Mailbox databse has been grwoing very quickly

I would start looking at mailbox file sizes. People aren't just sending mail, they're sending attachments of unusual size (AOUS's). Inconceivable!

If someone's sending a photo album or music, that could be it.

Awesome.  I know how to check mailbox sizes but how can I check and see whether or not they're sending huge attachments?

You could also log into the Exhcnage management console, Toolbox, Message tracker and check some users to see if someing is sending or receiving a ton of mail based on specific critera you enter.

Also, run the Exchange Best Pracices Analyzer

using the script here  http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/bb94b422-eb9e-4c53-a454-f7da6ddfb5d6

you can parse all the message tracking logs for a period and check who has sent how many emails and what size they were that should help you track down if there are paritucalr users sending large emails

There seems to e an error with that script on Line 91 Char 12,  any other suggestions?

NVM got it to work, not seeing anything out of the ordinary.  My largest mailbox is 1GB, so I'm thinking this database may just be swollen and needs to either be defragged or rebuilt.  Am I on the right track here?

Can you upload a working copy of that script? I'd like to test it myself. It lookslike a great idea.

There is no way to reclaim whitespace in the database.In order to get the freespace back, yYou will need to create a second mailbox database and perform a mailbox move then delete the old db.

In Exchange 2003, we ran on off-line defrag to reclain free space. I think you run the same process  with 2010.

taken from:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2012/01/30/3470667.aspx


How can I reclaim the whitespace?

Naturally, after seeing the available whitespace in the database, the question that always ensues is – how can I reclaim the whitespace?

Many assume the answer is to perform an offline defragmentation of the database using ESEUTIL. However, that's not our recommendation. When you perform an offline defragmentation you create an entirely brand new database and the operations performed to create this new database are not logged in transaction logs. The new database also has a new database signature, which means that you invalidate the database copies associated with this database.

In the event that you do encounter a database that has significant whitespace and you don't expect that normal operations will reclaim it, our recommendation is:

    Create a new database and associated database copies.
    Move all mailboxes to the new database.
    Delete the original database and its associated database copies.

is it actually the database or the logs that are filling up?

have backups run recently and succesfully

also check these two settings

Get-MailboxDatabase dbname | fl recoverable*
Get-MailboxDatabase dbname| fl *retention*

just double checking you got the script running ok - i had a few issues with UK date format let me know and i can get the working copy i have uploaded

It's the databases.  We have circular logging enabled (not my cal, my superiors, so I can't change that)  the retention and recoverable settings are default

That should ave been resolved in the rollup, although that is what I think is happening.  I will run creating a new DB by my boss and see what he says

Are there any updates that could have caused this?

Turns out a Service Pack was remove while I was on vacation.  heads will roll....