Freeing up disk space on SBS2003

[noiseordinance]

Hi there. We had a Small Business Server consultant set up our server about a year ago. He configured the partitions as such:

C: 25.7GB
D: 109GB

While this worked fine for a while, we've started to outgrow our C: and often get really low in disk space (sometimes around 3GB, sometimes even less). When this happens, things start to get a little weird... mail will get bounced, backups stop, etc. The guy who set us up came back and moved our swap file to D: which helped a little but we're still hovering around 3GB, which isn't even enough to defrag.

I'm fairly XP savvy, but not incredibly Server 2003 savvy, so when I read about running cleanups of old drivers, etc., I'm not sure how safe they are for our needs.

All the server is currently doing is:
Running Exchange
Hosting a Filemaker database
Hosting Quickbooks
Hosting Antivirus crap

All data associated with the above programs are on the D:, including the Exchange mailstore.

Could anyone offer some pointers? The guy who set us up won't even return calls now, so I'm guessing we'll have to find a new guy.

Thanks a ton.

 

[58sniper]

Your consultant did a poor job. Drive space on the C: drive should stay fairly consistent.

I suspect Exchange stores are located on the c: drive, which is generally a no-no.

I'd start by going through

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/821915

and moving those to the other drive.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[acl03]

You could also move your page file from C: to D: if it is currently on C:.

Thanks,
Andrew

Hard work often pays off over time, but procrastination pays off right now!

 

[58sniper]

Just don't do both. The paging file is generally fairly static in size. The Exchange databases and logs aren't. You don't want the paging file and the databases on the same spindles.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[acl03]

Good point, Pat.

Thanks,
Andrew

Hard work often pays off over time, but procrastination pays off right now!

 

[noiseordinance]

Both the page file is on the D:, as well as the Exchange database. For what it's worth, we have about 40 email accounts and yet our D: has 68GB available, while our C: only has 3GB....

What should I do? Can the pagefile and Exchange data both really not be placed on the D: for optimal server health?

 

[noiseordinance]

And to clarify further, the consultant placed both the page file and Exchange data on the D: when I ran into space limitations the first time. When I told him a few months ago that our C: is approaching data limits he said we're probably have to repartition, reformat and restore, which would REALLY suck since the server is only a year old....

And since that conversation, he won't call back or reply to emails...

 

[acl03]

Is your D: drive on a separate physical volume from your C: drive?

If they are using the same physical disks, then having the pagefile on D: isn't doing anything for you.

Thanks,
Andrew

Hard work often pays off over time, but procrastination pays off right now!

 

[58sniper]

If they are using the same physical disks, then having the pagefile on D: isn't doing anything for you.

not really true. For an IOPS standpoint, that's likely the case. But we also have to look at fragmentation of the paging file. And space used.

The paging file shouldn't be on the same spindles as anything Exchange related. The Exchange databases and the transaction logs should be kept separate as well.

You might want to use something TreeSize Pro to see what's eating up your drive space.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[noiseordinance]

We have everything on the same drive in the sense that we have 4 (from what I recall) 75gb PATA hard drives mirrored in I wanna say the RAID 5/0 configuration? Again, that's not stuff I've messed with and my knowledge is limited. But we basically have 2x75gb for 150GB total, mirrored. And the C: partition is 25GB while the D: partition is about 125GB. Both the page file and the Exchange mailbox stores are on the D:.

When I do a search, the largest file on the server is the WSUS database which is about 3.5GB, which is apparently normal. Argh, I'm not sure what to do. You are thinking I should use TreeSize Pro to see what's eating drive space? It looks like it costs money and stuff, which I can probably swing if it's not too expensive... I'm just trying to figure out a gameplan and anticipate work and money involved to fix the problem I guess. Sounds like our consultant did a crappy job at setting us up though...

 

[58sniper]

TreeSize is free.

Until you find out what's eating up space, you're dead in the water.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[noiseordinance]

Ok, I installed and did a scan and here's a screenshot of what I'm looking at...

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e69/seanhymens/treesize.jpg

Does this indicate anything useful?

 

[58sniper]

Seems to be that your WSUS database is sitting there. I'd be looking to move those off. I don't generally like any databases on the system drive. Nothing but trouble when they start getting big.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[noiseordinance]

Would you recommend I just use an FAQ to move WSUS to the D:? I've seen a few out there... I think MS has a movewsus tool floating around out there.

 

[noiseordinance]

On second note, I'm reading about people breaking wizards and whatnot when attempting to move WSUS to a different partition. Argh.

 

[noiseordinance]

By the way, it looks like our SBS consultant did move WSUS to the D: partition, yet there's still the monstrous file called "susdb.mdf" that resides on C:... it takes up about 3.5GB. I don't really see anything anywhere on moving it.

 

[acl03]

As far as I know, at least in the older version of WSUS we're using, you cannot move the patch database. i think the old methodology was to just re-download them all to the new location.

I could be wrong about that, though, wouldn't surprise me

Thanks,
Andrew

Hard work often pays off over time, but procrastination pays off right now!