Exchange WhiteSpace 1

[jmorr34]

I have about 1.647 GB of white space according to Event 1221. If I am incorrent in that, please let me know. Is there a reason that when I backup my First Storage Group that it is growing by about 200mb a week even though I have that much whitespace?

Thanks in advance.

 

[58sniper]

How big are the two files (.edb and .stm) combined? 1.647GB isn't a lot of whitespace when you're dealing with a 10GB mail store. It IS a lot when you're dealing with a 500MB store.

If your backups are growing by 200MB a week, then you've got 200MB more data to backup.

Pat Richard MVP

 

[jmorr34]

priv1.edb - 15.313 gb
priv1.stm - 10.696 gb
pub1.edb - 406.6 mb
pub1.stm - 28.7 mb

And that is with only 28 users.

 

[58sniper]

That's a lot of friggin' mail (priv1.edb + priv1.stm) for 28 users. I have environments with over 100 users that aren't that big. But that's besides the point.

Anyways, if you don't have limits imposed, you should put them in place to help prevent problems should a mail loop or other nefarious problem arise.

Watch the mailbox sizes to see who's growing by an abnormal rate.

Pat Richard MVP

 

[jmorr34]

Yeah, we have several project managers that mail addendums and blueprints back and forth and they can get rather large. I have tried to put a limit on a mailbox, but it does not seem to let me put a limit any larger than 2,097,151. I have two boxes over 3 gigs. Can you make a limit any larger than the 2,097,151 kb?

 

[58sniper]

Yes, although you can't enter it via the traditional way (2GB is the limit there).

Setting mailbox limits over 2GB in Exchange 2003

http://www.petri.co.il/setting_mailbox_limits_over_2gb.htm

If you slowly reduce their limit, once they get to under 2GB, you can go back to using the ADUC method.

BTW - Exchange isn't a file store. You'd be better off pointing them at a file share for blueprints. IMNSHO.

Pat Richard MVP

 

[jmorr34]

Thanks for the link.

I didnt really mean sharing between each other. I meant sharing between subs and other outside addresses. I guess some type of public fileshare could be set up there.

 

[xmsre]

Size limits are critical; you can't effectively size storage for Exchange without them. Even if you think you don't have limits, you do. The size of available storage is the ultimate limit and you definitely don't want to hit that one.

Now that the size limit lecture is out of the way, what's the client mix? When An item is received in MIME format (from the internet for instance) it's stored in the STM file. When a MAPI client accesses the item (read Outlook), many of the properties are converted to MAPI format and then stored in or "promoted" to the EDB file. If a POP/IMAP/WEBDAV client (OWA and Entourage are Webdav clients) is used to retrieve the message, no promotion occurs.

When a POP/IMAP/WEBDAV client sends mail using Exchange 2000/2003, the message is stored in MIME format in the STM. If a MAPI client is used to read the message, well see the above paragraph ad naseum.


The point of all of this is that you have an STM that is 2/3 the size of your EDB. Client mix plays a large role in the size of the STM. You may want to look at usage patterns and review the clients in your environment. Sometimes, it's not feasable to alter the mix (internal users sending large business critical attachments to vendors/suppliers/customers over the internet for instance). In that case you'll need to factor in the property duplication caused by attribute promotion, or move to Exchange 2007 where MIME is the native format and you don't have an STM.


John

 

[58sniper]

A star for John for the detailed answer.

Pat Richard MVP