Exchange 2003 Std Offline defragmentation needed?
Last weekend I tried an offline defragmentation of my now 72,9 GB (edb and stm file combined) large Private mailstore. As I never done it before I went in to it with great expectations. I started the offline defragmentation (with a good back-up of course) at 11pm and I expected to finish around 7am the next morning.
Well that wasn't exactly the case. The defragmentation was still at around 25%. I have to admit that this was with the /d /p options set and the defragmented store was saved on an external harddisk. For the second try I will use and IDE attached harddisk to speed things up.
So i cancelled the defragmentation en mounted the back-up mailstores.
The database physical size is as following:
priv1.edb = 50.001.800kb
priv1.stm = 26.480.648kb
Together the store size is around 73GB. The limit of the database is 75GB. Event id 1221 shows me that there is 9249 megabytes of white space in the database after an online defragmentation.
Now for my question. Is it in this case beneficial to perform an offline defragmentation and how long should I expect it to complete the defragmentation.
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Thank you all for the quick replys.
Rajith, is it possible to create multiple stores in exchange 2003 Std ? I cannot create another one. I get an error that the group already contains the maximum number of stores allowed.
Rajith, is it possible to create multiple stores in exchange 2003 Std ? I cannot create another one. I get an error that the group already contains the maximum number of stores allowed.
Oh! For 2003 standard, you can't have more than one store. Your option is to either upgrade to 2003 enterprise or 2007 standard (which supports 5 mailbox databases max).
Rajith.
Rajith.
An offline defrag was a waste of time.
The limit is enforced by a combination of the PHYSICAL size of the store, minus the white space. 75gb is the logical size. Therefore if you have 9gb of white space the store can go to 84gb before the store dismounts. Even then, an offline defrag would be a waste of time unless data is removed from the store.
On that size store, you should have worked on the worst case scenario for an offline defrag - 72gb, so 72 hours. Three days. Anything less is a bonus in my eyes.
The progress bar can also be ignored - it isn't reliable due to the way the offline defrag works.
Simon.
The limit is enforced by a combination of the PHYSICAL size of the store, minus the white space. 75gb is the logical size. Therefore if you have 9gb of white space the store can go to 84gb before the store dismounts. Even then, an offline defrag would be a waste of time unless data is removed from the store.
On that size store, you should have worked on the worst case scenario for an offline defrag - 72gb, so 72 hours. Three days. Anything less is a bonus in my eyes.
The progress bar can also be ignored - it isn't reliable due to the way the offline defrag works.
Simon.
ASKER
Simon,
Thank your for your Reply. This is very helpfull. So you are saying that the store will not dismount at the 75gb limit but at 84gb ? Are you sure about this? Because i have some experience with stores that were 18gb that got dismounted because that is default limit if i'm correct for exchange 2003.
So now i set the limit to 75gb in the registry for our exchange 2003 sp2 server. Your saying that the store wil not dismount? The log entries say something else.
Thank your for your Reply. This is very helpfull. So you are saying that the store will not dismount at the 75gb limit but at 84gb ? Are you sure about this? Because i have some experience with stores that were 18gb that got dismounted because that is default limit if i'm correct for exchange 2003.
So now i set the limit to 75gb in the registry for our exchange 2003 sp2 server. Your saying that the store wil not dismount? The log entries say something else.
The event log reports the logical size.
Therefore if the event log says the store is 72gb then it will dismount when that number hits 75gb. However that may mean the physical size of the store goes over 75gb.
Simon.
Therefore if the event log says the store is 72gb then it will dismount when that number hits 75gb. However that may mean the physical size of the store goes over 75gb.
Simon.
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performing a defrag may be beneficial in your situation as you are quite close to the 75GB limit.
the defrag can take anywhere from 1GB/hour to 5GB/hour depending on your hardware