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Offline defrag question.
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Offline defrag question. - 26.Mar.2012 7:31:47 AM
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westsom
Posts: 8
Joined: 26.Mar.2012
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Hi
I hope some one can help me. To make a long story short. I am looking to do a offline defreg of our mail store. In articles i have read that i need 110% free but is this on the drive where the store is? or accross all drives? for example our store is 40gig priv1.edb and 40gig priv1.stm and the drive is only 100gig. I have created 150gig drive on the server will this work or will i have to create a copy whilst doing the defrag the 150gig drive then copy across and mount it? Hope this makes sence.
Thanks in advance
Tom
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 26.Mar.2012 7:37:49 AM
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alanhardisty
Posts: 389
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The 100% disk space is needed and is usually required on the drive where the database is located, but you can add a switch (/t) to point the temporary files that are created during the defrag to another drive with sufficient space and then the defrag will work happily.
The command to use is:
eseutil /d /tx:\tempdfrg.edb
So in the example above, you have the drive x: which has the required free space.
< Message edited by alanhardisty -- 26.Mar.2012 7:39:20 AM >
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 26.Mar.2012 7:56:38 AM
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westsom
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Hi Alan
Thank you for your quick reply. Would this be ok?
eseutil /d /p “D:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA\priv1.edb” /t”G\new temp\tempdfrg.edb”
Also if so how to replace the original with the new one? Is it as simple as renaming the files to priv1.edb and priv1.stm and remounting them?
Thanks Tom
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 26.Mar.2012 8:53:24 AM
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Gulab
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If you require to run /d only and your target to defrag the database than I wouldn't reccomend running /p in the command.
FYI...to run the /d command you should have 120% free space the size of database.
Cheers,
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Technology Consultant
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 26.Mar.2012 9:08:41 AM
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westsom
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I dont have enough space on the drive to run just /d i only have 20gig free on 100gig drive 80gig store. so if run just the /d /t will it overwrite the orignal?
< Message edited by westsom -- 26.Mar.2012 9:13:51 AM >
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 26.Mar.2012 9:33:18 AM
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uemurad
Posts: 8232
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Before you perform the defrag, tell us how much space you are expecting to recover. Have you considered simply moving the database files to your new 150GB partition without the defrag?
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Dean T. Uemura
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 26.Mar.2012 9:37:41 AM
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westsom
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I will recover 20gig. Unfortunatly that is not a option as it is a virtual server and i need the 150gig for something else after this is done.
Thanks Tom
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 26.Mar.2012 9:48:23 AM
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uemurad
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20GB - are you getting that from the 1221 Events?
Next question (get the feeling I'm trying to talk you out of the defrag?) - what is your expectation of improvement by shrinking your database files? I'm trying to make sure you're wanting to do it for the right reasons.
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Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange (2007-2011)
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 26.Mar.2012 9:59:43 AM
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westsom
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Hi Yes from the 1221 event. main reason is our back we use backup exec and it is very slow on the mailstore i know this is to be expected. It looks as if it is backing up the whole 80gig even the 20gig of that is whitespace so i am hoping this will drop our backup time.
Thanks Tom
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 26.Mar.2012 10:34:37 AM
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uemurad
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Tom,
Thank you for your patience in answering my questions. I know you are just trying to deal with your own problem, but I view MSExchange.org as a historical record and want to make sure future readers of this thread understand the risks and the proper reasons for wanting to perform an offline defrag.
Sadly, I am unable to talk you out of doing it. Your reasoning is sound - BackupExec will take proportionally less time to run with smaller database files.
Here is an article worth consideration for those that have fewer options: How to run Eseutil on a computer without Exchange Server.
You proposed to use the /p switch, meaning the original file will be left intact at the original location. Since you said the 150GB partition will be temporary, you'll need to move (and possibly rename) the compacted file to the 100GB partition before mounting.
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Regards,
Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange (2007-2011)
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 26.Mar.2012 11:08:15 AM
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westsom
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Yes i am planning on deleted the orignial once done and moving the defraged copy to the 100gig and renaming it to priv1.edb and priv1.stm. Does this sound like it would work and also does the code above look correct i am quite a novice to this?
Thanks For your fast replies!
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 26.Mar.2012 11:28:48 AM
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uemurad
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quote:
eseutil /d /p “D:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA\priv1.edb” /t”G\new temp\tempdfrg.edb”
You want to include a space after /t and a colon after G (presuming that's the logical drive letter), but otherwise that appears correct.
You said you were going to delete the original file, replace it with the defragged file, then mount the store. Are you planning to copy or move or backup the database files before deleting? Typically you use the /d /p switches to keep the original files in case you need them - but you won't know if you still need them until you attempt to mount the defragged files as the live database.
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Regards,
Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange (2007-2011)
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 27.Mar.2012 5:43:07 AM
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westsom
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quote:
ORIGINAL: uemurad
quote:
eseutil /d /p "D:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA\priv1.edb” /t”G\new temp\tempdfrg.edb”
You want to include a space after /t and a colon after G (presuming that's the logical drive letter), but otherwise that appears correct.
You said you were going to delete the original file, replace it with the defragged file, then mount the store. Are you planning to copy or move or backup the database files before deleting? Typically you use the /d /p switches to keep the original files in case you need them - but you won't know if you still need them until you attempt to mount the defragged files as the live database.
Going to take a snapshot first just encase. The only reason i am doing the /p is so that the file moves to the new drive "G" If i dont use the /p and just the /t will it still move to the new one. As i am not fused about keeping the old because i will have a snapshot.
Thanks Tom
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 27.Mar.2012 9:07:27 AM
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uemurad
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As you can tell, I try to talk people out of performing offline defrags whenever possible. I can't disagree with your reasoning, and it sounds like you have everything covered. Good luck.
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Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange (2007-2011)
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 27.Mar.2012 9:17:48 AM
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westsom
Posts: 8
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So if i dont use the /p will it copy over my original and use the /t location to store the new file so will i have it twice? Or will it just use the /t location to stream the file to and then overwrite it to the orginal location? I am having trouble understanding that part. I am trying to make this as simple as i can sorry for all the questions.
Thanks Tom
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 27.Mar.2012 9:46:15 AM
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uemurad
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No worries - the descriptions are confusing. To tell you the truth, I haven't tried the different combinations of command line switches, but here's how I interpret them:
/d = temp database created in current folder then replaces original
/d /p = temp database remains in current folder with original
/d /t = temp database created in named folder then replaces original
/d /p /t = temp database remains in named folder, original database remains in original folder
Please note that I could be wrong. If I have some time in the coming days I may test them, but I can't promise anything.
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Regards,
Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange (2007-2011)
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 28.Mar.2012 3:56:32 AM
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GarethP
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Out of interest -- rather than taking the database offline for an offline defrag, have you consider moving the users to a new database and then deleting the original?
This would give you the benefit of not having to take the database offline for x hours and would probably also give you a smaller and cleaner database?
Just a thought......
Gareth
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 28.Mar.2012 8:50:37 AM
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uemurad
Posts: 8232
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From: California, USA
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Gareth,
Your suggestion is valid and is my personal preference, but isn't always an available option. Exchange Organizations that only have a single Standard Edition server do not have the ability to create a new database.
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Regards,
Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange (2007-2011)
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com
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RE: Offline defrag question. - 28.Mar.2012 9:34:52 AM
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GarethP
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Agree completely Dean and accept that.
Just wanted to make sure Tom had considered / rejected it as an option :-)
Gareth
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