offline defrag didn't shrink edb and stm 2

[helsknight]

We are running out of physical space on the exchange server (1.5 gig left). So I thought the best way is to have users archive previous years of emails into PST files on their local hd and do a offline defrag on exchange 2003.

after archiving all the pst files on users hd, I copy them to a network share to backup. Incase their hd crash I'll have a copy. Total PST files of all the users came out to be around 8.8 gig.

priv1.edb is 14.3 gig
priv1.stm is 11.3 gig

I dismount the mailbox store and public folder store. Map a network drive Y:\ to another server with enough room to create new files. I ran the command:

eseutil /d /p "C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA\priv1.edb" /t"y:\tempdfg.edb" /f"y:\tempdfg.stm"

it took 5 hours to complete. After the completion, in drive Y is my new files tempdfg.edb which is 14.1 gig and tempdfg.stm 9.9 gig. I just mounted the original files back. Due to time constraints and a strong suspicion that i did somehting wrong, i didn't want to copy the new files over and rename them.

Where did i go wrong? The PST files came out to be 8 gig and net space saving was 1.4 gig. All the hd slot on the server are used up and I can't expand the hds.

 

[markdmac]

Couple of questions:

1. Did you delete the transaction logs?
2. Can you move transactionlogs to another drive to free space?
3. What is your retention setting for deleted items?
4. Did you instruct users to empty their delted items?


I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

 

[ShackDaddy]

You'd probably want to set the deleted item retention time to zero for a few days, after letting everyone know what you are doing. After a backup and regular scheduled processes, the items that were "deleted" during the move to .pst files will actually be gone, and a subsequent offline defrag should recover a lot more space for you.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[helsknight]

Thanks markdmac and shackdaddy,

I had the user clean their inbox and archive just 3 to 4 days ago. I'll set the retention time to 0 days. Can I delete the transaction logs? Should that be done on a regular basis?

hels

 

[markdmac]

Transaction logs should delete automatically IF you are doing full backups with NTBackup.

If not you will want to verify you can delete the logs by stopping the store first. Then run the following commands
Eseutil /mh priv1.edb
Eseutil /mh pub1.edb
Check for logs needed. If the report shows Logs Required 0/0 then delete all log files.


I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

 

[helsknight]

Markdmac

The log files are relatively small 5 files at 5mb each. Thanks for the commands, I'll check on them later on.

Hels

 

[markdmac]

The logs are always the same size. They are preinitialized at that size and when they actually fill with data a new one is used. Over time they can take up a lot of space if left unchecked and not flushed by a backup.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript