Disk partition containing MS Exchange log .log files is filling up by 1GB daily
Dear all, I have MS exchange server 2007 in production with four disk partitions. The 1st (C drive)containing OS and exchange server 2007 installed. The other three disk partition are on DELL stoage md 3000 as below:-D (Exchange databases): size: 600 GB Free: 520 GBE (Exchange Logs): Size: 220 GB Free: 4 GBG (Queues): size: 36 GB Free: 35.8 GBI also have 260 GB unallocated free Space available.My question is that how can i increase space of E (Exchange Logs) as it is filling up day by day. I also contacted DELL to merge free space with E drive but they reponded that it can not be done as the last created partition is D and diskpart can not be utilized. Is there any way that i can merge that free space with E drive.Or how can i free existing space by deleting or moving .log files.Regards,Khalil Munir
December 27th, 2009 2:23pm

Khalil,There can be lot of issues in case your log files are getting filled up fast. Check if this is usual in your infrastructure or started happening very recently. If you are taking incemental back up daily, it will purge the log files.why dont you mive the log file path to the partition which has got some free space on it.I can see the log file partition is 220 Gb and free space is only 4 GB. Run a full back and get rid of all the log files. The most surprising part is how come you have more then 200 GB of log files without them getting purged on a full or incremental back up. Keep an eye on log generation per day.Raj
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December 27th, 2009 2:36pm

Thnaks Raj for your quick relpy.Let me tell you from the start. My exchange server is in production since 18 August 2009.I am using Microsoft NTbackup utility to backup the MS exchange server 2007 and doing full backup daily. NTbackup utility does purge the exchange log files. I have all log files since 18 august.The details of three days log files as below:22 Dec 2009 1.8 GB26 Dec 2009 613 MB27 Dec 2009 308 GBI have also ordered Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 for Windows server x64 and will receive in two weeks. In meanwhile can you tell me how can i purge the said exchange log files.Secondly can you tell me best technique for exchange backup?Regards,Khalil
December 27th, 2009 3:21pm

Basically you need to troubleshoot your backups here. Look for any ESE Backup events in the application log that might give some clues. Also make sure you are backing up all databases in each storage group, including stores you consider to be "empty" and the public information stores. Whether you use the databases or not doesn't matter: the logs won't be flushed until all stores in a storage group have been backed up. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb331951(EXCHG.80).aspx for background info about transaction logs. You can also turn on a setting called circular logging which will overwrite log files once they are committed to the database. There are some risks, so make sure you read through them. Basically you can't recover data more recently than your last full backup if you turn this on. This can be especially scary since it seems your backups aren't working. To determine which log files can be safely moved to another storage location until you figure this out, try the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant (ExTRA) which is accessible from the Exchange Management Console under the Toolbox section. Look under Disaster Recovery Management -> Analyze log drive space.
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December 28th, 2009 1:58am

For Sure there are some issues. NtBackup by default will purge the log files with full and incremental back up. check for event IDs as soon as full back up done.Also looking at the size of the log file folders, it looks bit on higher side, how ever not alarming. Also all depends on the mail transactions and number of mail boxes. Normally I suggest my client to take incremental back up daily and a full back up on the week ends.Raj
December 28th, 2009 8:19am

Here i want to add few more points.I am using Exchange 2007 without any service Pack on Windows 2003 R2 x64 with service pack 2. NTbackup utility does not support VSS (volume shadow copy service) when exchange is running without service pack. I am going to install exchange 2007 SP1 first and then let u people know the result.Khalil
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December 28th, 2009 7:25pm

Hi Khalil,I suggest you upgrade to Exchange 2007 SP2 directly. How to Obtain the Latest Service Pack or Update Rollup for Exchange 2007http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee221180(EXCHG.80).aspxThen please check the issue again. Thanks,Elvis
December 29th, 2009 12:23pm

Thank you all of my friends, finally i have solved the problem. Now all committed log files are purged and all of my disk containg log files is free.Let me summarize all the prolem and solution.Actually i am using MS Exchange 2007 with SP1 and using NTbackup utility for backup. I am doing full backup daily but with this option NTbackup utlity was not purging the log files and with the passage of time my disk drive containg log files was almost full and server was near to stop working.Then i came to know the workaround by using NTbackup utility. We should use to select "Backup Selected files, drives, or network drive data" and then select Microsoft Information Store under Microsoft Exchange server option.This way NTbackup will purge all the committed log files.Regards,Khalil
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December 29th, 2009 2:16pm

If you weren't selecting that option before, then I'm not even sure you were ever backing up your Exchange databases. Possibly you were doing a filesystem backup, which would probably skip the .edb files because they were in use. Ever tried restoring from one of your old backups?
December 30th, 2009 3:42am

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