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Defragment doesn’t affect - 28.Mar.2010 6:31:27 AM

yabuemera

Posts: 4
Joined: 28.Mar.2010
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Hi All,
I have exchange 2003 STD and by using the SP2 and the registry key I extended the storage to be 75 GB, and I locate the DBs to another location and every time I went to defrag the Priv1.edb and waiting a lot of time, I surprised that the it is the same size? And I did the defrage on another location and the same result, could help me please, it is growing quickly and I can’t stop it even I decrease all mailboxes Quota.

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RE: Defragment doesn’t affect - 28.Mar.2010 9:03:46 AM

shauncroucher

Posts: 130
Joined: 28.Jul.2009
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Unless you are running out of Physical disk space, or the backup window is very tight, it is a waste of time running an offline defrag, can take ages to complete and can cause data loss.

The 75GB registry limit is based on the logical size of the database and NOT the physical size. So that means that it will be the physical size you can see when looking at the EDB and STM files and then subtract the 'white space' of your database by looking for event ID 1221 in the application event log.

To free space, you will need to delete items and mailboxes as you see fit, and then wait until the deleted item retention period has expired AND a online maintenance task has run (by default overnight every night). This will mark the deleted data as available 'white space'.

Shaun

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RE: Defragment doesn’t affect - 29.Mar.2010 6:40:03 AM

yabuemera

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Hi Shaun,
first, thanks you.
i did the online defrag and i found that in the event 1221" The database "First Storage Group\Mailbox Store (IBM-SERVER)" has 29520 megabytes of free space after online defragmentation has terminated." and till now the phiscal size is the same (37GB edb and 19 GB stm ) so what shall i do to use this free space and decrease the size of the database.?
thanks

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RE: Defragment doesn’t affect - 29.Mar.2010 11:04:09 AM

shauncroucher

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Joined: 28.Jul.2009
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Hi,

If you have the 30GB or so white space then running an online defrag through to completion should reduce the physically file size by 30GB, however I advise against doing this UBLESS you have physical disk space issues or backup windows time is tight because there is n other reason to reduce physical size.

The logical size which is physical-white space is used to enforce the 75GB limit.

Shaun

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Please Visit http://exchangeshell.wordpress.com for Exchange 2007 (mainly powershell) info.

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RE: Defragment doesn’t affect - 29.Mar.2010 11:10:50 AM

uemurad

Posts: 8232
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From: California, USA
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First, understand that you don't need to do anything with your whitespace. Exchange will write messages into that space until it is used up. Only then will the database files physically grow in size.

That said, 29GB of whitespace in a 56GB database (EDB + STM) is fairly large, but unless you have a shortage of disk space, or your backups exceed your window, it doesn't hurt anything to have that much whitespace.

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Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange (2007-2011)
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com

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RE: Defragment doesn’t affect - 26.May2010 8:47:43 AM

gpastore

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Hello...newb here.

If I create a new IS and move over all my mailboxes to the new store from a store that has quite a bit of White space, does the white space move into the new (IS) Information Store as well or just the mailboxes? I'm know I would need to redo my backup jobs from scratch but I'm trying to determine if this would help NOT have to run ESUTIL...

Thanks for any replies and glad to be in the forum.

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Gio

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RE: Defragment doesn’t affect - 26.May2010 10:45:10 AM

uemurad

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From: California, USA
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Moving mailboxes only moves the messages - whitespace is not moved.
As always, watch your 1221 Application Log Events to see how much whitespace is in any particular Mailbox Store.

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Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange (2007-2011)
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com

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RE: Defragment doesn’t affect - 26.May2010 12:16:00 PM

gpastore

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Thank you uemurad,

Whitespace =

22,477 MB in one store
2,717 MB in another
1,599 MB in another
_________________ Anticipated New store

So my thought was to create a 4th InformationStore, move the mailboxes into the new store - Dismount old store and after a week, delete the old store. In theory, we should have now reclaimed about 21 GB of space, yes?

The primary reason for this approach is to keep the Mailboxes's up and available for as long as possible minimizing down time during the maintenance window and reclaiming as much disk space as possible. ESUTIL /any switch has never been performed on this server. It has been in production for 4 + years and had quite a bit of mailboxe changes, deletions additions, etc...Currently, 2 of 3 Information store sizes have exceeeded the 16 GB threshold and I am concerned with doing the offline defrag and the system not re-mounting.

Prior to creating the new store, we planned on upgrading to SP2 for Exchange. (We are already running SP2 for the OS - W2K3 Standard Ed) -
Would you handle it any different than this? Your thoughts are greatly appreciated...

Backup System
Apply SP2 for Exchange
Reboot and verify System is up and stable
Create Full backup again
Create new Information Store
Move mailboxes to new store from one store and a few more from another
Perfom another Full backup
Dismount Old store
Delete Old store after a week passed

_______?

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Regards,
Gio

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RE: Defragment doesn’t affect - 26.May2010 3:06:57 PM

uemurad

Posts: 8232
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From: California, USA
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quote:

So my thought was to create a 4th InformationStore, move the mailboxes into the new store - Dismount old store and after a week, delete the old store. In theory, we should have now reclaimed about 21 GB of space, yes?

Correct.

quote:

ESUTIL /any switch has never been performed on this server.

That is not unusual, nor is it a bad thing. ESEUTIL should only be used when absolutely necessary.

quote:

Currently, 2 of 3 Information store sizes have exceeeded the 16 GB threshold and I am concerned with doing the offline defrag and the system not re-mounting.

Exchange 2003 Standard Edition has an Information Store limit of 75GB (18GB by default, up to 75GB by changing a registry setting suppored by Microsoft). The Enterprise Edition essentially has no size limit.

Offline Defrags should not be considered a maintenance routine. Exchange is not concerned with the physical size of the database files, but instead with the logical size (physical minus whitespace).

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Regards,

Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange (2007-2011)
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com

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