Overly large public folder information store 2

[jkupski]

I've run across the following issue. I'm not sure whether to classify it as a "problem" or not, but it certainly seems like one to me.

The total size of all of my public folders is about 2.5GB, per Outlook's "Folder Size" command. However, when I view the mdbdata directory, the pub1.edb file is just under 5GB, while the pub1.stm is just under 8GB. We do have Message Journaling enabled, but those messages are included in the 2.5GB noted above. Deleted item retention is set to 0 days, and the store is backed up nightly.

This evening, I performed an offline defrag. The stm file was reduced in size by about 25MB, while the edb file was reduced about 80MB--in other words, a total reclamation of around 100MB, and the total size of the store is still just under 13GB

Given that the entire public folder store cannot exceed 16GB (this is Standard Edition) I'm extremely concerned here. Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

 

[Zelandakh]

You've checked "your" public folders. But you cannot check the size of folders you do not have permission to access.

Use Exchange System Manager. In Administrative Groups, <site name>, Servers, <server name>, <Storage Group name>, Public Information Store, Public Folder Instances. That will list all folders. It also gives you size.

See which folder/s are largest (hint - you can sort by size column). If in doubt, right click the folder and check the folder properties, permissions, client permissions to find out who is responsible.

 

[jkupski]

Zelendakh,

I should have mentioned I've looked in there in the past and saw nothing--but per your advice I did so again. The largest public folder is the message journal, which is 2.6GB and contains 15,000 items. The second largest public folder is 4.7MB with a paltry 30 items in it. Total size of all the public folders listed in the ESM is roughly 2.7GB.

 

[Zelandakh]

what does the 1221 event say about the public folders? Lots of free space?

 

[jkupski]

None or next to no free space. Usually 0MB or 1MB. Last night it reported 1MB.

 

[Zelandakh]

how about the limits of the public store - have you got deleted item retention enabled?

on that screen is the general tab. Just a silly idea, you ARE looking at the right pub.edb file?

 

[jkupski]

As noted in the initial post, deleted item retention is set to 0 days. Also, this is the correct pub1.edb and pub1.stm.

I'm utterly stumped here.

 

[Zelandakh]

Me too - but you'd be surprised (or not) at how many people have 0 day retention until the 4th post!!!

Is your backup running correctly including public folders with flush committed logs enabled?

If poss, dismount your public store and do an offline defrag to a different name file. Then compare the sizes.

 

[jkupski]

Backup is running correctly. Backup type is full to file, location of file is on a remote server where it gets backed up to tape (no tape drive in the exchange box, unfortunately.) Logs are properly flushed every night. Circular logging is NOT enabled.

I dismounted the public folder store and did an offline defrag on Saturday night. I kept a record of what the file sizes were when I started compared to the temporary files and the finished product. The differences are noted in the first post in this thread (about 25MB difference for the STM file, about 80MB difference for the EDB file.)

Given that we use Message Journaling and send every email that touches the system to a public folder, I can't help but think the problem lies there somewhere. Every month I move the messages out of the public folder to a PST (god, I wish there was a way to automate that, but I haven't found one yet) and every quarter I burn a DVD with the previous three months PST files. The current 13GB size of the public folder is probably roughly close to the amount of mail received since this policy went into effect--but like I said, the actual size of the public folder (as reflected in the ESM and Outlook) is only 2.5GB.

Is it possible that these deleted items are not being purged from the database despite our settings to the contrary, and without showing up in the overall size of the public folder? If so, is there a way to attempt to manually purge any deleted items in the store that have not automatically been purged?

 

[jkupski]

BTT.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

 

[jkupski]

Anyone?

 

[DanMIS]

Check the event logs for events 1206 and 1207. There will be a set of each nightly for each database. They refer to deleting "deleted items" after meeting your criteria. The first event lists the amount and size of items eligible to be deleted before the cleanup, and the second event will list the size after cleanup. If they are the same, your deleted items are still being retained.

Good luck!
Dan

 

[jkupski]

DanMIS:

Thanks for that bit of information--you are exactly right:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: MSExchangeIS Public Store
Event Category: General
Event ID: 1207
Date: 11/30/2004
Time: 12:15:01 AM
User: N/A
Computer: XXXXXXXXXX
Description:
Cleanup of items past retention date for Item Recovery is complete for database "First Storage Group\Public Folder Store (XXXXXXXXXX)".
Start: 102984 items; 9166224 Kbytes
End: 102983 items; 9165748 Kbytes

There's my missing 9.1GB--now, my question is how do I go about purging them? Deleted items retention is already set to 1 day, so I'm guessing that I can't rely on the cleanup agent to do it for me. What's the manual procedure?

 

[jkupski]

Eureka!

When Dan's tip above confirmed that it was a deleted item retention issue, I did more digging. While the settings on the *STORE* were 1 day, the deletion settings on the public folder in question were set to TEN YEARS!

Going through all of the public folders, this is the only one that was configured as such. Given that I didn't do this, I can only conclude that my boss did.

Thanks to DanMIS and Zelandakh for helping me to resolve this issue.