Dear Messaging Expert
I am recently endorsed Exchange 2010 for our business. Although I am not much experience to deal with this I am confident to run my organization with around 100 users. My mdbdata file (*.edb, *.htm) is increasing steady and running on 16Gb but I am not sure how much big this file is supported by Exchange 2010. I am planning to archive user mail and try to reduce this size to around 10 Gb. Would anyone suggest how I can reduce this file size more safely without affecting my users. My project is just starting and I can not make any downtime to my exchange server. Also, I will be greatly thankful if you could suggest me to make backup of files, is keeping *.EDB and *.htm can recover all mails in case of disaster. Many thanks in advance. Mahendra Pd. Lamsal Kathmandu
July 17th, 2011 7:03am

For 100 users, a database of 16gb is very small. That is less than 160mb per user. My home Exchange server has a database larger than that! I routinely design implementations allowing for databases of 200gb or more, and there can be more than one database. You haven't said what you are going to do for archiving, but if it was PST files, which your users might already be using, then I would advise against doing so. The content is much better left in Exchange, it is a more efficient storage method. PST files bloat by up to three times - so 100mb of email in Exchange can be 300mb in a PST file. However given the size of the database, personally I wouldn't even be considering doing anything with regards to archiving. To carry out a valid backup of Exchange you need to use an Exchange aware backup tool. Windows Backup is one option, although its functionality is very limited so you may have to go to a third party tool. Backup Assist is probably the cheapest product. Simply backing up the raw files is not a valid backup from an Exchange point of view, even if you are using an open file agent. Exchange is designed to be backed up in a certain way and therefore an Exchange aware tool must be used. An Exchange aware backup of the server, plus having a backup of your domain controllers will allow complete recovery of the server. Unless you have customised things, then there is no need to backup any of the file structure itself, as that will be restored from the installation media. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources | In the UK? Hire Me.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
July 17th, 2011 10:57am

In Exchange 2010 Standard Edition maximum database size limit is 1TB (so it is 1000GB), if yours have 16GB it is not a big database. In Enterprise Edition theritically there i no limit. The easiest way to backup exchange is to use build in into Windows Server tool (you install it via add features in server manager) called Windows Server BackupWith kind regards Krystian Zieja http://www.projectenvision.com Follow me on twitter My Blog Need help with your systems?
July 17th, 2011 2:13pm

Hi Mahendra Ktm, Some other information for you: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb232092.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125040.aspx Regards! Gavin
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
July 21st, 2011 4:43am

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics