Exchange database engine is too big causing information store to shutd

[PaulBarron]

My Information store has shutdown. The cause is that the priv.edb and pub.ebd have exceeded disk space allocation.

I found out that I need to use the eseutil to do a defrag in order to get the databases working again.

However, when i run the eseutil /d /ispriv command it comes back with the following error;

Error -1808 Jet_errDiskFull

I found a microsoft.com article which telle me this is because the repair utility is using all available disk space. They confirm that this is a corrected in the latest service pack but I alrady have this. They offer no other solution.

Can anyone please help as I have 500 exchange users offline and have no idea how to fix this.

 

[hdeassis]

First move temporarly some data (unrelated to Exchange) to a different server. Then run "perwiz.exe", the try running again that defrag utility.

 

[PaulBarron]

I have successfully run the eseutil defrag now having pointed the temporary database files to a location with enough disk space.

The utility has got to 100% but I'm not totally sure if it has finished what it is doing. My dos prompt has not reappeared yet and the utility has just been sitting there with a minus sign on the screen for about 1 hour now.

Should I leave it or do you think it is OK to ctrl/alt/del the dos session and end the task.

The database has reduced in size as intended. I'm just unsure about crashing out of the eseutil screen in case it's not properly finished and I have to start all over again which I don't want to do as this has taken several hours to get to this stage

 

[ChrisHirst]

Do not crash exit Eseutil until you are utterly convinced it has locked up. If it is still working there will be a lot of drive activity, If not it may need a key press to bring up the Prompt or the cursor may be off screen, try scrolling the window if possible, pressing the space bar, the enter key and ESC in that order, wait a few minutes between each key press, if everything has stopped try Ctrl+C to exit Eseutil before having to kill the command window. This of course will have to be the last resort.

Chris

 

[Zelandakh]

eseutil takes ages after 100% to write to disk - if you give the "bill salute" you'll almost certainly corrupt your email database.

Before running eseutil, did you take a full backup? If not, you may well need to look for another job Assuming you did, you can delete the database and restore from backup. By deleting the database, it will be forced to recreate the priv.edb file and it will be smaller.

In a lot of cases this is the fastest way to defrag the database

 

[PaulBarron]

Thankfully I decided to leave it running and found later that it returned to the command prompt.

It resulted in my priv.edb being reduced slightly to 15.6gb.

I have been archiving email accounts all day to create more disk space, but bizarrely enough it still reports the file as being 15.6gb despite my being sure that I have freed up at least another 2.5gb today.

I wonder if this is a red herring though. Perhaps the server needs a reboot in rder to correctly report the size of the database.

Thanks for all the advice guys

 

[brontosaurus]

No. The priv.edb file will not "shrink" on it's own from deleting content. Normal online defragmentation will "free up" the space within the database to be utilized later, however the file size remains the same. The only way to truly shrink the file is to perform an offline defrag...

 

[PaulBarron]

In that case I will want to do a backup of Exchange before doing another offline defrag.

However, I don't have a tape drive attached to my exchange server and the backup utility does not seem to have an option to backup to a file instead.

Anyone know how to get around this?

 

[ChrisHirst]

This MS Article shows what files to copy across from an Exchange server to another server with a tape drive then you can use ntbackup. The article is for NT3.51 but the info is true for NT4 also. You can check this in Books on line if installed. Backup or rename any files to replace first of course.

NT Backup Cannot Back Up Microsoft Exchange Server (Q141830)

One thing you should always do before using Eseutil is backup. It can really screw up the database files better than any user.

Chris.

 

[techieKid]

Hi,

I've had the same problem as well these few days....my priv.edb reached a max of 16GB limit.
After eseutil is run, the database is 15.5GB which isn't very useful though.
Although, I'm able to start the services now, I didn't start the MS Internet mail service.
1) Is there any way that I can further reduce this database size besides asking my users to clear their mailboxes?

2) What I meant was to use Exchange or 3rd party software to delete mails that's before a certain cutoff date?

3) I backed up the priv.edb by stopping all exchange services and copying it to another server instead of backing up to tape. Is there a difference?
Will tape backups purge the transaction logs and the database?


Pls assist.
Thanks in advance!

 

[gcracker]

I could probably help you with a 3rd party utility but due to restrictions about posting on this group cannot give you this info via the group.

If you want more info please contact me at:

USA 480 659-2864

Graeme (Graham)

 

[Guest_imported]

When i made adefrag by use eseutil/d it's reach to 95% before reach
to 100% it is terminated and give me this message
"error couldn't instate database priv.edb(15.96GB) operation terminated with error -1032(set-error file access denied) can't access file, the file is locked or in use after 6562.547 seconds"
but i found tmporary.edb it's size 14.2GB
and i rename it to priv.edb but i can't start the information store service and can't make the integrity

 

[Voetsek]

Exchange Enterprise Edition does not have the 16GB limit on Priv and Pub IS. A good quote from microsoft is that doing defrags on the IS is like working on your car with a blow tourch. it may work, just you better be sure you know waht you are doing. i would suggest gettings orielly's exchange book. its good.