Information Store Limits

[lengoo]

Hi Guys
I heard from someone that the max size of the information store for Exchange is 16 gigs. Is this for Exchange 5.5? I have Exchange 2000 SP1 and our emails total >30 gigs! Could any shed some light on this?

Many thanks

 

[ACraib]

The 16Gb limit only applies to the Standard version of Exchange. The Enterprise edition is only limites by your hardware.

 

[lengoo]

Hiya,
How do you know if you have the standard version or not? We just purchased ours and it just says Exchange 2000 but our Information Store is well over 16 gigs. Is there something I can see in Exchange System Manager?

 

[ACraib]

a simple way to tell is to use Exchange System Manager. Get properties of the server. If on the first page there is a tick box saying (This is a front end server) it is Enterprise. This option is not available on a Standard Exchange. (Do not place a tick in this box if the server has mail or public folders on it though).

 

[lengoo]

Hi Acraib
I've done this and it looks like our server isn't the Enterprise Edition... however, I don't understand then why our server has over 30 gigs of data!!!! Can anyone explain this? We have had no problems with the server at all.

 

[ACraib]

Where is the 30Gb figure coming from? Is this the size of the EDB and STM files?

 

[lengoo]

Hiya,
I've done some more investigation into this... looks like the limit is 16 GIG per mailbox!!! That's the Microsoft documentation!! PHEW

 

[nahuahc]

You can also look at the Exchange setup log to find out whether it is an Enterprise or Standard version of Exchange 2000.
The log file is created in teh system root:
c:\"Exchange Server Setup Progress.log"

and try to search for a (or similar) string:
"This is a Enterprise version of Microsoft Exchange 2000"
The above string is present in the Enterprise version of Exchange. It also says if it is an evaluation version valid for 120 days only, in case it is.

HTH

 

[lengoo]

Yep, it's definately the standard... teh edb and stm files total around 10 gigs.. however, our emails total 35 gigs according to the mailbox sizes.. how is this possible?? Confusing if you ask me!

 

[ACraib]

The mailbox sizes are missleading. Exchange uses Single Instance Storage. This means that is a 10mb message is sent to ten people in the same storage group then only 1 actualy copy is stored in the information store and a marker is placed in each of the recipients mailboxes. This should account for your confusing sizes.

You will be limited to 16Gb on the edb and stm files with Standard. You may need to look at using the ESEUTIL to perform and off-line defrag on your databases too reduce their sizes.