HELP! Priv1.edb at maximum capacity!

[Factor42]

Our exchange 2000 standard edition reached its maximum capacity last week of which I was able to perform an off-line defrag to get it just under the stated maximum of 16383mb. I asked users to then deleted unwanted emails from thier mailboxes and they now have a total sum of just under 10gb.
BUT! Exchange is now posting repeated Event log statements that it has exceeded, once again, the maximum capacity but this time is not dismounting the store automatically.
I have triple-checked the mailbox total and found it still to be under 10gb, but the Priv1.edb file is over 16gb!!

I've verified the "Deleted emails retained for X Days" setting and that is set to zero, so what am I doing wrong? What have I missed?!
Please help as the staff are getting irate and emails are coming in only sporadically.

Thank you all in advance

 

[mass2612]

It sounds like you are manually adding the totals of the mailboxes as displayed through System Manager. If that's the case i believe you would need to run a defrag of the Priv1.edb file in order to reclaim the space. See KB

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;192185.

 

[jakesups]

I too have the same problem. A defrag gets you by for a couple of days, then the store which always stays at that 16 gig limit somehow fills up internally.
I've looked for ways to compress the store, there's nothing I'm finding. I ran the ESEUTIL with a /p to save the temporary DB hoping it would just be active emails, it was really no different in size than the original PRIV.EDB.
Since the EDB file isn't corrupted a /r doesn't do anything.
The only thing I believe which could be done would be to export all of the files to PST, move the PRIV.EDB and re-import everything into a new EDB file. This method sounds like it might work, but is 10x more work than should be required.
Thanks for any help, Jake

 

[TenSNut]

A thought about exporting to *.pst files. I think you lose the advantage of "single instance store" when you export and then import. You could potentially end up with a larger amount of data.

 

[roubes]

Hi, you might need to do a defrag to reclaim any space, do some calcuations to get for example 80% or 75% of your maximum store full, then set mailbox limits accordingly, then all users over quota have thier mailbox closed and will be forced to maintain it regulary, and you know for sure you can't exceed 75% of the 16GB, after than do another degrag.
hope this helps

 

[dazza1234]

The only way to clear this is to run a defrag. Eseutil /d priv1.edb. Then mount the IS and probably start getting rid of a few messages.

 

[jakesups]

Thanks for all of your input. I ran the eseutil /d priv1.edb numerous times without a whole lot of success. Exchange standard has the limit of 16384 kb, my store was at 16340.
I had some users delete their emails resulting in a direct savings of several gig. After a couple of weeks the size of the PRIV1.EDB was still unchanged.
Last night we did an export of all the emails to PST files, moved the PRIV1.EDB file and associated, re-imported all of the PST files. We got the store down to 9000kb, a 7 gb savings.
I'm not sure about what a single instance store is, except maybe the number of stores available on Exchange Standard, which is limited to one.
With this process the outlook SIDS affected some users as far as their Outlook profiles. Most people just answered a prompt to recreate the OST file and set up their shortcuts and synchronizations.
This process worked in my opinion with almost no pain, thankfully.
Jake

 

[TenSNut]

Glad to hear it worked out for you. Always nice when there's a happy ending. Fortunately, it doesn't matter now, but "Single Instance Store" is Microsoft's name for storing one copy of an attachment sent to multiple mailboxes on the same store, which is more efficient. When you export to pst's, each pst gets a copy of the attachment.

 

[jsd2003]

But going forward, you need to set strict mailbox limits and give yourself a 10% safety margin. Next, educate people on the use of PST files and, if they're using laptops that they take with them everywhere, have them set delivery to their PST file.