jhuntii
asked on
Exchange database very large, user mailboxes small
Hello all:
I have an Exchange 2003 database that is 81 GB in size according to event ID 1216. There is also 7 GB of free space, so the effectual size should be 74 GB. When we add up the total space used by all mailboxes in System Manager, they add up to only about 35 GB. Our retentions are set to 0 days (both for deleted items and mailboxes) and mailbox manager runs each night at 2:00 am. Wait for next backup check box is unchecked. So, why doesn't the database drop in size, and why don't we see more white space??
The server is 2003 standard, single domain, single Exchange server environment.
I have an Exchange 2003 database that is 81 GB in size according to event ID 1216. There is also 7 GB of free space, so the effectual size should be 74 GB. When we add up the total space used by all mailboxes in System Manager, they add up to only about 35 GB. Our retentions are set to 0 days (both for deleted items and mailboxes) and mailbox manager runs each night at 2:00 am. Wait for next backup check box is unchecked. So, why doesn't the database drop in size, and why don't we see more white space??
The server is 2003 standard, single domain, single Exchange server environment.
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augwest
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328804
Another person doing the add up the mailboxes and expecting the result to match.
It will not. Never will.
ESM does not show you the true size of the mailbox. It only shows you part of the database. Therefore adding up the sizes of the mailbox will not match the size of the files.
The reason for this is in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828070/
"... a mailbox may appear to use only 250 MB of space in Exchange System Manager, but the total space that the mailbox uses may be 450 MB. This difference occurs because the 200 MB of space that the Priv.stm file uses does not appear in Exchange System Manager."
Therefore it is perfectly possible for the sizes in the store to be very different from what you expect.
An offline defrag is going to be a waste of time, because you only have 7gb of white space in the store.
Simon.
It will not. Never will.
ESM does not show you the true size of the mailbox. It only shows you part of the database. Therefore adding up the sizes of the mailbox will not match the size of the files.
The reason for this is in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828070/
"... a mailbox may appear to use only 250 MB of space in Exchange System Manager, but the total space that the mailbox uses may be 450 MB. This difference occurs because the 200 MB of space that the Priv.stm file uses does not appear in Exchange System Manager."
Therefore it is perfectly possible for the sizes in the store to be very different from what you expect.
An offline defrag is going to be a waste of time, because you only have 7gb of white space in the store.
Simon.
ASKER
So would having the physical size at 81 GB cause us problems? Or would this only happen if 81 less the white space was greater than 75 - at which point the store would dismount on a regular basis. (That's how I understand it...) So, even if we archived everyone's email to their local drive and had 0 email and 0 attachments in Inbox, sent, deleted, etc. the database size would still be 81 GB but with 81 GB of free space?? Would the backup still back up 81 GB of blank space??
Would the physical size being greater than 75 GB cause slow downs for users in Outlook??? We've seen some severe slow downs over the past few weeks and we're trying to fix it. We do have plenty of disk space on external drives.
Does priv1.stm contain the attachments? We have a lot of attachments. Priv1.edb is 27.2 GB, Priv.stm is 59.6 GB.
Would the physical size being greater than 75 GB cause slow downs for users in Outlook??? We've seen some severe slow downs over the past few weeks and we're trying to fix it. We do have plenty of disk space on external drives.
Does priv1.stm contain the attachments? We have a lot of attachments. Priv1.edb is 27.2 GB, Priv.stm is 59.6 GB.
ASKER
And, I get about 20 or so .IFS files per day on the MDBDATA folder. What are these for? Do I need them or can get rid of them?? -Thanks.
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