So I just noticed that the mailbox directory on my Exchange 2010 server was up to 100GB in size which seemed abnormally high considering the number of users we have and the mailbox size restrictions we have in place. I went to the actual directory under C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Mailbox\Mailbox Database xxxxxxxxx and I noticed a lot of text files with a naming convention of E000000000x.txt. I'm assuming that these are log files but whenever I try to open one in notepad all I see is a bunch of gibberish. Are these files safe to remove straight from Windows Explorer or should I be using a different process to get rid of them? Thanks in advance

Transaction logs have an extension of .log, not .txt. To clear transaction logs, you should be taking full Exchange aware backups. When was the last time you took a backup of the mailbox stores?

The system we used with Exchange 2003 (Backup Exec 12.0) doesn't work with Exchange 2010 and we are in the process of upgrading to the latest version which supports it. For now I'm just taking a backup of the .edb file every week. Will a proper backup solution automatically purge these files or do I have to get rid of them myself?

Yes. A successful exchange aware full backup will clear the logs that are no longer needed. You can also use Windows Backup- though its not as feature rich as 3rd party products. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876854.aspx You can also manually remove the ones you dont need if you follow some checks: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/240145 You could also enable circular logging, but I would recommend against that. If you are pinched for space, Windows Backup is probably the best choice until you get the updated BE in place.

I'm trying a backup job now on a test box with Backup Exec 2010 R2. The combined size of my Mailbox and Public folder databases are less than 50GB however the job counter just went over 60GB so I think its backing up the logs too. Hopefully I'll have some more space once the job is finished. Any reason why you would discourage circular logging? Disk space is a premium for us and we don't need to keep logs of everything, just the last few weeks or so. edit: That did it, All of the logs are gone now. Thanks!

I'm trying a backup job now on a test box with Backup Exec 2010 R2. The combined size of my Mailbox and Public folder databases are less than 50GB however the job counter just went over 60GB so I think its backing up the logs too. Hopefully I'll have some more space once the job is finished. Any reason why you would discourage circular logging? Disk space is a premium for us and we don't need to keep logs of everything, just the last few weeks or so.

On Sat, 27 Nov 2010 19:35:25 +0000, Justin.R wrote: > > >I'm trying a backup job now on a test box with Backup Exec 2010 R2. The combined size of my Mailbox and Public folder databases are less than 50GB however the job counter just went over 60GB so I think its backing up the logs too. Hopefully I'll have some more space once the job is finished. > >Any reason why you would discourage circular logging? You can only recover from the last successful full backup of the storage group. Any changes between then and the time yu do the restore are lost. >Disk space is a premium for us and we don't need to keep logs of everything, just the last few weeks or so. You only have to keep the log files between successful "full" backups. Log files that have been committed to the database at the time you start the backup are no longer needed. Those log files will be removed by the backup program upon a successful backup. The log files created during the backup are saved along with the edb file so they can be replayed later to bring the restored edb file back to a "loss-less" state. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP