PRIV.EDB

[nibarge]

Help:-

I have a 17GB partition storing my PRIV.EDB file. I have only 147 users, all with mailbox limits set to 10MB ( some users have over 10MB, but they are locked from sending ). Currently my PRIV.EDB file is 16GB, which to me does not make sense, as 147 * 10MB does not equal 16GB. Two questions

1. What is stored in the PRIV.EDB file.
2. How can I reduce the size of this file.

Any help in this matter will be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[valdena]

When you view Mailboxes in Exchange System Manager, the Size parameter shows you only the message size, but the database also contains the message folder tables and view tables information. When you view the size of the Priv.edb database file, the table information is included in the reported size.

Your priv.edb may also need an edbutil defrag as deleting mailboxes does not create further space but just leaves a hole. Any new mailboxes added would slot into the space made but the database may still need a defrag which would decrease it's size.
However bear in mind that in order to run the edbutil /d command on the computer you need hard disk drive space that is greater than twice the size of the Priv.edb file!

 

[valdena]

Sorry should have added - pls refer to the article below for full info on the edbutil as can be a tricky thing:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;259851

 

[nibarge]

Thnaks for the information, I think I nned to bite the bullet, schedule downtime, and run the utility, but I have one more question. I have imformed my users to clean out their mailboxes, which they are doing at the moment, byt the PRIV.EDB file appears to be growing, rather then staying at a constant size. Why ????

 

[valdena]

Unfortunately the priv.edb will never reduce in size regardless of what is deleted, it will only increase as new messages are received/sent and new mailboxes created.
So although they may be creating holes as such within the database, these would soon get filled with any new items and once these holes are filled the database will continue to increase.
Only way to try to reduce its size is to bite that bullet and try a defrag.

An amendment to my earlier posts though - been looking further into the utilities available and it looks like the ESEUTIL would be better than the edbutil, think edbutil may be more of a disaster recovery type tool pls see article below for more info on eseutil use:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q192185

 

[nibarge]

I have run my defrag on my database, and the size has now gone from 16GB to 800 MB !!!!!!!!!!!!

My question now is, will this file continue to grow to the 16GB, or will it stablise at some sort of size somewhere between the 800MB and 16GB ????

 

[Zelandakh]

Check the event viewer and check the 1220 events. The file will grow for a while but if you are on line defragging regularly then it should reach a max then stay static.