Exchange 2010 EDB files growing exponenetially

You may have a user who has a POP3 account that is pulling mail from an Exchange mailbox and then delivering the messages to the Exchange mailbox, causing a loop.

Are you using POP3 on your server?

Please have a read of the following article for details of how to backups your Exchange server properly and purge the Exchange log files:

https://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Server_Software/Email_Servers/Exchange/A_2452-Backing-up-Exchange-2010-Information-Store-using-Windows-Backup.html

You definitely want to resolve your backup issues first as Alan pointed out, however once thats done if you are still seeing a large amount of growth then look at the following;

There was an issue where iPhones caused runaway transactions logs and I believe it was resolved with IOS 4.0.1. http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/06/30/455342.aspx

If you have users with iPhones or Smart Phones using ActiveSync then one of the quickest ways to see if this is the issue is to have users shot those phones off to see if the problem is resolved.  If it is one or more iPhones then perhaps look at what IOS they are on and get them to update to the latest version or adjust the activesynce connection timeout.  Although I personally would want to know where it came from first.

If its not the above then perhaps this will help you track down the cause http://blogs.msdn.com/b/scottos/archive/2007/07/12/rough-and-tough-guide-to-identifying-patterns-in-ese-transaction-log-files.aspx?PageIndex=2#comments 

You should also check out ExMon since you can use it to confirm which mailbox is unusually active , and then take the appropriate action.
 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyId=9A49C22E-E0C7-4B7C-ACEF-729D48AF7BC9&displaylang=en  

@ AlanHardisty
I have tried that backup method & im still getting the error saying " backup failed and was unable to remove or delete logs" something to that effect

We are not using a POP3 server. The only thing close to that is we have yahoo contacts that we forward emails to.

@ Lucid8
We have always had Iphones pulling email from exchange 2003 b4 upgrading to exchange 2010. so i don't see why that would start happening now. I'll try to follow the links you gave me.

Regarding your backups;

1. What product are you using to backup the databases?

2. If its not the MS WBAdmin I would suggest you stop the services of whatever product you are using and change over to the WBAdmin until you get that working

3. Before you start lets check to see if your VSS writers are having an issue so
3.a Open Powershell
3.b Run "VSSadmin List Writers"
3.c examine the results and see if there are any errors, if so then you need to resolve those issues first.

4. If your VSS writers are all ok then here is a decent overview of how to use WBadmin and I would suggest that you get this working before working with a 3rd party backup product.
http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2010/high-availability-recovery/uncovering-new-exchange-2010-volume-snapshot-vss-plug-in-part1.html

Please note if you place database file and logs in two different disks, you should select both to backup, otherwise the logs will not be truncated.

More information on troubleshooting VSS issues which occur with Windows Server Backup (WBADMIN) on Windows Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee692290(WS.10).aspx

Regarding the iPhones issue, just because it was running fine in 2003 doesn't mean it will not cause a problem in 2010.  Biggest thing is to ensure your iPhones users are using the latest IOS.  Could of course be something different and if so the other links I sent you should be helpful

@Lucid
i run the "VSSadmin List Writers" it was free of any errors so that part is good.
I have been using wb admin to backup the databases. been following the same steps outlined in the artilcle but no success. I have a w2k8 enterprise 64bit OS with Ex2010 enterprise not sure if that is what is different.
But my logs re not getting truncated.

Are there any errors in the Application Event log around the time of the backup that might show a problem somewhere?

1. How much space are the Logs currently taking up?
2. When was the last time you had a good backup?
3. Were you ever using another Backup Product?
4. As Alan asked, whats happening in the application logs during the time of the backup?
5. What is the specific error you are getting from the backup when it fails?

1)at least 40 GB for each database
2) like 3 dayas ago
3) I have been using windows server backup, until 2 weeks ago when i started using DPM but is is finding some of the databases in inconsistent state
4) it shows backups go through fine
5)when i backup the whole disk with the databases it goes through fine. bus as soon as i try to backup the information store ore just the mailbox folder it errors saying the "the backup failed and could delete or remove some of the logs"

What can i do to reduce the size of my databases? i have a DAG cluster so maybe if i can defrag the databases on one of the servers then once that is done switch databases to the other and then defrag the other.
can you please provide me with a step by step instructions on this issue?

thanks!

I think the main issue here is to get your logs under control since they are taking up a large amount of space and I see no reason to do a defrag at this time since as you say you have 40GB of LOGS per database, correct?

DPM
When you say you are trying to backup the information store or mailbox folder are you doing this as a file level backup?  Sounds like thats what you are doing since to backup exchange you would backup the Information Store but you would not point to the location of the physical files.

WBADMIN
1. when you used WBAdmin did you have it setup to truncate the logs?
2. If yes to # 1 I assume it was working properly?
3. If Yes to # 2 then I would suggest that the first thing you do is use WBAdmin to backup and truncate the logs to get them under control and then we come back to DPM

none of the other solutions fixed it