Hi, Network-attached storage devices that are WHQL-certified meet the necessary requirements and are supported as Exchange Server 2003 storage devices. Using Exchange Server with Storage Attached Network and network-attached storage devices http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328879 Exchange Server and network-attached storage http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317173 Xiu

I have a single forest single domain 2003 environment. We have a single Exchange 2003 server. I have an information store with limits and one without. I'm rapidly approaching a disk space issue with users on the non-limited store. Can I reclaim space by having the users empty all folders (Sent Items, Deleted Items, Cabinets) of unneeded items? I had one user empty the Sent Items folder then consequently the Deleted Items folder. Should I see the space reflected back on the volume?

You should wait for online maintenance process to complete. Which by default runs every night. Then in the morning check the event 1221 it will tell you how much free disk space you can claim if you run offline defrag. So in short you need to run the offline defrag of the database by running the eseutil /d command and you have to take the database offline for this process and it will take couple of hours depending on the database size. Jasjit Singh Dhindsa | ITIL v3 | IASA Foundation Certified | MCITP:Exchange 2010 | Exchange 2007 | MCTS:OCS 2007 | Exchange 2010 | Exchange 2007 | MCSA:Messaging | Security | MCSE:Messaging | Security

Jasjit- I have never performed an offline defrag. I see event 1221 which indicates the amount of free space after the online defrag has completed. This appears to start at 2:00AM and runs through all public stores and mailbox stores on the server. Would you be able to help me with the offline defrag? Do you believe I would reclaim a lot of space due to the fact that it has never been run before? All help is appreciated.

Look at the 1221 event for each DB and it will tell you how much space you can reclaim.Troy Werelius www.Lucid8.com Search, Recover, & Extract Mailboxes, Folders, & Email Items from Offline EDB's and Live Exchange Servers with Lucid8's DigiScope

Sure. To start off with please have a look at this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328804 Jasjit Singh Dhindsa | ITIL v3 | IASA Foundation Certified | MCITP:Exchange 2010 | Exchange 2007 | MCTS:OCS 2007 | Exchange 2010 | Exchange 2007 | MCSA:Messaging | Security | MCSE:Messaging | Security

Jasjit- Is connecting a larger external drive and moving that streaming database and database to that location an option? I don't know that is best practice or supported by Microsoft.

Troy- It indicates reclaimed space after online defrag has occurred. I assume this runs as part of the maintenance interval? I should then take the store(s) offline and run the offline defrag using eseutil /d?

While running the offline defrag use the eseutil /t along with the /d switch so that the offline defragged database will be created on the external drive. Jasjit Singh Dhindsa | ITIL v3 | IASA Foundation Certified | MCITP:Exchange 2010 | Exchange 2007 | MCTS:OCS 2007 | Exchange 2010 | Exchange 2007 | MCSA:Messaging | Security | MCSE:Messaging | Security

Jasjit- This is a copy of the database, correct? Once offline defrag is complete, I should be able to mount the store(s)in normal fashion? The external drive I speak is connected via USB. I don't how much of a peformance hit this would produce if I move the database there.

1. Good article from Jasjit but before you start any defrag you need to check for event 1221 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996139%28EXCHG.65%29.aspx for each database you are having issues with so that you know the approximate space you can recover, else you may be taking the databases offline for no reason. If the 1221 doesn't show ample space available for recovery then you will want to, A: ensure all the users have emptied their deleted items folders, B: Check your deleted items retention setting http://www.petri.co.il/using_outlook_2003_to_recover_deleted_items.htm and adjust accordingly i.e. if you have it set to 30 days then realize that anything deleted and emptied will not get freed up for 30 days. C: Once adjusted you can either wait 24 hours and watch for the new 1221 event to occur OR you can speed it up by TEMPORARILY setting the maintenance to run all the time, check out Step 9 in this link http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Optimize-Exchange-2003-Performance-Part2.html 2. I would be careful with an external USB drive since they are fairly slow in access speeds. You can try it of course but before you do any type of eseutil command other than a /MH or /MS you should back up the EDB and STM file after dismounting them.Troy Werelius www.Lucid8.com Search, Recover, & Extract Mailboxes, Folders, & Email Items from Offline EDB's and Live Exchange Servers with Lucid8's DigiScope

