Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of suzyreid
suzyreid

asked on

Sizing for Storage groups

hello

running E2k on W2k box. Only one storage group created with all users in it - about 200. Priv1.edb is about 13GB. We have loads of free HD space.

What is the recomendation for the number of users/ EDB size per Storage Group. I have to setup more users next week so should I start thinking about creating a second storage group or will the existing one work okay?

Just looking for some advice on the nest way forward. Is there anything else I need to take into account if I create this second storage group??

Thanks in advance

Suzanne
Avatar of ktuffner00
ktuffner00

what version of exchange 2000 are u rinning?  standard only supports one mailbox store and a store up to 16gb and four public folder stores.  exntewrpise supports up to 20 mailbox stores or public folder stores and the storage group or information store is can go to the tb if im not mistake.
Suzy,

MS recommends a 35gb limit, although that doesn't appear to be set in stone. See the following for more info:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;319583

I believe the practical limit has more to do with the amount of time it will take to do a restore. I try not to let my stores get much over 20gb, as it starts taking a fair amount of time to do a restore. The methods of backup/restore you use will cause this amount of time to vary greatly. Do a practice restore on with your current database to get a better idea of how long it would take. Below are notes on how to build a recovery server to do a single mailbox restore, should be a good test for you.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=813337


In the Enterprise version, you can have up to 4 storage groups, and you can have up to 5 information stores in each group. See the following for more detail:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;296614

Feel free to look over the above articles and ask more ?'s, etc. You may need to determine whether you have the standard or Enterprise version before moving forward. If you have the standard version you are coming very close to hitting your 16gb database size limit. You really don't want to let that happen. Try creating another storage group. If it won't let you, you've got the standard version.

hth,
Kris.



Avatar of suzyreid

ASKER

Thanks for all the advice so far. We are running Enterprise version of Exchange 2000.

Previously I had let the DB get up to 16GB - the size made it very difficult to do offline defrags etc. Had to restore this Db last year and the process took a long time.

The edb is sitting on a 74GB hard disk and I regularly do offline defrags, and enfore mailbox limits to keep the size down. I see from the article that MS recommends a 35Gb limit per store - but that seems very large.

I'm keen to avoid any future hassle and make any restores/maintenance as easy as possible! What do you think - at this point should I create a second storage group and create the new users in there or do as MS recommends and let the existing DB increase?

thanks again.
Will respond tomorrow, I'm off to my bowling league!
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of kristinaw
kristinaw
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Thanx for the help Kris.

Very useful!