Priv.EDB too big - How to compress it?

[davidchardonnet]

Hello,

My company has a priv.edb file which is too big. Do you know how I can compress it? Is there a procedure or something to do this compression safely?

Thank you

David

 

[blubomber]

Which version of exchange? i believe that the utility you are looking for is ESEUTIL.exe. Make sure you back up your database before using this utility and go to microsofts website to get all to info on it as far as switches and options go.

 

[bigdog92]

if you are going to do it from the exchange server you would run eseutil /d priv.edb (or whatever your priv is called). you need to run this from a command prompt. also like said above have a backup of the database. when we say database you will need the priv.edb, pub.edb, and dir.edb

 

[A15]

I have a 28GB Priv.Edb and the only problem that I have is some consistentcy that I repair with eseutil /r....

I am also looking for a way to reduce the size, however I did not find any safe way .....

 

[davidchardonnet]

We use Exchange 5.5.
How to use the ESEUTIL? What command line?
Can I use it when the server is running?

I want to be sure to do it the best way.

 

[justin2000]

davidchardonnet

Even before you run eseutil in any form. check you application log in event viewer for event ID 1221 from source ms exchange is - this tells you the amount of whitespace is in the store - if it's a low amount, don't worry as it won't actually do much.

FYI, exchange "compresses" itself on the fly and cleans and does things all the time to keep itself in check.
exchange also uses single Instance Storage - which allow it to keep one copy of an attachment and then place a marker to it in the actual message. ie. so you send a 10mb file to 20 people, Exchange will only store the 10mb file once, and place a marker to the 20 mailboxes.
Once all 20 people have deleted the message, then the attachment is deleted as well.

My opinion on eseutil - don't run it at all, unless you really really have to.
Though if you must do it, check out MS website on eseutil, in how to run a defrag correctly.

 

[bigdog92]

eseutil will recover more space then the online defrag that exchange does. For info on doing offline backup on a computer without exchange see ms article 244525, but for people doing it on the server see article 192185. these articles are at

http://www.microsoft.com

click on support then knowledge base and search by article id.

: How long does it take to defragment a database?

A: Approximately 10 gigabytes per hour using the ESEUTIL utility.

The databases are defragmented automatically as a background process, so unless the file size of the databases must be reduced, you should not have to run offline compaction (defragmentation with file size reduction).


For consistency i would run isinteg -fix from a command line.

To run the isinteg -patch command
Ensure that the directory and system attendant services are running. If these services are not running, ISINTEG fails, displaying the following message:
DS_COMMUNICATIONS_ERROR

At the command prompt, switch to the Exchsrvr\Bin directory, and then type isinteg -patch. At this point, the GUIDs have been replaced, and the ISINTEG will report that the information store has been updated.
Restart the information store service.

 

[fuego007]

I'm surprised that no one has asked the question 'why is it too big?'. Are you low on disk space, or are you running the standard version of exchange and have an IS approaching 16GB? If you are running low on disk space, you will have to get a larger drive. You cannot compress an Exchange database, and attempting to use NTFS compression will most likely result in database corruption. If you are reaching the 16GB limit, you will either have to get users to move significant amounts of their e-mail to .psts or delete a lot of old messages. If neither of these is an option, you will have to upgrade to the enterprise version of Exchange. This version has no storage limitation.

 

[mattofkt]

Can anyone tell me why my exchange servers priv.edb file has not changed in size? I have had users deleting tons of old mail for the past 2 days, and it has not budged? After a user deletes mail, their mailbox decreases in size but it does not change anything else. I am new to exchange stuff so any tricks of the trade would be appreciated.

 

[dan]

Once files are deleted, the database never shrinks until you do an offline defrag. I run the following batch file with the AT scheduler to do this at 5:00 am. It takes about an hour and a half, but could be longer the first time through. It may need adjustment for the services you are running. Start to stop the system attendant and it will list all services that need to be stopped in the correct order. (Notice my script stops a FaxSrGateway first.) Restart services in reverse order. It might be necessary to stop anti-virus sofware as well, but don't do it until after stopping the MTA. If you are not sure of the names of the services, see services under REGEDIT (CurrentControlSet-Services)


defrag.bat:
date /T >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
time /T >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
echo stopping services >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net stop FaxSrGateway >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net stop MSExchangeIMC >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net stop MSExchangeES >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net stop MSExchangeMTA >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net stop InoRPC >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net stop InoRT >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net stop InoTask >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net stop MSExchangeIS >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net stop MSExchangeDS >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net stop MSExchangeSA >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
time /T >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
rem *c:
rem *cd\exchsrvr\bin
rem isscan -fix -pri -c lovecrit.txt -test badattach
eseutil /d /ISPRIV /lD:\exchsrvr\mdbdata /sC:\exchsrvr\mdbdata /tD:\temp\tempdfrg.edb /o >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
eseutil /d /ISPUB /lD:\exchsrvr\mdbdata /sC:\exchsrvr\mdbdata /tD:\temp\tempdfrg.edb /o >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
time /T >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net start MSExchangeSA >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net start MSExchangeDS >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net start MSExchangeIS >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net start InoTask >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net start InoRT >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net start InoRPC >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net start MSExchangeMTA >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net start MSExchangeES >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net start MSExchangeIMC >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
net start FaxSrGateway >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
date /T >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt
time /T >> c:\winnt\profiles\currentuser\desktop\dump.txt


Dan

 

[bigdog92]

the original user said "the priv is too big" which i then assumed he is using exchange standard with the 16 gig limit. if the priv hits that limit he will have to offline degrag to restart the information store.