Dears,Since a few weeks we have a problem with defragmenting the Exchange 2003 Server Database store on one of our Server(s).I have made a script for 3 servers and run these in the weekend via a scheduled task.Since 2 months ago one of these tasks started up but the defragmentation seems to be stopped.The scheduled task is still running and via task manager I see the Eseutil also running, and also the Database Store is not mounted nor can be mounted.The Tempd DB file grows until 2-3Gb, and since no increasing of the temp Db.On the other Excange server we don't experience this problem.The weirdest thing is when I start this job manual via RDP session it runs succesfull without any problems.I have excluded the Exchange folder(s) for antivirus scanning.The job starts with stopping the Exchange Services and then run the Esutil job.The Job starts on a different partition with enough disk space and access rights.On the Exchange Server that succesfull runs the Eseutil job has a Database Store of 3 Gb while the Server where the job fails the Database Store is now 11 Gb.I have installed all Updates and Service Pack for Exchange Server 2003.Could it be caused by the size of the Database Store, has anyone ever had the same problem and may have solved this?Is there maybe a hotfix for this issue.Please Advise.Regards Henny

Henny, Is there a reason why you are running Eseutil defrag every week? What are you trying to accomplish? The online defrag is the only thing that should need to be running.Mark Morowczynski|MCSE 2003:Messaging, Security|MCITP:ES, SA,EA|MCTS:Windows Mobile Admin|Security+|http://almostdailytech.com

Henny, Is there a reason why you are running Eseutil defrag every week? What are you trying to accomplish? The online defrag is the only thing that should need to be running.Mark Morowczynski|MCSE 2003:Messaging, Security|MCITP:ES, SA,EA|MCTS:Windows Mobile Admin|Security+|http://almostdailytech.com

Mark, We notice that the online defrag does not reduce the size of the DB.There will be empty spaces in the DB.An offline Defrag reduce these space and shrink the Database Store.In the past we hit the 16 Gb limit, and after a SP, we where able to increase it to a max of 75 Gb.Since then we started the Offline Defrag via Eseutil, smae as we did with Exchange 5.5. Do you have a better experience with Online Defrag? Henny

Henny, The online defrag wont reduce the size of the database it will just mark pages as white space. Exchange 2003 is greatly different then 5.5 and I'm not sure if the same best practices should be used on 5.5 as they are on 2003. ESEutil is in my understanding to be used in specific scenarios and not to be run nightly to defrag. What version of Exchange 2003 are you running, Enterprise or Standard? Are you running out of disk space is that why you are compacting the DB every night? http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Exchange-ISINTEG-ESEUTIL.htmlMark Morowczynski|MCSE 2003:Messaging, Security|MCITP:ES, SA,EA|MCTS:Windows Mobile Admin|Security+|http://almostdailytech.com

Henny, The online defrag wont reduce the size of the database it will just mark pages as white space. Exchange 2003 is greatly different then 5.5 and I'm not sure if the same best practices should be used on 5.5 as they are on 2003. ESEutil is in my understanding to be used in specific scenarios and not to be run nightly to defrag. What version of Exchange 2003 are you running, Enterprise or Standard? Are you running out of disk space is that why you are compacting the DB every night? http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Exchange-ISINTEG-ESEUTIL.htmlMark Morowczynski|MCSE 2003:Messaging, Security|MCITP:ES, SA,EA|MCTS:Windows Mobile Admin|Security+|http://almostdailytech.com

Mark,When I start a Offline Defrag and the DB size is 12 Gb and after the Defrag the size is 10 Gb than for my opinion the size of the DB is decreased.The raeson why we do a offline defrag once per 2 weeks is that the Database Store will grow and grow untill you reach the limit and it will stop functioning.This is what we had before SP2 when the store hit the 16Gb limit, then the Database is unmounted and user cannotuse their mailbox.We saw that Online defrag creates free space in the Database Store but the size still keeps growing and growing, and we want to be on the safe side of limitation.Mail is highly important in our business, and must be availlable 24/7.But my question was and still is: Why does it stops after succesfull running for 4 years via a scheduled task.And why does the other server don't have the same problem, is it the size of the DB or something else.We are using Exchange 2003 Standard and we have 200 mailboxes on it.We also use Trend Micro Scanmail for Exchange.ThanksHenny,

