Exchange 2003 Database size Problem

Have you tried to defrag the database?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328804

eseutil /d  will compact the exchange database

Check out the article above.

Yes I have, it ran but didn't compact the physical size of the Db which has remained constant at 81G for the past 8 months without problem. But like I said we only have about 45G of email data

Have you tried with the /p option? this creates a defragmented database file  in a new location

Then see if that file is smaller?

The database size is a Logical Size, not a Physical size and is made up of:

Size of the .EDB file
Size of the .STM file
Minus the space identified in Event ID 1221 in the Application Event Log (White Space)

Check your file sizes, add them together and then subtract the White Space and you get the Logical Size.

If that is close to, or exceeding 75Gb, then you have to reduce the size, upgrade to Exchange 2003 Enterprise or upgrade to Exchange 2007 / 2010 / 2013 which doesn't have the 75Gb limit.

If you are not yet at the 75Gb Logical Size, check your registry key for the limit set there and make sure it is set to 75Gb.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912375

Alan

No I don't remember is we did the p option will that reduce the size?

Alan the Logical size using that is 83G
But the users combined mailboxes is about 45G. I can't figure out where it thinks te other 40 or so G is coming from.

You may have a ton of items waiting to be purged.

Set your database retention and mailbox retention to a lower number (closer to zero) and then wait for the overnight online maintenance to happen and then see what event ID 1221 shows.

http://www.msexchange.org/articles-tutorials/exchange-server-2000/high-availability-recovery/MF022.html

Alan

The sum of the mailboxes on ESM will NEVER equal the size of the database.
That is because ESM only shows you the data from one of the two database sizes. Therefore I suspect that the user's haven't purged as much as you think.

Realistically, once you hit the 75gb limit you will keep hitting it, no matter how much you purge and you should consider upgrading to Exchange 2010 which allwos unlimited (well 8tb) database sizes.

Simon.

Simon,

"Realistically, once you hit the 75gb limit you will keep hitting it, no matter how much you purge"

Doesn't that depend on how big a stick you use to encourage purging :)

Alan

In my experience no.
Once the limit hits there will always be people who insist on keeping the content.
If you need to retain the content for regulatory reasons then you should upgrade. Exporting to PST files is no different to deleting the content.

Simon.

I set that limit to 0 and it didn't decrease the size any over the weekend.

What size did you set to 0?
Exchange database space doesn't come back immediately, it does take some time.
The items have to be deleted from the Dumpster, that happens one night.
Then the next night the free space is released by the online processes. Depending on how much space was released that can take more than one night and might not be reflected in the database size immediately.

Simon.

Check Application Log Event ID 1221 (most recent for the Private Information Store) and see what it shoes as White Space.

Alan

This is the last entry fr event Id 1221

The database "First Storage Group\Mailbox Store (server)" has 36317 megabytes of free space after online defragmentation has terminated.

That's quite a chunk! 36gb of white space.

What are the sizes of your priv1.edb and priv1.stm files?

56G and 29G