We've finally implemented some Mailbox Management policies that should significantly reduce the size of our Mailbox Database. If we want to reduce the 'size' of our Mailbox Database.edb file will we need to run ESEUTIL after our policies are run and completed?Orange County District Attorney

Hi there,Version of Exchange? :-) I presume with just mention of an EDB file it's Exchange 2007 or later.Your Exchange databases after the removal of mailboxes or the deletion of email will not physically reduce the size of the EDB on your harddisk. It will however create a larger amount of whitespace once online maintenance has run (online maintenance is continuous in Exchange 2010).Whitespace stops the Exchange database from physically growing on your disks and allows new data coming into the Mailbox database to be consumed within the whitespace within.To reclaim that whitespace you are correct, you would have to run an offline defrag. However, if you have Exchange 2007 I would suggest just simply moving mailboxes to a new store and removing the old one, as Exchange Standard supports 5 databases by default.OliverOliver Moazzezi | Exchange MVP, MCSA:M, MCTS:Exchange 2010, BA (Hons) Anim | http://www.exchange2007.com | http://www.exchange2010.com | http://www.cobweb.com |

Hello Sandy,Mailbox management policy plays significient role in maintaining the size of the store. Once you have successfully completed the mailbox management policy activity then you have to ensure that online maintainance by looking at the event id 700, 701 and 1221 to confirm the same.Then you can follow the below mentioned KB for further assistance in running offline defrag.Exchange Store Maintenancehttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996226(EXCHG.65).aspxDetermining the True Amount of Space in an Exchange Databasehttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996139(EXCHG.65).aspx How to defragment Exchange databaseshttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/328804<!---->Arun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3

Thanks Oliver, yes we are running Exchange 2007. I hadn't thought about just moving the mailboxes to a new store. Lots of good info to consider.Orange County District Attorney

Thanks Oliver, yes we are running Exchange 2007. I hadn't thought about just moving the mailboxes to a new store. Lots of good info to consider. Orange County District Attorney Hi,It's easier than performing an offline defrag if you have the capacity to do it. As rather than all users losing access to their mailboxes for the period of maintenace work, users will simply not have access to their mailbox for the time it takes for each mailbox to move - you will still keep the majority of your users online throughout the work.I understand in certain emergency scenarios this isn't always going to work - especially if the issue is just diskspace, but when work like this is well planned I recommend this as the best way.Oliver Oliver Moazzezi | Exchange MVP, MCSA:M, MCTS:Exchange 2010, BA (Hons) Anim | http://www.exchange2007.com | http://www.exchange2010.com | http://www.cobweb.com |

Thanks Arun, This is really good information, everything I need to know. Orange County District Attorney

The more I think about it, this does look to be the best scenario. The down time for the defrag looks to be much more than the mailbox move and if there's one app in our office that needs to be up all the time it's Outlook. We let the Mailbox Database grow over the past year and would love to get it back down to a much smaller size - it seemed more responsive when we kept it at a certain size.Orange County District Attorney

The more I think about it, this does look to be the best scenario. The down time for the defrag looks to be much more than the mailbox move and if there's one app in our office that needs to be up all the time it's Outlook. We let the Mailbox Database grow over the past year and would love to get it back down to a much smaller size - it seemed more responsive when we kept it at a certain size. Orange County District Attorney Glad I could help,OliverOliver Moazzezi | Exchange MVP, MCSA:M, MCTS:Exchange 2010, BA (Hons) Anim | http://www.exchange2007.com | http://www.exchange2010.com | http://www.cobweb.com |

You're always welcome - Happy to help :)Arun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3