Good day all, I need to run an offline defrag on one of my databases to reclaim some space, however, the database is larger then any avaiable free space I have on that server. With that said, can I run eseutil defrag with the /t switch and point to a temp location on another server? I have enough free space on a different server, just need to know if thats allowed with eseutil. Thanks in advance!!

Hey, I would not suggest you to go for online defrag for DB to make free space, you can create one other DB and move users from this DB. Once moved user delet DB and create new one and move back mailbox from temp DB. This will also help you to go for down time. Anil

The /t switch does indeed let you do this but try not to. Doing the process over the network isn't a great idea. Can you not use a USB external drive for this? "Tuck918" wrote in message news:c48c218f-36d0-4ea1-b506-7381d3d7a746... Good day all, I need to run an offline defrag on one of my databases to reclaim some space, however, the database is larger then any avaiable free space I have on that server. With that said, can I run eseutil defrag with the /t switch and point to a temp location on another server? I have enough free space on a different server, just need to know if thats allowed with eseutil. Thanks in advance!!Mark Arnold, Exchange MVP.

Thank you. This is an interesting idea however there are 49 mailboxes on this database and the database is 129gb in size. I've moved two of the biggest mailboxes out of this database (49gb and 20gb) so I should be able to reclaim 69gb of free space. THat is why I just wanted to run an offline defrag. Can the temp db you suggest be on another server?

That is a good idea. I could use the /t switch with the external drive being the temp location, correct?

I read this that the poster didn't have any free space so couldn't actually do this. If the user had free space on the box he'd have done the offline defrag and wouldn't have needed to post here. You are, of course, 100% right in that an offline defrag isn't ever a good idea and creating a new store (if possible - remember that in 2003 Std that wasn't an option) and moving the users. There are exceptions and sometimes people have run up against physical space constraints. "Anil K Singh" wrote in message news:b1e6eab0-2958-42f7-8ace-807be1b9bb99... Hey, I would not suggest you to go for online defrag for DB to make free space, you can create one other DB and move users from this DB. Once moved user delet DB and create new one and move back mailbox from temp DB. This will also help you to go for down time. AnilMark Arnold, Exchange MVP.

Okay, thank you for clearing that up. That was what I was thinking as well. If I had the free space that would work but I don't.

Hi, Don't do the offline defrag. The fact that you don't have enough space on the server to reside a new DB against the old DB: Just connect an USB drive or network share to the server. - Check your backups for valid :-) - Creat the new DB on the new location - Move the users - Delete the original DB - Move the new DB back to the location of the old DB outside the office hours. All done... Greetzz, Timmy

Oohh, not so sure about that. Performance isn't going to be great to say the very least. Then there's the issue of data safety. The data may well be on a RAID array and at least protected from one or more disk failures. Sure, if it's not on RAID you running Exchange on a USB connected disk isn't going to be any more resilient but there's still a performance issue. "SPeeDyT" wrote in message news:b4371acd-a6fd-4ba9-b5ff-4cb7b6ce39ba... Hi, Don't do the offline defrag. The fact that you don't have enough space on the server to reside a new DB against the old DB: Just connect an USB drive or network share to the server. - Check your backups for valid :-) - Creat the new DB on the new location - Move the users - Delete the original DB - Move the new DB back to the location of the old DB outside the office hours. All done... Greetzz, Timmy Mark Arnold, Exchange MVP.

Sure can. "Tuck918" wrote in message news:916c8c8a-805d-4784-afc8-7a06d5ead3b9... That is a good idea. I could use the /t switch with the external drive being the temp location, correct?Mark Arnold, Exchange MVP.

Thank you. Yes, the database is on a RAID. That is defaintly a concern of using the external hard drive, it won't be RAID so if it failed I could lose my database on it, I really don't want to go that route. Thank you very much for pointing that out. Data safety is my #1 concern above all else. I do have backups but I woiuld rather avoid that situation all together. So, I guess I am back to using eseutil /d /t where /t is extra space on another server that I have mapped as a network drive on the exchange server I need to reclaim the space on?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244525 is probably where you want to be. Something came out in another thread though. If you can create a new store you should always do that. Remember that you just purged out most of your mail so you don't need to find the 129GB that your current store is, far from it from what you say. Look at that carefully and do the new store / mbx move process if at all possible. "Tuck918" wrote in message news:54ba2396-90f2-48cc-bc88-0c5330c08c85... Thank you. Yes, the database is on a RAID. That is defaintly a concern of using the external hard drive, it won't be RAID so if it failed I could lose my database on it, I really don't want to go that route. Thank you very much for pointing that out. Data safety is my #1 concern above all else. I do have backups but I woiuld rather avoid that situation all together. So, I guess I am back to using eseutil /d /t where /t is extra space on another server that I have mapped as a network drive on the exchange server I need to reclaim the space on? Mark Arnold, Exchange MVP.

True performance is an issue on USB and data protection will allways be the key. So maybe banning murphy from you server room could be a good solution. Network drive on another server with raid config could be a solution but than again, if you have network probs at time of defrag you are in the same situation. So where does it end... So you will one way of the other have riks. Its up to you to decide what risks you wanna take. Greetzz, Timmy

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244525 is probably where you want to be. Something came out in another thread though. If you can create a new store you should always do that. Remember that you just purged out most of your mail so you don't need to find the 129GB that your current store is, far from it from what you say. Look at that carefully and do the new store / mbx move process if at all possible. "Tuck918" wrote in message news:54ba2396-90f2-48cc-bc88-0c5330c08c85... Thank you. Yes, the database is on a RAID. That is defaintly a concern of using the external hard drive, it won't be RAID so if it failed I could lose my database on it, I really don't want to go that route. Thank you very much for pointing that out. Data safety is my #1 concern above all else. I do have backups but I woiuld rather avoid that situation all together. So, I guess I am back to using eseutil /d /t where /t is extra space on another server that I have mapped as a network drive on the exchange server I need to reclaim the space on? Mark Arnold, Exchange MVP. What a second. You say that since I moved that 66gb out of that database that I don't need to have 129gb of free space, I just need 63gb of free space since that is the difference? so, even though the .edb file is 129gb and I know that I took out 66gb from it, I only need to find 63gb of free space and not 129gb even though the .edb file is still technically 129gb? If this is the case then I have 63gb free on this same server. I could do the crerate temp db, move everything to it and then move back to new database after deleting old one or run the eseutil /d with the /t switch to the free space I have. Either way, I didn't reliaze that I only needed 63gb of free space I still thought I would need 129gb until the space was claimed from the 129gb.

Hey Tuck, Correct... You only need the space of exact data in the store. So if there resites 63Gb in the store you only need like +/- 70Gb on you disk. I hope this will be the case so you can do a smooth and easy move-mailbox :-) Success... Let us know how it worked out. Greetzz, Timmy

Ok, great!! Thanks guys!