Exchange 2003 database offline defragmentation

[tinypingu]

My Exchange 2003 database is already over 16GB, and must do the offline defragment as soon as possible. Just search the info from Microsoft, but don't have much detail on this. So please help. Thanks.

1. Do I need to stop the 'MS Exchange Information Store', 'MS Exchange Management', 'MS Exchange MTA Stacks', and 'MS Exchange System Attendant' services before I dismount the mailbox store?

2. Is this command correct to run the defragmentation utility on the mailbox store database with a backup? The command is:
eseutil /d c:\progra~1\exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv1.edb /b d:\exchbkup\priv1.edb
(p.s. there is a space after /b)

3. The total size of c: drive is 50GB, and have 30GB free space, so it should be enough to perform the offline defragmentation. Is that right?

4. For the 16GB size database, how long will it take to complete the offline defragmentation? 3 hours? 4 hours? 5 hours?

Please feel free to comment. Thanks.

 

[chrisstyles]

Command is correct.

Go into System Manager and dismount the store first. This takes it offline as would stopping the info store service.

if you have a 16gb store, you need 16gb + 16Gb for the backup which is created at the end, + at most another 8gb for the defrag.

With your 30Gb free you will be fine.

16Gb should take at most 3hours. our 80Gb total takes about 5-6 hours but this is hardware / disk IO dependent.

If you find yourself running out of time, just abort the command and your store remains untouched. You will have to manually delete the created temp db and stm

Mount the store afterwards.

Cheers

Chris

Chris Styles

NT4/2000 MCSE

 

[tinypingu]

Thanks for the advice.

Could you please explain:-

1. What will it show during the offline defragmentation? And, what will it show after completed? How do I know the offline defragmentation is completed?

2. Do I need to do anything after run this command? e.g. move/copy the defragmented priv1.edb to anywhere, or do something on priv1.stm?

Thanks a lot.

 

[chrisstyles]

OK, you run this from the command line and you get a nice little dos prograss bar ;-)

After it's completed it will say completed.

When it's finished it renames it's temp files to the main store name and renames your origional store to the name you specified as a backup.

So if you stop it mid defrag you are left with the temp files, but your store is intact.

If you don't dismount the store it will error saying access denied, so you can test your command line before you dismount.

Make sure you have a backup and it's a bit of a no brainer really.

Cheers

Chris

Chris Styles

NT4/2000 MCSE