IS Size - Mailbox vs. DB size

[SpideySMJ]

I'm sure this has been asked before but I couldn't find it when I searched. So sorry if I'm bringing up an old subject. I've got an Exchange 5.5 server (enterprise) that has a 40GB information store. I'm running out of drive space on that server and the store is slowly growing.

When I add up all the mailboxes through "Mailbox Resources" they only add up to about 5GB of space. I ran an offline defrag and only got back 1GB of space. I've decreased the Deleted items retention time from 10 days to 2, but that didn't seem to make a big difference either. I didn't see any particular mailbox that seems to be growing rapidly or any looping messages in the MTAs. Is there anything else I can do to try and figure out where this extra 35GB is hiding?

Thanks
Scott

 

[ashleym]

The only thing I can thing of is that your log files are taking up the space. Have you run an exchange backup lately? You can use the built in windows backup utility, it is exchange aware and will back it up, after the backup is complete it should flush the log files and you should get your disk space back. Look in your MTDB folder I think, the log files are 5mb each, whatever you do DONT delete them, run a backup and they will disappear.

AM

 

[SpideySMJ]

Don't think it's my logs. I can look at the priv.edb and see it's listed as 40GB.

 

[dennisbbb]

You can use Exmerge to move all the mail out to pst, then stop services, move priv.edb to a temp folder, restart services so a new priv.edb is generated. Finally use Exmerge to move the email back. If it's only 5 gig it shouldn't take you long, maybe one Saturday afternoon.

 

[SpideySMJ]

Sounds messy. Potential for data loss. No other way for me to figure out what mailbox is causing this issue?

 

[dennisbbb]

Another messy way is to build a second site, move all the mailbox to that site, then stop services on the primary site, again, remove the current 40GB priv.edb, restart service, move all mailbox back.

This is a little tedious, since you have to build another exchange server attached as a second site, but the gurranttee is higher that you get all your mailboxes intact.

Good luck.

 

[Kblack0188]

eseutil /ms will tell you how much white space is in the database. When the command finishes you multiple the last number by 4096 at the total will equal the amount of whitespace in bytes.

microsoft kb =

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/195914

 

[SpideySMJ]

Argh...so there's no way to narrow it down to just one mailbox and fix the offending mailbox? I cringe at having to exmerge all 160 mailboxes off that server. *sigh*

 

[Kblack0188]

You can crack open some of the transaction logs in notepad or wordpad ( NOT EDB.LOG LEAVE IT ALONE and view the message headers. The MIME info will be garbage but you can see who is sending the most messages and soforth. MAKE BACKUPS just in case

 

[Kblack0188]

@dennisbbb

You cant move mailboxes between sites in exchange 5.5 so you would want to add another exchange server to the same site.

 

[dennisbbb]

Thanks Kblack0188.

My wordings are a little off in the morning. A second server on the same site will fix a lot of problems, including damaged user mailbox and stuck message headers in which the email has long been deleted. It's worth the effort if you are stuck on not being able to reclaim the white space.

It's is not hard to add this second server. No configuration is needed at all, just as easy as installing another Exchange Administrator. It serves well as a temporary dumping ground for mailboxes. It gurranttees that each user that you swap over is clean cut, the error causing message is left behind. When you are done with recreating a fresh priv.edb on the primary server, simply move them back, and uninstall the second server. There will be no instances that another server ever existed. Do this over the weekend, it will take 4 hours or more.