help with new database

[edgardg]

Our database has grown to 25 gig. Before I imposed quota.
According to the even viewer about 20 of that is white space.
I would like to create a new database and move the mailboxes to the new database and then deleted this huge database.
But I am not sure how to do it.

Can anybody give me an idea on how to achieve this (baby steps???) or maybe somebody already has this on a link?

thank you very much

 

[58sniper]

You'll always have whitespace. Contrary to what you may think, it's not bad to have it. Moving mailboxes to another database and deleting the first buys you NOTHING.

If you want to remove the whitespace, there are methods to do that, but whitespace will return as the the environment grows.

Looking in the FAQs here at Mark's article about defragging the database will help.
faq955-5581

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[edgardg]

Pat, thank you for answering.
I understand whitespace is not bad, but in our case I think it is. We have only 15 users and after I set the quota the average box is about 90,000kb.
Don't you think that having all that extra space is useless? How about worrying to have enough space for backups?

I know I can use Eseutil, but I did not want to do that because on 25 gig will take perhaps the whole Sunday, plus I have to pray the store will mount after the defrag (which I read on Microsoft KB is one of the problems that may happen) If it doesn’t mount, then I will have to restore from backup. We are looking about lot of downtime here.

I am confused. I have talked to others about my situation and have gathered information from websites and came to the conclusion that Eseutil should not be used unless is absolutely necessary. Which Microsoft idea of this is if there is a problem with the database.

This is the reason I thought about creating a new database and moving the mailboxes.

Can you please help me understand more about this?

Thanks so much

 

[58sniper]

No, having that whitespace is not "useless". Exchange will reuse that space as it needs. In fact, performance is better when there is some whitespace.

If you move mailboxes to a new database, you lose everything in the Dumpster. Defragging a database is not what most people are referring to when they say to avoid eseutil. They are referring to doing repairs on the database.

I would do the defrag long before moving to a new database (which will also cause some downtime during the HOURS that it will take to move them). The caveat is that you need enough drive space to equal 125% of the current database to do the defrag.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[edgardg]

ok, I will follow your advice and give eseutil a try with the link you give me before.

I have 120 gig of space on the hard drive. I think I'm ok?
any other recommendations before I do this ?

thank you Pat

 

[58sniper]

You should be fine, as far as drive space is concerned. Obviously, a full backup before is a must.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt