Exchange 2010 SP3 UR7 env.

I have it set at the DB level to retain disabled mailboxes for 15 days.  My boss wants to change it to 90 days.  We have about 15K users spread out across 15 DBs at 1TB per DB.

I have one of those Exchange Env. Reports that you can download running daily that shows the total users per database, when last backed up, etc.  The problem is that I don't think that report (or exchange for that matter) lists disabled mailboxes in the total mailbox count.  Correct me if I'm wrong on that.

So my problem is that we have anywhere from 1 to 20 people leaving per day, along with about the same amount of new hires per day.  What happens when I raise the retention from 15 days to 90 days I'm going to have a ton more DB space being used for old mailboxes.  I don't see this anywhere on the exchange calculator either.

Suggestions or MS Documentation would be helpful.

Hi jackal2001,

It's obvious that deleted mailboxes will continue consuming database space in their original size for the full retention period of 90 days if you set so. Deleted mailbox is "soft deleted" and does not free the database space until the time in "Keep deleted mailboxes for (days):" passed.

Calculations from here http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/05/06/ask-the-perf-guy-sizing-exchange-2013-deployments.aspx are fully applicable to Exchange 2010 as well.

Roughly it's: 20 mailboxes * maximum mailbox size * 90 days = deleted mailboxes maximum payload added to your current databases size.

So the other question is: Do disabled mailboxes show up in the exchange env report as a mailbox? I don't think disabled mailboxes count toward the actual mailboxes per database.

Report I'm running:
http://www.stevieg.org/2011/06/exchange-environment-report/

So the other question is: Do disabled mailboxes show up in the exchange env report as a mailbox? I don't think disabled mailboxes count toward the actual mailboxes per database.

Report I'm running:
http://www.stevieg.org/2011/06/exchange-environment-report/

Depends. If you are looking for active mailboxes. No.

If you are looking for all mailboxes (Disabled and active) ( and use get-mailboxstatistics), then yes.

Jackal, as an add-on to Andy's answer, if you wish to see only disconnected mailboxes from any given database, run the following command:

Get-MailboxStatistics -Database <database name> | ? { $_.DisplayName -notlike 'SystemMailbox*' -and $_.DisconnectReason -eq 'Disabled' }

I use this as the basis for our script for recovering disconnected mailboxes when we need to.  HTH ...

• Edited by Willard Martin Friday, January 30, 2015 2:07 PM

Jackal, as an add-on to Andy's answer, if you wish to see only disconnected mailboxes from any given database, run the following command:

Get-MailboxStatistics -Database <database name> | ? { $_.DisplayName -notlike 'SystemMailbox*' -and $_.DisconnectReason -eq 'Disabled' }

I use this as the basis for our script for recovering disconnected mailboxes when we need to.  HTH ...

Yes I have run that. It would be nice to have it included in the total mailboxes in the Environment report. Unfortunately I'm not a scripting guy.

Hi,

As Andy suggested, deleted mailboxes will consume database space for 90 days if you raise the retention from 15 days to 90 days. But if you are looking for active mailboxes, disabled mailboxes are not included.

Hope my clarification can be helpful to you.

Best regards,