Ive got a few questions: A) We have one database with a size in excess of 150GB, this includes a backup of deleted items for 9 months. I recently turned this off to reclaim some space. Is this correct? B) I noticed Exchange 2007 has its own maintenance schedule (runs everyday) this doesnt seem to have reduced the size - Any reason? C) Reading around it seems to be advisable to do an offline defrag - How would i do this and any negative effects? D) Another approach is to delete this database and put contents into a new database - is this possible and something easy? OR many risks involved? Thanks

A. You are right, once you decrease the deleted items retention to say 1 days it will remove items from dumpster. B. Yes, this is called the Online Defragmentation, when this runs, it wont reduce the size, instead it will create what is called whitespace. C. If you really want to see the .edb file (database file )_ reduce in size, you have to do offline defrag (eseutil /d), there is no negative effect, but there will be user impact, you have to dismount the store to run the defrag, so obviously downtime for user. D. If you dont want to take that approach, you can create a new Database and move users to taht database, so limiting the downtime. once completely moved, you can delete the old db. thanks ThiyaguThiyagu | MCTS/MCITP - Exchange 2007 | MCSE 2003[Messaging] | http://www.myExchangeWorld.com. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi Jamie Your questions have already been answered by Thiyagu. One hint: Search your application log for event id 1221, so you can see how much "whitespace" you have inside of your database. If there are only a few gb of free space, it doesn't worth defragmenting your database or moving all mailboxes to a new db. Regards Pano Boschung

Hi Jamie, The downtime required for this database is around 4-5 Gigs/hr. So be careful while taking the store offline. And you need 110% of free space on the drive where you will be performing this task.

I will not recommend you to go for offline defrga, Best way is to move mailbox in other temp server/DB and delete this then create new DB and move back mailbox's Anil

The least risk free option is to create a new database and move the mailboxes to the new data. No downtime, no risk. If you haven't used all of the databases available to you, then this might be a good time to split the data up. An offline defrag requires complete downtime, is not recommended and is not risk free. You also end up with basically the same thing - a new database. I have never done an offline defrag on Exchange 2007, no need. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP. http://blog.sembee.co.uk , http://exbpa.com/