telefunken
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Exchange database grows by 50% after restore! C: dirve ready to burst low on space!!!
First let me start with a reference to a previous question here: https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/27375705/Exchange-2003-SP1-No-Incoming-Mail-Outgoing-Mail-works.html?cid=239&anchorAnswerId=36903811#a36903811
We had a catastrophic failure of our array last week, glad to say after the restore we are up and running now! However we had some trouble getting the client e-mails working. I had to delete the client OST files locally then relaunch Outlook and download the users mail agian, all went well until I arrived this morning and found 2 problems. First and probably the biggest problem, my C: drive is almost full. Yesterday I had almost 4GB of space available, today I have 350MB~!!!
I searched for files by size and date modified and found over 1000 log files in the MDBDATA directory on the C: drive that had either been created or modified yesterday, with a total size of over 5GB! Also on my D: drive the size of the Exchange database grew by around 50% !
So the question is what can I do to free up space on the C: drive pronto, and what can I do to reduce the size of the Exchange database (I also would like to know what caused it to grow so much!)
Thanks for your input,
Telefunken
We had a catastrophic failure of our array last week, glad to say after the restore we are up and running now! However we had some trouble getting the client e-mails working. I had to delete the client OST files locally then relaunch Outlook and download the users mail agian, all went well until I arrived this morning and found 2 problems. First and probably the biggest problem, my C: drive is almost full. Yesterday I had almost 4GB of space available, today I have 350MB~!!!
I searched for files by size and date modified and found over 1000 log files in the MDBDATA directory on the C: drive that had either been created or modified yesterday, with a total size of over 5GB! Also on my D: drive the size of the Exchange database grew by around 50% !
So the question is what can I do to free up space on the C: drive pronto, and what can I do to reduce the size of the Exchange database (I also would like to know what caused it to grow so much!)
Thanks for your input,
Telefunken
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ASKER
I moved the log file location, but the clients remain offline. Do I need to restart a service or something to get Exchange back online?
Sorry to ask a stupid question Andy, but I assume your talking about an Exchange manager task "backing up" the DB? How do I use exchange manager to backup the DB?
Nate
Sorry to ask a stupid question Andy, but I assume your talking about an Exchange manager task "backing up" the DB? How do I use exchange manager to backup the DB?
Nate
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ASKER
Would the ntbackup utility be considered an "exchange aware" program? If not I don't currently have one available. Can I manually get exchange to purge the backups?
Telefunken
Telefunken
ASKER
All,
The crisis appears to have been averted for the time being. I will review the posts and links and get back to this thread when I have completed things. I will post any additional questions and award the points shortly.
Thanks again,
Telefunken
The crisis appears to have been averted for the time being. I will review the posts and links and get back to this thread when I have completed things. I will post any additional questions and award the points shortly.
Thanks again,
Telefunken
Good news. Well done.
For your space problem then you should check the event log and see the reported space available after the built-in on-line defragment finishes (by default it will run every day).
If you need to free more space then you will need to have users delete old email or archive it to a PST file.
Then after that you can check the reported free space available (check the event log).
You may have to reduced the Deleted Item retension time period for the space to show up.
Then you can use the ESEUTIL to defragment the database which will shrink/compact the file. You will need up to 110% of free space for the temp db file use during this procedure. It is possible to use a USB disk for the temp db folder location if you don't have disk space available.
If you need to free more space then you will need to have users delete old email or archive it to a PST file.
Then after that you can check the reported free space available (check the event log).
You may have to reduced the Deleted Item retension time period for the space to show up.
Then you can use the ESEUTIL to defragment the database which will shrink/compact the file. You will need up to 110% of free space for the temp db file use during this procedure. It is possible to use a USB disk for the temp db folder location if you don't have disk space available.
On the database space problem it's likely the restore broke single instance storage which would happen if you restored individual mails rather than a complete DB restore.
ASKER
I will look into your suggestions. I hate to say it but the situation on the D: drive isn't much better with respect to available space, there is only a bit over 6GB of space available at this time (yesterday that was over 12GB before the database size grew)
Telefunken