Dear all, I want to reduce the Exchange database size by using eseutil command My question is how can I defrag and maintain the database if I have a frontend-backend servers (2 front and 2 back) and my database is on a SAN storage (I can see it only from the backend server)? Thanks

yes, you just need to defrag the DB on the BE. Ideally there is no DB on the front end servers. Also make sure that you have 110% of free space of the total DB size. The SAN LUNs is only presented before the BE servers as the DB will sit there.Raj

thanks for replying Rajnish but what if I don't have 110% of free space? what should I do?

What is the exchange server version are you using here? In any case please find the links below to help you get the defrag going... Exchange 2003 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192185 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328804 Exchange 2007 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998863(EXCHG.80).aspx Regards, Pushkal MishrA

I have Exchange 2003, now i don't have enough disk space (110% of free space to do the defragmentation) so how can I do it?

will be tough.. in that case you need to add some switches to create the temp DB some where else C:\>eseutil /d /ispriv /td:\test.edb (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192185/en-us)Raj

Hi, If you want to reduce the database size, first please check event 1221 to see how many blank space you will got after offline defragment. Normally if it has 30% blank space, you should do the defragment. But Using ESEUTIL /p is a last resort utility that is only run when databases will not mount due to inconsistency . So it's better to create a new database and remove mailbox to new one then delete the old one. If you decide to run the Eseutil, suggest you make a copy of edb and stm file. After running the eseutil, please run an isinteg to fix any corruption. http://support.microsoft.com/?id=182081 also please delete any log files before you remount the database.Frank Wang

how can i create a new database? i have reached a 100% of the databse size and the server is offline now

Where is your exchange DB sitting? is it on to the local server hard disk or SAN?Regards, Pushkal MishrA

Create a new Storage group , create a new database and then start moving mail boxes. How ever as you said , the DB is offline now, you need to add drives to your SAN or the DAS.Raj

i have create a temp DB and then run the eseutil command and it's working now i would like to thank you all for your great help, thank you very much

Hi Once the DB is defragmented it should overwrite (merge) the new copy with the old. No action is required from your side. Thanks Shiv

I have another issue... The size of the DB was 82GB and after defragmenting it becomes 80GB, the size is reduced by 2GB only!!! and the disk drive is still out of space I use the following command: eseutil /d C:\exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv1.edb /t D:\priv1.edb I forgot to mention that I have Exchange 2003 Enterprise edition with 2 backend and 2 frontend servers with clustering

It may be that the space within the database is occupied by deleted items or deleted mailboxes. The space they occupy cannot be reclaimed until they reach their expiry date. Do you have disconnected mailboxes in the database? Can you purge them? Do you care whether users can recover deleted items? If you set the deleted item retension to zero days, and set the deleted mailbox retension to zero days, and then wait until the IS maintenance task has recovered the space occupied by the expired items you should have more recoverable space. Check for events 1207, 9535, and 1221 with event source MSExchangeIS Mailbox to see what effect there was on that database.--- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Thanks Rich, I have the following 1207 event: Cleanup of items past retention date for Item Recovery is complete for database "First Storage Group\Mailbox Store (Exchange1)". Start: 119928 items; 34181954 Kbytes End: 87703 items; 23317808 Kbytes and 9535 event: Cleanup of deleted mailboxes that are past the retention date is finished on database "First Storage Group\Mailbox Store (Exchange1)". 0 deleted mailboxes (0 KB) have been removed. 0 deleted mailboxes (0 KB) have been retained. but I didn't understand them....do I have the required space or not?

On Fri, 28 May 2010 18:05:19 +0000, Fares Atallah wrote: > > >Thanks Rich, > >I have the following 1207 event: > >Cleanup of items past retention date for Item Recovery is complete for database "First Storage Group\Mailbox Store (Exchange1)". > > > >Start: 119928 items; 34181954 Kbytes > >End: 87703 items; 23317808 Kbytes That's about 22MB of deleted items. That's not worth the effort to recover the space. You didn't post the contents of the 1221 event that shows the approximate amount of free space within the database. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP