Exchange 2003 5GB Store is 95 GB

[clicker666]

My SBS 2003 Server has an out of control priv1.edb. The file is 95 GB in size on disk, but when I view the mailboxes in administrator and add everything up there is only 5 GB of data.

I attempted to perform an offline defrag, but ran out of time (9 hours) during the night. Mail becomes slow by times, with the Exchange server losing it's connection to the clients.

I only have 25 users, and not a lot of mail. I have around 600 GB of free space in my server's SATA RAID array. My server is a dual Xeon 3.4 GHz with 4 GB of RAM.

Will the offline defrag actually fix this? I was thinking of running it over the weekend, when I stand a chance of getting it done. Some connectivity for the users is better than none, I'm not sure I can get away with taking the store offline for an entire working day.

 

[Zelandakh]

What is your deleted item retention time? Anything odd the event viewer? What do your 1221 events say?

 

[58sniper]

Look for event 1221 in your application log. That will tell you how much whitespace is in the database.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[clicker666]

My deleted item retention time was 30 days. I turned it off two days ago as I wasn't sure if that was causing the problem.

I deleted my log this morning, but it told me that I would have a 25 GB store after defragmentation, which would be in excess of the 18 GB limit. It told me that it would dismount the store on the next maintenance. (5 am tomorrow?)

 

[clicker666]

I'm thinking at this point, with only 5 GB of data, the best bet is to take the store offline and Exmerge to PSTs. Delete the store, create a new one, and import the PSTs.

Good idea? Bad idea? It would probably take a hell of a lot less time, and the users are now getting cranky. (Although it is giving me an opportunity to rag them out for not logging off at night as they've been told.)

 

[Zelandakh]

You deleted your log? Please explain.
25GB after defrag means it would be worthwhile but you need to compare that to 1221 events from before the DIRT was changed.

5GB of data gets you a 25GB store? Not sure what is going on there. Exmerge might be faster. Pity you aren't on Exchange Enterprise as a new store would be a lot better.

Let us know what happens.

 

[clicker666]

I deleted my event logs this morning so that I could crank up the logging level on IS and monitor.

Yeah, I don't know how 5 GB gets me 25 GB, of course I don't know how 5 GB got me 95 either!

In any event I'm thinking Exmerge and recreation is the best move at this time.

I'll have to look up the steps - I understand how to Exmerge, but am not sure how to remove and create an empty IS.

 

[clicker666]

I ended calling MS, and we agreed on doing the Exmerge rebuild. Including visiting each machine to repair the Outlook settings it only took 3 hours. Much better and the EDB is now down to a manageable 9 GB.

Thanks for the input.

 

[58sniper]

Just so you know, the 18GB limit applies to the amount of data IN the database. Not the size of the physical files. There can be serious differences in those sizes.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[clicker666]

Oh definitely. However, those sizes should be closer together than 4 = 95. The end result is a 4.5 GB physical file size, after some more maintenance.

Significantly faster to backup 4.5 GB rather than 95.

If I didn't have offline folders I wouldn't have had to visit each desktop either, which would have reduced the time even more. I'm thinking the entire process could have been completed in about 2 hours.