Hi Henny, Yes, you can through Offline Defrag to free up the whitespace for DB. Online Defrag wont reduce the size of the DB; it will just mark pages as whitespace. When a public or private Messaging Database is started, a maintenance task is scheduled to run for that DB. Normally the information store does it every day, default schedule of 12:00 midnight to 5:00 A.M. (Note: if the DB is too large, the course will cost more time.) If at least one subtask completed successfully and performed work that resulted in a database change, online defragmentation runs after information store maintenance is complete. By default, online defragmentation runs for a minimum of 15 minutes and a maximum of 1 hour after the information store maintenance period. (Note: if the DB too large, it will cost more time.) For more information please refer to the link below: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324358 If you want to more information about Online Defrag please refer to the link below: http://blogs.msdn.com/jeremyk/archive/2004/04/09/110553.aspx Then we can use the script with ESEUTIL.EXE to Offline Defrag the DB. In my opinion, the time of the script runs should be scheduled after the above task finished. So what about your schedule? If the DB is 12 G, it is important for you to schedule the task to avoid the clash among Online Defrag, Offline Defrag and maintenance. Your problem may be caused by this. Has larger DB, the system more busy, it is another element. The schedule task may be interrupted for the busy system. Exchange Server Database Utilities (Eseutil.exe) is a tool that you can use to verify, modify, and repair an Exchange database file. When a database is corrupt or damaged, you can restore data from backup or repair it using ESEURIL. If you want to more information please refer to the link below: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998249.aspx The DB size of EX2003 Standard SP2 version can be increased to as much as 75 GB by using a registry key. For more information please refer to the link below: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912375/ So I suggest that if the DB has enough disk space for use, you can do it per one month or more. It is not a good and a main way to reduce the DB size. You can make some rules to delete the older data, or export them to other disk. As you said, before EX2003 Standard SP2 version, because of the small DB limited, we usually used the ESEUTIL to free up the whitespace to reduce the DB size.

Hi Gavin,Could it be that the online task is stopping the offline task, even when services are stopped and the Database Store is unmounted?The Online Maintenance Interval runs daily from 2:00am till 6:00am, and my scheduled task runs at 4:00 am.I have ran this task manual without any problems at 23:00 and the job finished one hour later.I have also run this job via a scheduled task at 23:00 and it did not do anything after some time.The Eseutil.exe does not stop running, so if you want to mount the database, because the job is not finished and users want to open their mailboxes, we need to kill this executable via the task manager.Also the scheduled task says that it's still running.Henny,

Hi Henny, Yes I think so. Per my experiences, when we use the schedule task to run some software or script, it is very possible failure, because of many elements. So could you please publish some event log or other more information such as the screenshot? Then we can research it further. The online maintenance Interval runs daily from 2:00 am till 6:00 am, it means the worker process may occur at any spare time of the system during the period, especially due to the large DB. Your schedule task runs at 4:00 am, the time may be is not an exactly correct time. Yes, when you run the Offline Defrag, the DB must be UNMOUNTED, through you referred, maybe you first stop the services, right? So what about your script? When we use the script to stop the service, it will cost a long time, because of the busy system. Then it will run ESEUTIL.EXE. It will also take a long time. It is really not a good way use script to do this, especially with a large DB. Under normal conditions you don't need an offline defrag, but when you add tons of new users due to a merger or acquisition or when you delete many objects from the store it can be necessary to do an offline defrag.

It is not recommended to run offline defrag , online maintenenance should do trick. if you have set the items to deleted and watch your online maintenance is better than running defrag often

This issue is solved by copying some DLL files into the folder where the DB is been copied. Thansk for all support and comments on this.