Exchange 2003 offline defrag question, LUN size issue?
I have an Exchange database that hasn't run an offline defrag in about two years. The database is on a 130gb LUN with 5.6gb remaining. My question for you is, will this offline defrag (eseutil /d) fail. I'm basically trying to get more disk back with this process. I also don't have any room to extend the LUN on our storage array. Basically I need to keep this going for another 3 months until our Exchange 2010 migration project is complete. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
August 12th, 2010 6:12pm

You typically need 110% of the actual store size to do an offline defrag ( Not the size on disk - the actual store size) How much free space is available in the store ( Check events 1221). That will show the minimum you can expect to get back: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996139(EXCHG.65).aspx You can also defrag on another computer, but I think the better question is do you have another serer ( or can you bring up another ) and move mailboxes to it? At least until the project is complete? That's the best option. I would avoid the offline defrag.
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August 12th, 2010 6:24pm

Agree with Andy. If you have enough white-space, then the physical size of DB wont increase immediately - Until the white-space in consumed. In the mean time, you can think of altrenatives - Adding new disk to this server with more capacity and moving the DB to that drive Or moving the mailboxes to a different DB. Good luck. Shaba
August 12th, 2010 8:32pm

Thanks for getting back to me. You are right the eventlogs don't show much whitespace gain. So if I move mailboxes that will free up some space and won't leave the database the same size? Also another question, do EDB files update per email or only when transaction logs are committed. I'm looking at the edb files on the low disk and they seem to be slowly growing? Thanks again
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August 12th, 2010 8:51pm

If you move mailboxes, it will free up space within the store, but the file size on disk will not decrease. Exchange will use that free space ( reclaiming it during online maintenance) before it grows the store on disk. The store is updated after the the logs are updated. ( Thats a pretty basic description of course) If you have little freespace available, then yes, the store will gro on disk.
August 12th, 2010 8:59pm

Thanks, this was helpful. My plan of attack is to get a new LUN presented to me and just take the outage to move the database(s) over. Ugh...thanks again
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August 12th, 2010 9:17pm

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