer it takes to do anything: backup, restore, defrag, etc.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[ntinlin]

What are your actual white space stats currently?

Look for event 1221 in the Exchange server event log.

Pat is absolutely correct that those databases are too big but you also need to know if you are going to recover any disk space at the end of the process, how big the LUN's need to be, how many databases etc.

I also don't understand about the "admin windows run very slowly". The speed of response of EMC should have nothing to do with the database size.

Neill

 

[baggies1]

thats very good info guys thanks.

as it turns out my colleague had recently install sophos pure message which was recording 72000 failed events per hour.

so that certainly didnt help!!

we will certainly be looking at splitting our databases down to reduce size.

 

[58sniper]

Make sure you have the correct exceptions configured for any antivirus scanner you that's on the server or scanning the server. MS has a KB article on that.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/