Running multiple/concurrent exmerge sessions 1

[wallst32]

I currently have a single mailbox server that has 3 stores with mailboxes. I will need to emerge out about 100GB worth of mailboxes for a migration. I've always run a single instance of exmerge and let it run though. But to save time, I was thinking about running another 1 or 2 concurrent exmerge sessions from other Exchange servers in the org over 100mbit LAN.

Has anyone done this before and will there be signifcant time saved? Or will 3 concurrent exmerges have the effect of crippling each other performance-wise?

 

[58sniper]

Assuming you have a good, reliable server, I see no reason NOT to have multiple instances running. Exmerge is multi-threaded, so it can handle four mailboxes at a time for each instance running.

It would be better, though, if you had a 1GB link, but....

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[xmsre]

I've run 4 to 6 before. The limiting factors are bandwidth and disk. Watch your physical disk avg sec/read and avg sec/write on the source as you add instances. You can monitor your network utilization with perfmon or just do it with task manager. You want your disk times under 20ms or users will start to get the dreaded "requesting data" dialog.

 

[TechyMcSe2k]

58Sniper is correct. you can choose all of the mailboxes you want to migrate and exchange will thread 4 simultaneous migration at a time. just make sure you turn on failure logs just in case a mailbox gives you an issue.

Cliff, MCSE/MCSA/MCTS/CCNA/VCP/CCA

http://www.samtechconsulting.com

 

[wallst32]

Thanks for the feedback. This process would be done at an off hour so any network and system resources should be free as they ever will be.

Very good point about exmerge being multi-threaded. I knew that from past experience, but it didn't immediately come to mind when I thought of running multiple instances of Exmerge. I can already see this saving time because the smaller mailboxes will finish quickly, and multiple instances will keep the thread count higher at all times on average.

 

[58sniper]

Just out of curiosity, what kind of migration are you doing?

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/