second generation admin for this company, partially new to exchange(former lotus guy) I understand from MS technotes that offline defrag should only be primarily used when there has been some/alot of movement of mailboxes..etc.....online should take care of it (unless warned in event viewer/applications to run offline..etc) my question is, would running the normal drive "properties" "tools" "defragment" cause any problems? Has anyone done this before? Just defrag the drive like any typical other drive on a server or cpu. I have a local C adn D with the store/db's on them. Like to defrag both. Thanks

This is fine and will not hurt Exchange databases. However, obviously while the disk defrag is underway, performance will suffer. Eseutil /d is the only way to actually defragment the database to reclaim free space. This combined with daily online maint. is the only way to defrag exchange. The Windows defrag wont do anything to the database itself.

Running the actual disk defragmenter should not cause any issues for the actual database file. However, I would *not* do it while the database is in production. In E2K7, I generally recommend that a single LUN/volume be dedicated to a database. That way the actual database file itself cannot becomme fragmented if it is the only file on the volume. Can't easily do that in E2K/E2K3, but it is possible. Mike is right about defragging the internals of the database file. ESEUTIL /D is the only way to defrag/compact the actual database file.

Dear customer: Thanks for Mike and Jims answer. They are all right. The disk defragmentation process rearranges the data that is stored on the computer's hard disks so that the files are more contiguous. Defragmentation helps increase data access and retrieval speed. When you defragment your hard disks, you can increase disk performance and help the servers in your organization run more smoothly and efficiently. You can use the Eseutil utility to defragment the information store and directory in Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 and to defragment the information store in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server and in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. The utility can run on one database at a time from the command line. The fragmentation of Exchange data occurs on a different level than regular disk fragmentation. The fragmentation of Exchange data occurs within the Exchange database itself. If you run regular disk defragmentation on an Exchange computer, you should do it during off-hours and preferably with Exchange databases stopped. Disk defragmentation is a very I/O intensive process. Therefore, the Exchange database engine could have difficulty accessing the hard drives in a timely manner. By default, Exchange databases run a defragmentation process daily. The defragmentation option makes used storage contiguous, eliminates unused storage, and compacts the database. This reduces the database's size. Eseutil copies database records to a new database. When defragmentation is complete, the original database is deleted or saved to a user-specified location, and the new version is renamed as the original. If the utility encounters a bad record, the utility stops and displays an error message. For more information about how to defragment Exchange databases, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: How to defragment Exchange databases http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328804 I hope the information above can address your concerns. If anything is unclear, please feel free to let us know. Rock Wang - MSFT

thanks guys. I appreciate all the help and information. I felt I was in the ballpark, but just wanted to chat with fellow brethren with more exp. first. I'll take all this advice. Will run the defrag afterhours. I do indeed have the online defrag for the databases set daily from 1am - 5am range. Databases are healthy and I ran the exchange analyzer tool..so everything looks fine exceptthe need to defrag that harddrive. Will do. Great. Thanks.

Look for event 1221 in the application log on the exchange server. this log will tell you how much white space is in the exchange database(s) and can give you an idea of how much you stand to gain with a eseutil /d defrag. This event will post for every database on your system, so read the text carefully to see what database you may need to defrag.

Mike Crowley wrote: Look for event 1221 in the application log on the exchange server. this log will tell you how much white space is in the exchange database(s) and can give you an idea of how much you stand to gain with a eseutil /d defrag. This event will post for every database on your system, so read the text carefully to see what database you may need to defrag. Thanks Mike...you guys are great.