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Can you make an Exchange 2003 6.5 Priv1.edb Priv1.stm database smaller?

I have an exchange server thats database completed filled up the database partition. The database partition is 60GB and the database grew to 60GB. Last night I took the server offline ( well it took itself offiline) and did an ESEUTIL /D and it trimmed about 2GB from the database. Now I have about 2GB of breathing room on the data partition.

Is there anything else I can do to make the priv1.edb and priv1.stm smaller? Does deleting emails make the database smaller?

Please help!!!

Serenade001

Asked: 2010-09-21

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1 Solution

LVL 39

Hypercat (Deb)Commented: 2010-09-21

Deleting emails can make the database smaller over time, but it depends on what settings you have on this server for retention of deleted items. That is something to look into, and if that retention time is very long (i.e., 20 days or more), you might be able to gain a little bit of breathing room by shortening it. You will still need to make sure that on-line defragmentation is running on a regular basis, though, because that space is not regained unless the database is defragged regularly. Normally, the on-line defrag process keeps up with deleted items very effectively.
Unless you severely trim your database, however, it's doubtful you're going to gain enough space on that drive to give you more than a short time before you'll be in the same situation. What you really need to do is move that database to a larger partition. If you don't have a larger partition on that server, then you need to add disk storage to that server so that you have a partition large enough to accommodate the database and anticipated growth. Unless you have the Enterprise edition of Exchange, the maximum database size is 75GB anyway and you can't add another mailbox store, so you may need to look at upgrading your Exchange version some time soon so that you can allow you database to growth beyond the 75GB limit.

Serenade001Author Commented: 2010-09-21

I just changed the Deletion Settings to 1 days for items and 1 day for mailbox. Now if I delete a few old mailboxes, and have users achive all old emails will I see a big reduction in size of the database after 1 day? ( after the retention for deleted items runs).

We have an compliance mailbox where all sent items and received items go to. This mailbox is only access my the owners of the company and it has grown to 28GB. If I achive the whole thing down to a couple .psts and reduce to about 1GB in size.. I should notice a difference in the database size right?

Right now the mail server has no available slots for new drives.. .so I hope this will work

I really appreciate your help on this!!

LVL 39

Hypercat (Deb)Commented: 2010-09-21

If you can remove that much email (28GB) from the database and then wait for the online defrag to run a few times, you should see a significant reduction in the size of the database. Like I said, it might take a few passes of the on-line defrag. Then if that doesn't seem to be reducing the size enough, and if you are sure that any deleted mailboxes and items have been purged, you might want to run the offline defrag process. In order to do this, you'll have to defrag the database on a different drive (one that has at least 120GB of free space), but once defragged you can move it back. Are you familiar with how to do this?

Serenade001Author Commented: 2010-09-21

Yes, I ran an offline Eseutil /d last night.. I was able to shave about 2GB off the database.

Thanks for all your help!!

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