No i was not suggesting moving the complete database to external drive. But was suggesting running the offline defrag with the /t switch so that the new database will be created on external drive ( This is how the offline defrag works when you run the defrag edb and stm files are created with the temp and some random number and the data is dumpted into that and it will continue to grow and would be size excuding the whitespace and then this file is copied back to the database location and renamed to database file name this is internal process which you can monitor yourself) With the external drive it will be slow ( Although the offline defrag is slowitself but it will further slowdown). Secondly there would be extra copy time involved.Jasjit Singh Dhindsa | ITIL v3 | IASA Foundation Certified | MCITP:Exchange 2010 | Exchange 2007 | MCTS:OCS 2007 | Exchange 2010 | Exchange 2007 | MCSA:Messaging | Security | MCSE:Messaging | Security

I understood what you were saying regarding the USB drive, its just that I have found USB to not be fast enough or reliable enough to do a defrag on, i.e. many times results in a timeout or failure and its just a giant crap-shoot that you may win or lose on. However if that's his ONLY choice then he should ensure he gets the most robust i,e, fastest drive possible since as you point out the new EDB and STM file will be created on the USB drive and then post process the old one is deleted on the current source location and the new EDB and STM are copied from the USB to the source location and then brought back online. That said obnetadmin I cannot stress how CRITICALLY important it is to get a backup of the EDB and STM post proper dismount and store it on an ALTERNATE media, i.e. another network location, or backed up to take as a flat file etc so that should something go awry you have a rollback position and you also should be running ISINTEG post completion of your Defragmentation to ensure that errors and inconsistencies are properly removed. P.S. If you want to have an automated method, check out http://www.lucid8.com/product/preventative.aspTroy Werelius www.Lucid8.com Search, Recover, & Extract Mailboxes, Folders, & Email Items from Offline EDB's and Live Exchange Servers with Lucid8's DigiScope

Jasjit- I may be able to purchase a NAS device. Can I move my Exchange database to this device?

Well you might get away with it, but I wouldn't recommend it since the access times are pretty pitiful on NAS and USB devices and I do not believe its supported by MS eitherTroy Werelius www.Lucid8.com Search, Recover, & Extract Mailboxes, Folders, & Email Items from Offline EDB's and Live Exchange Servers with Lucid8's DigiScope

Any other recommendations for disk space? Problem is server bays are all populated and upgrade to Exchange 2010 is not happening for a while so I have a little predicament to deal with here. Server is a ProLiant DL 380 G4.

Well you might; See if there are large hard drives available and a process to rotate in new drives. usually you need to replace them all though to get extra space. You could see about adding on an External direct attached SCSI storage expansion bay Troy Werelius www.Lucid8.com Search, Recover, & Extract Mailboxes, Folders, & Email Items from Offline EDB's and Live Exchange Servers with Lucid8's DigiScope

Hi, Network-attached storage devices that are WHQL-certified meet the necessary requirements and are supported as Exchange Server 2003 storage devices. Using Exchange Server with Storage Attached Network and network-attached storage devices http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328879 Exchange Server and network-attached storage http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317173 Xiu

Hi, You can use offfline defragment to free more space on the disk, please backup the database and then carefully follow the steps in KB328804. Also you can attach more volume to the machine and then move the database and log to the new volume. I recommend you to use recipient policy to manage user mailbox. How to use recipient policies to control mailboxes in Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319188 HOW TO: Use System Policies to Configure Mailbox Storage Limits in Exchange Server 2003 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822938 Xiu