Exchange 16GB store limit

[Schoolies]

I have Exchange 2000 Standard edition. The mailbox store has reached its 16GB limit so I performed an offline defrag (eseutil /d) however, the edb and stm file decreased only 500MB which is not going to last long.

I also tried running ISUTIL -fix.

I can not create a new mailbox store because I'm on Standard Ed.

How can I lower this file size? The total mailbox sizes roughly equal only 10GB in System Manager.

 

[KGB]

Don't you normally do an exmerge right after the defrag?

 

[Schoolies]

I thought exmerge was used to extract the mailboxes to a pst file or another store?

 

[RebateMonger]

Did you turn off "deleted item retention" before doing the offline defragmentation?

 

[Schoolies]

"keep deleted items" was set for 5 days
"keep deleted mailboxes" was set for 30 days

Should I rerun eseutil with the settings set to 0?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Schoolies
"keep deleted items" was set for 5 days
"keep deleted mailboxes" was set for 30 days

Well, this can help with a short-term fix (in an emergency) if you have high-volume mail flow (with lots of deleted email). It's not a long-term solution. In most circumstances, an offline defrag is not a long-term solution.

In the end, the solution is to either "enforce" email deletions (using the archiving functions and Group Policies), or use a third-party solution to archive email to a non-Exchange database.

The other relatively inexpensive solution is, of course, to upgrade to Exchange 2003, SP2, with its 75 GB store limit. Having suffered under the 16GB limit at several clients, I firmly believe it's MUCH cheaper to fix the problem permanently than to run offline defrags.

 

[Schoolies]

I'm kind of confused as to why the file size was not lowered when I first ran the eseutil. I removed about 3 gigs of collective email from about 5 accounts (archived them onto the local computers). Why would the online defrag and offline defrag not reduce the file size?

It seems like even if I had enforcced email deletions with archiving functions and group policies, I still would be in the same situation with an ever growing edb file.

 

[Schoolies]

any ideas?

 

[RebateMonger]

Before doing an offline defragmentation that's intended to reduce the Exchange mail Store size, set "Deleted Item Retention" to 0 days and have Exchange do an ONLINE defragmentation immediately. After the online defrag is finished, THEN do the offline defragmentation.

 

[Schoolies]

Giving this another try with the retention set to 0. thanks.

 

[Schoolies]

Looks like this did the trick. After I changed the retention, I reran eseutil /d and it lowered the file size.

Thanks Rebate Monger