Reduce size of the private info store 1

[cdcents]

The private info store on a server was growing too big. Some mailboxes were humongous. So I cleaned up the older files on the mailboxes and the resources used by the mailboxes dropped correspondingly. But the size of the info store has not reduced at all. I expected it to shrink overnight after the maintenance ran but this did not happen.How do I get the info store to shrink. My hard disk should fill up in a week if nothing happens. Platform Win 2K advanced server and Exchange 5.5. All users store mail on server than locally on their PC's using IMAP folders to access their mail rather than POP. The mailboxes now use only a quarter of what they used to before my clean up.

 

[Zelandakh]

Check in Exch Admin to see if they really are using small amounts of space. If you have Exch 5.5 then it should be automatic. Exch 5 used to require edbutil to reclaim the space that was deleted.

Need to cut down the deleted item retention time which may well help. If they sit in the bin but don't time out then the store size won't go down.

 

[Warcorp]

With SP3 and greater a utility called eseutil.exe will take care of this. As you remove data it will not reduce the size of the private store since Exchange simply updates the index and does a minor clear for the database page themselves. Running the eseutil.exe in defragment mode will take care of the empty spaces. Make sure you have a valid restoreable copy of the DB before you try and use the eseutil program since it is extremely invasive. Here is the MS Support link regarding using eseutil to defragment an Exchange DB:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q192/1/85.ASP

 

[cdcents]

Thanks for the info. Indeed ESEUtil (the succesor of EDBUTIL) does the trick. Unfortunately I cannot use it in the present circumstances since I do not have enough disk space to hold both the defragged version and the current store. If possible I will have to add some disk. Sometimes it is better to keep on top of this always rather than let some junior admins take care of something and ignore it. Thanks anyways

 

[Warcorp]

You can move the private store to another machine to do the defrag. There is a Q article (Don't have it with me) regarding runing eseutil on a server that does not have Exchange..... You could copy, defrag, and replace.... Just a thought.

 

[Zelandakh]

Apologies, I did mean eseutil.

Exch 5.5 in fact runs eseutil itself as part of the on line defrag that should be running regularly (check event viewer).

 

[majmojo]

The online defrag that runs (usually at night, event ID 1221) only reorganizes the free space...it doens't actually reduce the size of the DB. To remove the "white space" you will need to run the eseutil while offline.
If you have another NT server with enough disk space, you can map a drive to it from the Exchange server and then using the /t switch select where to rebuild the temporary DB.
mojo

 

[Zelandakh]

I thought I had read that deleted space gets recaimed automatically in Ex5.5 which was the significant upgrade from 5.0.

If that is not right, maybe I should do the same thing to my store. Warcorp - wanna make an idiot proof FAQ? It has to be simple enough that even I can do it...

 

[cdcents]

Yes Z the space does not automatically get reclaimed on the automatic nightly maintenance runs. You have to run the defrag offline to reclaim space.

 

[Warcorp]

Yeah, I'll post a faq in the next few days,,,

 

[Wibble]

the online cleanup removes items past their retention period and reallocates space etc.....this as mentioned by majmomo does reduce the total size of the priv. Either run the offline defrag or a safer option is to invest in disk space and increase your array size!!