Defraging Exchange

[bulkmail]

I have an echange server that has 30GB left but the store is 65GB. Do I absolutely need the same amount of free space to used spaced on the IS? Will it allow me to defrag eventhough i have so little space left?

Thanks,

BM

 

[Grenage]

Unfortunately I do not believe so.

 

[dcain]

You will need enough space to hold a new copy of the database with some free space left over. The defrag operation will create a new copy of the Info Store, I think MS recommended free space is 110% of the existing IS Size.

Hope this helps


David

 

[bulkmail]

Thanks guys, I took a crash course on the utility.
Looks like I will need to get more space.
BM

 

[lanceja]

Question dealing with the same subject. I have not tried this yet but thought I would ask prior to trying.

I was thinking that I can copy the Exchange databases (priv & pub) to another hard drive that does have sufficient drive space (110% of database), run the defrag utility and then copy it back to the original location.

Would the above work?

 

[bulkmail]

Yes. you can also map a drive.

 

[ceejay07]

we are in the same boat... my information store is about 45 gigs... and restores are beginning to be a bit of a pain. what is the easiest way of increasing the drive space... my setup is raid 5

any help is appreciated.

cj

 

[ceejay07]

Thanks bulkmail... i will try that one weekend.

cj

Out of curiousity how big is your company? are you restricting how much users keep in their mailbox. I inherited my position and my users never had any kind of restriction. they keep everything. I'm in the process of changing that. Once i defrag, I will start to limit how much they can keep.

 

[bulkmail]

You know, researching this problem, I found that you really do not need to defrag unless you see an Application Event stating that you need to defrag. Otherwise, to run a defrag, you are just verifying the integrity of the DB and freeing up some white pages. It is also recommended that you do a full backup prior to and then once after.

If you run out of space you can add hard disks to the server (scsi or ide), map a network drive, or copy the DB onto another server and run it there. But you would have to copy it back.

BM

 

[johnny99]

An advice would be to use the Exchange optimizer to move the exchange database. On top of moving the databases it also makes the changes to the settings of Exchange and can even make it perform better.

 

[lanceja]

I agree with johnny99.

I had an Exchange DBase that was 5gb and was filling up the disk. I used the optimizer to move it to another drive on the same machine and everything is working great. That might be the best thing to do if you are running out of space on one drive is to add another drive and use the optimizer to move it. That way Exchange knows where everything is at and you do not have to make any manual changes.

It worked for me.
Good luck to you.

 

[phollenbeck]

Another Point: If you want to see how much space you will recover by doing an offline defragmentation check out event id 1221 in the application log. This tells you how much free space you have within the database.

 

[swp13]

All I have read and heard also points toward not running defrag unless app log states it is needed. White space is generally thought to be used faster than free space by exchange since exchange already knows it is there.

Also, using the defrag utility, you can specify where the temp defrag db will be, assuming you can map a drive to a server. I can't remember exactly how, but there is a switch you can run after the command and state where to keep the temp db. It's a bit slower since it is going across the lan link, but it could get you out of a jam if you really need to defrag.

If you have 30GB left with 65Mb store I wouldn't worry too much unless the size keeps going up a lot.