mdbdata log files filling up disk causing server crash

[state]

I want to thank everyone in advance for helping me. My problem is that the mdbdata folder keeps filling up with edb00xxx.log files of approx 5,120 KB each. This folder is on the C drive (4 GB partition), and it fills up to the point where there is no disk space left resulting in a system freeze, terminating all email services. I've
moved the log files to another file server for storage, but new log files fill the empty space within four days.
Can anyone tell me: A) What are these log files? B) How are they generated? C) How do I open them to see if the data is important (before I delet them)? D) How do I stop them from being generated so quickly? To assist you Exchange Guru's here are some system perameters: Exchange 5.5 w/ SPK 4, NT 4.0 Server w/ SPK 6, Compaq Prolient server w/ 1GB RAM, Dual 700 MHZ processors, 210 GB total HD space, and approximately 100 users. Again, I thank everyone for their help.

 

[Xybertron]

They are transactions. By design. Online backup removes them. If they are getting created very fast when nothing is happening on the server I would suspect a mail loop.

4GB is only 800 logs which isn't all crazy. I've seen 20-30k when people don't check.

How big are the databases? Just trying to get an idea of what the users do daily... Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[Guest_imported]

A way around this (not a wise way, but a way) is to enable circular logging. As Dan says, online backups will delete the logs, so I would look into that, not just to get rid of the logs, but to protect your data. Your next post may start, "I'm looking for a job" if you lose it all because you have no backups!

 

[ShackDaddy]

Yes, sincgib is right. Circular logging isn't the way to go, especially if you aren't doing proper backups anyway. You need to use a backup software suite that can specifically backup the Exchange Information Store. Not the .edb database at the file level, but the Store. Most major backup software vendors support this. Once you are doing that sort of backup, the transaction logs you are seeing will be flushed into the database every time a backup runs and you won't see the kinds of accumulation you described. Right now, you'd probably be in really big trouble if your Information Store got corrupted.

ShackDaddy

 

[Xybertron]

NTBackup does this as long as the server doing the backups has Exchange Admin installed.

Circular Logging is there if you can't afford a log drive and don't care about protecting your data. If your worried about the data you will not turn this on. I have and will never tell or let someone turn this on unless it is on a training server with just enough space. Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft