Our exchange server 2003 database is over 9GB. We only have 9 people in the office! Can it be reduced in size somehow?Bill Nicholson

Bill,If you like to shrink your database you should run eseutil and perform an offline defrag of the database.During this process the database will not be accesible for users.Eseutil canbe found in the directory where Exchange server is located.By running the following command you can run the offline defrag:eseutil /d c:\progra~1\exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv1.edbKeep in mind that you need at least 110% free space because a newly database is created during running the command.If you don't have enough space on the volume where the database is located but you've got another volume that has enough space run eseutil like this:eseutil /d c:\progra~1\exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv1.edb /t"d:\tempdfg.edb"This will create the temp database on the D volume.During the offline defrag switch off any virusscanner because this can slow down the process.Regards,Johanblog: www.johanveldhuis.nl

I would first find out how the space is being used. How large are your users mailboxes? You can check in Exchange System Manager. If you 9 people with 1GB mailbox each, then 9GB is not that big. In fact, most mailboxes now a days run 1GB to 2GB for heavy users.MVP Exchange Server

Agree with John and Johan. You can also try moving these mailboxes to a new mailbox database and delete old one. Vishal Ramnani | MCITP - Exchange 2007 | MCSE Messaging | MCTS - Win 2008 Config

And, you can also check the free space in the database by looking in the Event Viewer - Application Log at event 1221Karl

What do have set for send and receive limits? How about deleted item retention. What is that set to? how many days?

Hi Bill, First, if each of your 9 people have nearly 1GB mail, and the database size is 9GB, this is normal. You need to delete unnecessary emails for each user and then do an offline defragmentation. If 9 users have (for example) 5 GB mails in the lump, you could use offline defragmentation to reduce the database size. Or create a new store, move mailbox, then delete the old store. A related thread: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchangesvravailabilityandisasterrecovery/thread/82d62f5d-f51e-4bad-9541-457c36f99e63 Thanks, Elvis