Max Exchage DB size in SBS

Small Business Server imposes a 6gb limit on the size of the Exchange DB
correct? Is the file I should be watching the "priv1.edb" file??

If so, I saw this file awfully close to the 6gb mark last week. I then
warned users they better clean up their emails, start archiving etc... Many
of them have done this. However, the size of the priv1.edb file still shows
the same... What gives here? I made sure they aslso deleted their "deleted
items" as many forget to do that...Am I looking at the wrong file to
determine the size of my exchange DB? Why is it not shrinking as the
individual mail boxes are reduced in size?

Help!

Thanks

Brad

Kevin
Thu Sep 09 16:29:27 CDT 2004

16gb, not 6gb

Determining the size of the stores is like determining who's going to be
president. It's all a mystery!

--
Kevin Weilbacher [SBS-MVP]
"The days pass by so quickly now, the nights are seldom long"


"Brad Pears" <donotreply@notreal.com> wrote in message
news:%232fXKKrlEHA.2492@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Small Business Server imposes a 6gb limit on the size of the Exchange DB
> correct? Is the file I should be watching the "priv1.edb" file??
>
> If so, I saw this file awfully close to the 6gb mark last week. I then
> warned users they better clean up their emails, start archiving etc...
> Many
> of them have done this. However, the size of the priv1.edb file still
> shows
> the same... What gives here? I made sure they aslso deleted their "deleted
> items" as many forget to do that...Am I looking at the wrong file to
> determine the size of my exchange DB? Why is it not shrinking as the
> individual mail boxes are reduced in size?
>
> Help!
>
> Thanks
>
> Brad
>
>
>

Dave
Thu Sep 09 16:31:02 CDT 2004

The limit is 16gb, not 6. Also, I'm 99% sure it's per store (public and
private) rather than total. The stores consist of the edb file and the stm
file (priv.edb + priv.stm, for example).

The stores grow as necessary to house their content, so for example if you
add 100mb of data, the database will grow by 100mb. If you then delete that
content, the store will not shrink accordingly. Rather, the freed-up space
becomes "slack" in the database. Next time you add content, it goes into
the "slack" space first, growing the database size only if there's not
enough slack available.

When you look at the logs of exchange's nightly maintenance in your app log,
you'll see entries like "private store has 100mb free after online
defragmentation." That's the amount of slack in the database.

To shrink the databases, you need to do an offline defrag using eseutil.
Since the databases will only start growing again anyway, and since there
may be a little risk in running eseutil, I recommend against it. The only
time you'd benefit from an offline defrag is if you permanently reduced your
storage needs, such as a permanent decrease in the size of your office. Or,
if you had a maintenance or corruption issue that called for eseutil. In
that case, you'd see errors logged warning you of a problem that required
your intervention.


"Brad Pears" <donotreply@notreal.com> wrote in message
news:%232fXKKrlEHA.2492@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Small Business Server imposes a 6gb limit on the size of the Exchange DB
> correct? Is the file I should be watching the "priv1.edb" file??
>
> If so, I saw this file awfully close to the 6gb mark last week. I then
> warned users they better clean up their emails, start archiving etc...
> Many
> of them have done this. However, the size of the priv1.edb file still
> shows
> the same... What gives here? I made sure they aslso deleted their "deleted
> items" as many forget to do that...Am I looking at the wrong file to
> determine the size of my exchange DB? Why is it not shrinking as the
> individual mail boxes are reduced in size?
>
> Help!
>
> Thanks
>
> Brad
>
>
>

Javier
Thu Sep 09 16:34:18 CDT 2004

Also, take into account that even when you delete a message it still there.
By default delete messages are retained for 30 days.

You might also what to check the Mailbox Manager which will tell you how
much space each mailbox is occupying.

--
Javier [SBS MVP]

<< SBS ROCKS!!! >>

"Kevin Weilbacher [SBS-MVP]" <kweilbacMVP@gte.net> wrote in message
news:uk11kPrlEHA.948@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> 16gb, not 6gb
>
> Determining the size of the stores is like determining who's going to be
> president. It's all a mystery!
>
> --
> Kevin Weilbacher [SBS-MVP]
> "The days pass by so quickly now, the nights are seldom long"
>
>
> "Brad Pears" <donotreply@notreal.com> wrote in message
> news:%232fXKKrlEHA.2492@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Small Business Server imposes a 6gb limit on the size of the Exchange DB
>> correct? Is the file I should be watching the "priv1.edb" file??
>>
>> If so, I saw this file awfully close to the 6gb mark last week. I then
>> warned users they better clean up their emails, start archiving etc...
>> Many
>> of them have done this. However, the size of the priv1.edb file still
>> shows
>> the same... What gives here? I made sure they aslso deleted their
>> "deleted
>> items" as many forget to do that...Am I looking at the wrong file to
>> determine the size of my exchange DB? Why is it not shrinking as the
>> individual mail boxes are reduced in size?
>>
>> Help!
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Brad
>>
>>
>>
>
>