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First Storage on nearly full C: drive

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First Storage on nearly full C: drive - 4.Jun.2008 5:46:27 AM

ramram49

Posts: 20
Joined: 26.Nov.2007
Status: offline

I suppose this question has been asked before.^^

I have my First storage on the C drive of the Exchange Server 2003. As you expected, the C: drive is running out of disk space. It is not due to the mailboxes that oversize. This Exchange server is acted as a mail hub, so it receives from and sends mails to the Internet as well as other Exchange servers in other sites of our corp. Thus the log files growth very fast, but after a backup, they all gone. However, it grows to about 1gb every day...while the C: drive remains only 1.2GB.

I know that I can move the log and database to the D: drive, but it will dismount the store.

My concerns:

1) What will happen to the SMTP mail that sending in to this Exchange Server? Will it be in the queue of the Exchange server and then get delivered after the First storage is re-mounted?

2) Should I stop any service before the removal (such as SMTP, MTA)?

3) May I share your hints if you have the similar experience?

Our Exchange environment is very small, so the server hardware is not a very high-end one. It is a Pentium 1.5GB with 1GB ram. The MDBDATA consists only 3GB data (with logs). How long will it take to complete the removal.

Many thanks .... in advance.

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RE: First Storage on nearly full C: drive - 4.Jun.2008 9:31:27 AM

uemurad

Posts: 5343
Joined: 7.Jan.2004
From: California, USA
Status: online

I'm trying to understand your environment before proposing a solution.

Are you saying that this server also hosts mailboxes and/or public folders? How big are the EDB and STM files?

How are you directing all the inbound mail to this server? Does it host the IP address of your MX record(s)?

How many servers are in your organization? How many routing groups?

_____________________________

Regards,

Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com

(in reply to ramram49)

Post #: 2

RE: First Storage on nearly full C: drive - 4.Jun.2008 11:19:51 AM

ramram49

Posts: 20
Joined: 26.Nov.2007
Status: offline

uemurad,

Thanks for your reply.

My environment is quite simple. The server does host mailboxes and public folders. However, all users' mailboxes are on another mail storage that is residing on D: drive from the very beginning. What left in the First Storage is the Exchange Admin, Administrator, etc. The EDB and STM files are not big, about 1.7GB and 800MB respectively. As it is the hub server, all Internet and inter-site emails would go through it, and i think it is the reason that the log files grow quickly.

For the inbound Internet emails, we have another spam control server connected to the Internet. After filtering, the emails will be forwarded to that Exchange server. Therefore, it is not the outmost server.

We have five sites, each has one Exchange server in the local office, plus a Front-end server in the hub-site. There is only one Routing group in each site. All emails from other sites route to the hub server (the one we are concerning about) and the go either to the Internet or other Exchange server.

Again, thanks.

(in reply to uemurad)

Post #: 3

RE: First Storage on nearly full C: drive - 4.Jun.2008 1:04:38 PM

uemurad

Posts: 5343
Joined: 7.Jan.2004
From: California, USA
Status: online

Nicely detailed explanation. Let's get to your questions...

quote:

What will happen to the SMTP mail that sending in to this Exchange Server? Will it be in the queue of the Exchange server and then get delivered after the First storage is re-mounted?

quote:

For the inbound Internet emails, we have another spam control server connected to the Internet. After filtering, the emails will be forwarded to that Exchange server. Therefore, it is not the outmost server.

The answer could be simple if your spam control has the ability to queue the inbound messages. What happens now if it is unable to contact the Exchange hub? Do the messages queue, or do they bounce?

If they bounce, then you can dismount the stores you need to move but leave all the Exchange and IIS services running on that server. The SMTP service will continue to receive the messages, and queue up any that are destined for the dismounted store.

If they queue, then you can plan to do whatever you need to on the server, including stopping all the services should it become necessary.

_____________________________

Regards,

Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com

(in reply to ramram49)

Post #: 4

RE: First Storage on nearly full C: drive - 4.Jun.2008 7:06:20 PM

ramram49

Posts: 20
Joined: 26.Nov.2007
Status: offline

uemurad,

I can stop the spam control server delivery queue and the messages should be queued in that server.

Do you mean that the inter-site messages will be held in the SMTP queue of the Exchange server as well? If so, I can have the store dismounted without stopping any services

(in reply to uemurad)

Post #: 5

RE: First Storage on nearly full C: drive - 9.Jun.2008 9:54:22 AM

ramram49

Posts: 20
Joined: 26.Nov.2007
Status: offline

I have moved the Log files only. It moved very fast, as it moved the whole files, not record by record.

May I ask if I move the database files (i.e. the MDB and STM files), are the whole files being moved? or mail by mail?

If it is moved mail by mail (or thread by thread, one after another), I am afraid it would take a very long time. On the contrary, moving the few files directly from one drive to another is much faster (as they are about 2gb in total).

Thanks

(in reply to ramram49)

Post #: 6

RE: First Storage on nearly full C: drive - 24.Jun.2008 5:01:43 AM

ramram49

Posts: 20
Joined: 26.Nov.2007
Status: offline

I have moved the EDB and STM files to the drive D. Just want to share my little experience:

- The movement does not take too long, probably our database is not big (about 2GB). It has taken about 15 minutes in total.
- The movement of the STM file is much slower than that of the EDB file. The EDB file was moved first, then the STM file. I could find the EDB file in place of the new drive very fast (within 5 minutes). Then, I have to wait for about 10 minutes before I found the STM file.
- The SMTP queue did not stop during the movement. It worked almost the same as usual.

Regards.

(in reply to ramram49)

Post #: 7