HiWe are running Exchange 2003 SP2.In Exch1 > SG1 > Mailbox Store 4The size of the edb/stm files seem much higher than other Mailbox Stores. Most other Stores are around 30GB, this one is about 55GB.I checked the Event Viewer, and there is an Event ID 703 stating that "Online defrag has completed the resumed pass on database e:\Exchsrvr\mdbdata\SG1\Mailbox Store 4. edb"Event ID 1221 for this Store states that there is 20GB of free space after online defrag. I assume this means if I run an offline defrag, the store DB size would decrease by this amount?So, I had a couple of questions:i) I guess for this level of white space, either an offline defrag or creating a new store and moving users to there is recommended...any advice which?ii) Let's say that the free space to be reclaimed was negligible and I wanted to figure out what was eating the space...does anyone know how to get an export of users on that store along with their mailbox sizes?iii) Apart from mailbox data, does anyone know what else takes up space in an store database?

Yes, the 1221 event shows the minimum amount of whitespace recoverable in the .edb file. Lets look at each one of those:1. I recommend creating a new store and moving mailboxes. No downtime. However, it's really up to you if its even worth it. 20GB of a 55GB store is quite substantial, but it will be eventually reclaimed. 2. If you wanted just a quick snapshot of logical mailbox sizes, you could simply open ESMto the mailbox node view, then from Action/Export list, output it to a csv. More comprehensive info requires scripting or 3rd party software such as http://www.promodag.com/or the builtin reporting with SCOM from Microsoft.3. Well, thereare indexes, tables, things like that, but what really governs how bigthe store will get is the allowed maximum send/receive limits and the deleted item and mailbox retention rates you have set. Single Instance Storage mitigates some of that store size.

Hello AndyThanks for replying.So, from what I understand, that mailbox store database -was- at that 55GB size at one point, the amount of data within it has "shrunk", but the actual size of the database is still 55GB. Any ideas what would have caused this increase/decrease in size? We haven't had any spate of new users/deleted users recently that I can think of? Nor have we changed the limits.So, I'm thinking why is there suddenly so much white space?

Deleting messages, archving/moving messages to psts with Emerge or Outlook, moving mailboxes to other stores, etc... are the usual culprits.Are you sure its sudden? Dont know how far back you keep event logs, but if you filter by events 1221, you can get an idea how its been progressing.