When Should I Worry about an Offline Defrag?

[TruBlu01]

Event 1221 shows: The database "First Storage Group\Mailbox Store (XXXEX01)" has 6406 megabytes of free space after online defragmentation has terminated. I'm not hurting in anyway for space and Exchange seems to be running flawless at this point. Should I wait for a problem? or at what point do I do an offline defrag?
Thanks,
-Marc

 

[MoobyCow]

You certainly do not need to do an offline defrag if you have plenty of space available.

I seem to recall reading in some MS artcle that it was best practice to run an offline defrag twice a year, but I do not know if that was for 2003 or not.

 

[Zelandakh]

Exchange offline defrag should be run very infrequently. I'd recommend any time a server dismounts badly (but get the store up first), after a massive delete or when you are about to leave for a new job...

Other than that leave it for online defrags to keep it good.

 

[luismagally]

Keep in mind that Exhcange 2003 Enterprise has no limitations in database size as to Exchange 2003 Standard which limits the database to 16GB. Also, as stated from Microsoft itself, to do an offline defrag, the space needed to run will be 110% of your current DB size so a 16GB DB will need 17.6 GB free of space in same HD to defrag offline, a 100GB DB will need 110GB free in HD to defrag.

Just as a reminder.

 

[Zelandakh]

MS recommends 30GB per store though. Depending on HD speed.