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Offline Defrag? - 27.May2008 6:00:47 PM

Gigabitz

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Joined: 27.May2008
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Ok I have gone through this section over and over and have read some interesting answers and comments on esutil /d and the offline defrag pros/cons. I just do not have the time available to complete an offline defrag. I am wondering? If I create a new mailbox store in storage group 1, move mailboxes from old mailbox store to new mailbox store. Isnt there another step? Other than rebooting to get the system related configs back is that all that is required?

I am in a huge organization that falls under SOX and to make things worse I have a CIO who doesnt want users to have to worry about storage so I cant lock them down to a specific mailbox quota, they allow pst's, and have the latest and greatest archiving....I have tried everything to get the CIO to let me lock MB sizes down to no avail. Any suggestions on how to get him to see things my way since our 10TB EMC SAN fiber attached has tanked twice...lol 18 VIP's have 20GB boxes and blackberry mail hits before outlook. Living the dream I guess

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RE: Offline Defrag? - 27.May2008 6:07:37 PM

mark@mvps.org

Posts: 3762
Joined: 9.Jun.2004
From: Philadelphia PA
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I'd create a new store in a new SG or at least in an SG that didn't already contain the store the mailboxes were being moved from.

You have a 10TB FC EMC SAN and it's tanked twice and the thing you're worried about is mailbox sizes?!? I'd just sit back, let the mail mount up and let management just work it out. Either that or call up NetApp and ask them for a buyback in Exchange for a decent model. (OK, I work for NetApp but I'm only half joking!)

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Mark Arnold (Exchange MVP)
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(in reply to Gigabitz)

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RE: Offline Defrag? - 27.May2008 6:14:37 PM

uemurad

Posts: 5471
Joined: 7.Jan.2004
From: California, USA
Status: offline

If you are have the Enterprise Edition of Exchange, then yes - you can create a new mailbox store and move mailboxes into it. After you complete the moves, you can dismount and delete the old store, then delete the database files. What do your 1221 Events say? How much disk space do you expect to recover?

As far as policy, there's not a whole lot you can do with a CIO who doesn't want to listen. Find out if any of the VIPs experience Outlook-to-Exchange performance issues. That is a major effect of huge mailboxes and mailbox stores.

If you are using archiving, convince him to set company policy to remove older messages from the Exchange store, but leave them in the archive store. They'll still be accessible, but won't add unnecessary clutter to your live databases. And get rid of the PST files - dump all of those into the archive store then ban their use. If your archive software is any good, the search capabilities alone should be worth it to them. Convince one or two VIPs, convert them, then let them be your evangelists.

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Regards,

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

(in reply to Gigabitz)

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RE: Offline Defrag? - 27.May2008 6:24:12 PM

Gigabitz

Posts: 16
Joined: 27.May2008
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Thanks Gentlemen! Thats why I love this site.
Ok so should I also create the new SG or just the new MB store.

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RE: Offline Defrag? - 27.May2008 8:17:43 PM

mark@mvps.org

Posts: 3762
Joined: 9.Jun.2004
From: Philadelphia PA
Status: offline

The best practice is a new SG. If you already have the maximum number of SGs created then just create a new store in the most lightly used existing SG,

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Mark Arnold (Exchange MVP)
List Moderator

(in reply to Gigabitz)

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