Information Store has not altered after offline defrag

[Azza76]

Hello everyone,

We run Exchange 2003 Standard - and our Information Store is 61Gb in size (according to Windows Explorer). Over the last few months lots of users have been archiving lots of emails to .pst files - and so I figured it would be a good idea to offline defrag the Store to reclain the white space.

The offline defrag went through OK - however - the Information Store appears exactly the same size as when the offline defrag started - 61Gb.

I was kinda expecting the file size of the priv1.edb to shrink after the defrag.

Is the file size as reported by Explorer differ from the actual size of the Store? Is there a way to actual tell if the Offline defrag did reclaim any space?

Thanks!
A

 

[Azza76]

Grrrrrrr.

Just read elsewhere that the Event Viewer Event IDs 1221 detail how much white space is in the Store. Before the defrag the figure was only 75Mb - so I guess that is why the defrag made hardly any difference. Wished I'd known that before I started!

Just out of interest then - I rekon we must have archived at least 15Gb of email from the Store over the last month. That 15Gb must be white space now in the Store - so why can't we get it back.

And thinking forward - I guess we will have to upgrade from Standard to Enterprise in the near future so we don't break the 75Gb barier for the Store. Is that correct?

 

[Zelandakh]

If you've removed 15GB recently then let an online defrag take place and check the 1221. If it doesn't show up then it is being used elsewhere. Check your deleted item retention time as you have to go past that to get the white space as it isn't freed up yet.

Standard to Enterprise - yes, you are right.

 

[Azza76]

Ahhhh. There is the 'problem' then. I have retnetion time set to 30days for mailboxes and 30 days for items. If we archive data off - does this not leave the Store until the retention dates have passed?

That would explain it. Oh well - I'll know to do more research next time.

Thanks for the help