Database size larger than actual user mailboxes

[dhanley]

Good day.

I recently ran an offline defragment on my Exchange 2000 server. Although it's size decreased, it did not decrease to the expected level. For example, the cumulative size of the user mailboxes is 9.5 gigs versus 15 gigs for the combined total of EDB and STM files.

Can someone provide some additional insight?

Thank you in advance.

 

[xmsre]

1. duplication of properties between the stm and edb
2. deleted items & mailbox retention
3. space for structures like indexes and views
4. The system and smtp mailboxes


Lastly, why did you do an offline defrag? Unless all instances of the mail is gone and never coming back it makes no sense. A certain amount of whitespace is normal and will return. What does your 1221 say now?

 

[dhanley]

Q. Why did I do an offline defrag?
A. I asked users to purge mail and I am setting limits, which they have done. Some users deleted as much as 600-plus megs of email from their respective boxes.

I temporarily turned off deleted items retention as you mentioned prior to posting this message.

What duplicate properties do I look for between stm and edb?

I understand the need for space for indexes and views

What, if anything, can I do to address the system and smtp mailboxes?

 

[xmsre]

Depending on how the message was sent and what client was used to access exchange, promition of items between the edb and stm or visa versa occurs.

Example:

1. A message is sent from user A to User B. Users A and B have mailboxes on the same store. User A used Outlook (or other MAPI client) to connect to exchange and send the message. User B connects via their favorite pop3 client and retrieves the mail.

The result is the message boday and attachements will be promoted from the edb to the stm.


2. A message sent to user A arrives from the internet. The body is saved in the stm and header information is promoted to the edb. User A connects to their mailbox using a MAPI client.

The result is the boday and attachments are promoted from the stm to the edb.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/232323/en-us

The system and smtp mailboxes are required. If there arises an issue with either, you can move the users to another store, drop the store and create a new one. The system mailbox will be recreated. Speaking of move mailbox, when you move mailbox to another store, it fully promotes all items to the edb (everything in the edb and nothing in the stm). Of course, it probably won't stay that way...

 

[JimWells]

Is Online Maintenance/Background Maintenance runnning? Online maintenance is a server property in Exchange System Manager and can have a default schedule or a custom one.

Background Maintenance is on by default, but there are a few known issues where it isn't enabled. Running the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer (free download from Microsoft) is the quickest way to tell, as Background Maintenance config problems are flagged as critical items.