Exchange 2010 database size

Let me ask you this
Do you have archiving or journaling setup ?

is your database also backing *that* ?

unless it is configured by default.... I dont know...

archiving does not seem to be enabled on recipient mail boxes

These are not default settings.

Do you have any archiving tools / journal servers setup.
Check Server Config > mailbox > First storage group > Properties
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Exchange-Server-2007-Using-Journaling-Rules.html

On EMC
Recipient config > Mailbox
Right click on any mailbox Go to Mailbox Properties
Is there an Archive Role
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Exchange-Server-2007-Using-Journaling-Rules.html

External Archiving Tools like Symantec Enterprise Vault / GFI Mail Archiver.

can you check the programs installed on start > Programs > All Programs.

--
OR spam ?

it does not seem to be enabled. I do not have third party programs archiving.

Anything on eventvwr

Error / warning - under application ?
this is strange.

If we cannot find anything on exchange side, we have to look for errors in the backup side.
Are you using BackupExec ? Whcih version ?

thanks

I am useing acronis for my backups, I take full system images every night.

I will check the eventvwr again

I just used the power shell to get a list of all of my users email boxes, like I said before I only have about 50 users, out of those 50 users/accounts only 6 have a mail box over 1 GB, biggest is 2gb.

This is new..

event id: 906
Level: warning

Information Store (4512) A significant portion of the database buffer cache has been written out to the system paging file.  This may result in severe performance degradation.
See help link for complete details of possible causes.
Resident cache has fallen by 7606 buffers (or 23%) in the last 49009 seconds.
Current Total Percent Resident: 76% (25075 of 32682 buffers)

i am thinking that my backups are not running correctly

I saw that error somewhere else today. Same ESE 906.
Can you clear the logs - restart the server and monitor it. (Save logs before you clear it)

I am going to research this further.

thanks

Your is going to bigger than 2003/2007 because Exchange 2010 is doing away with Single Instance to better support DAG and replication.

I would recommend archiving software such as Symantec Enterprise Vault

EventID: 906 /Source:ESe

How much RAM do you have on the server ?

Please go here
Exchange Management console
Toolbox > Best Practices analyzer
Run a health scan

See what that uncovers.

I think i understand what is going on here.

the .log files (transaction logs) are exactly 1Gb in size, my exchange folder has few thousand of these transaction logs.

I need to be able to import these transaction logs into the database, my backup software is taking an image everynight, it is not 'defraging' the database so the files keep growing and growing.

I think that if I use EMC retrospect, Symantec backup exec, or even ntbackup to backup this database it should defrag the database....  if not it looks like I will need to dismount the database and run the Eseutil /d command.....


I am going to try this first, I fear that the event log is a false positive.

What backup software are you using ?
did you set this up to > Flush logs after backup completes ?

its taking a long time becuase the programs that I have do not support exchange 2010....  acronis, and EMC Retrospect. even the built in windows backup program is sucking rightnow....  

dont know if these guys are messing it up.

Did you try BackupExec 12.5 ?

I downloaded Symantec Backup Exec 2010R2 trial, I have installed it and running it now.

the Database is now about 60GB and the log files total over 300 Gb. I think that the backupexec will migrate the transaction logs into the database...  I will update this case soon. (I expect the backup to run for about 6~8 hours)

When you run BackupExec - make sure you select commit logs and flush @ in backup settings.

That way all your 300 GB of logs will be committed and deleted.

60 GB = overnight I think

I am seeing the same error logs on my Exchange 2010 server but I do have the Flush Logs selected in Backup Exec 2010. This is a brand new build and we migrated from Exchange 2007 to 2010.

This worked for our enviroment.

Hi all-
 simply using Windows Backup on this server and doing a FULL VSS backup will flush the logs to the database correctly. Cutting these log files is not a good idea. Exchange needs to know it has a good backup of these before they are deleted. I run vmware and PHD virtual for imaging backup, but still use the Windows Backup to flush these and have a spare backup of the mailbox database.