Exchange Server Deleted Items Not Actually Deleted?
Hi, I'm running Exchange 2010 on SBS 2011. I've been trying to free up space on the drive where Exchange data is stored. I installed a mail archiving tool and archived a significant ammount of emails to a separate array of drives and these archived message are stored in a 3rd party database external to Exchange. During the archive process I also had the tool delete any messages that were older than 2 years from the Exchange mailboxes after they'd been archived. I haven't see that any space has been freed up on the Exchange drives whatsoever and I continue to get very low on disk space. Presumably once you delete an item from an Exchange mailbox it goes somewhere else for a set period of time? I'd like to delete these emails permanently to free up space today. Does anybody know if this is possible? Many Thanks,James Bratley
September 26th, 2012 3:59am

Hi James The database file (.EDB) doesn't shrink automatically when you move items out of it or delete items from it, all you do is add white space to the file which allows it to store new data without growing in size. In addition to this items that are removed from the database are initially "soft deleted" and will be kept in that state until the retention period expires. Mailboxes and mail have different retention periods (typically they are set to 30 days each) and this can be configured in the database properties. Your possible options are to move the Exchange database to a larger disk, create a new database (on a larger disk) and move your users to it or do an offline defrag of the Exchange database to reclaim the white space. I don't work with SBS so I'm not 100% sure how you would go about these tasks with the wizards, but perhaps someone else could help out with that or you could post a question in the SBS forum. Cheers, Steve
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
September 26th, 2012 4:47am

Hi James The database file (.EDB) doesn't shrink automatically when you move items out of it or delete items from it, all you do is add white space to the file which allows it to store new data without growing in size. In addition to this items that are removed from the database are initially "soft deleted" and will be kept in that state until the retention period expires. Mailboxes and mail have different retention periods (typically they are set to 30 days each) and this can be configured in the database properties. Your possible options are to move the Exchange database to a larger disk, create a new database (on a larger disk) and move your users to it or do an offline defrag of the Exchange database to reclaim the white space. I don't work with SBS so I'm not 100% sure how you would go about these tasks with the wizards, but perhaps someone else could help out with that or you could post a question in the SBS forum. Cheers, Steve
September 26th, 2012 4:58am

could you please uplod the output by running below command Get-RetentionPolicy -Identity "MailboxPolicyIdParameter" | Format-ListDon't forget to mark helpful or answer connect me :- http://in.linkedin.com/in/satya11 http://facebook.com/satya.1000
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
September 26th, 2012 7:16am

Thanks Steve, I've research the offline defrag option and I'll give that a try tonight. I've run a query to find out how much "white space" there is inside the mailbox DB and by the looks of it I can get 20GB back.James Bratley
September 26th, 2012 10:20am

Thanks, I've already managed to alter the retention policy. I've set this to 1 day now as I have a realtime archiving system and there's no need for me to retain items in Exchange.James Bratley
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
September 26th, 2012 10:21am

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics