Exchange server massive folder size

[iownitcouk]

I recently installed exchange server 2003, being that I had never done this before I thought I would try it out on a couple of users...all was going well until 3-4 days later when the wholde thing stops working..wont send or receive. I have battled with this for weeks managing (not sure how) to get it working for 3-4 days then for no apparent reason it stops again.

I just notice today however, that the Exchsrvr folder in program files is a massive 22GIG and that had taken the hard drive down to 12mb not good!

 

Should this folder be this big? (only have 2 users so far) and would this stop exch from sending/receiving?

 

Please help this is driving me nuts! and headteacher wants this accross whole school...

 

Thank you

[danrhodes]

Hi,

 

Do you use any type of backup, NTBackup, I know there are issues with Exc2k3 and NTBackup. The symptons you are having sound about right. I don't have any more info its a long tme since I saw this happending.

 

D

[Dos_Box]

I recently installed exchange server 2003, being that I had never done this before I thought I would try it out on a couple of users...all was going well until 3-4 days later when the wholde thing stops working..wont send or receive. I have battled with this for weeks managing (not sure how) to get it working for 3-4 days then for no apparent reason it stops again.

I just notice today however, that the Exchsrvr folder in program files is a massive 22GIG and that had taken the hard drive down to 12mb not good!

 

Should this folder be this big? (only have 2 users so far) and would this stop exch from sending/receiving?

 

Please help this is driving me nuts! and headteacher wants this accross whole school...

 

Thank you

 

That is actually quite small. You should be putting the database on at least a 100GB drive\partition and following these instructions to up the maximum database size to 75GB (the default is 18GB):

 

Bump the size of your information store to 75GB (Exchange 2003 Standard Edition only)

[IanT]

If you got MS Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition "there is no default configured database size limit, and no software set maximum size." < the word from Microsoft.

 

When installing exchange always install on another partition on the server with about 100GB+ free.

[OutToLunch]

I just notice today however, that the Exchsrvr folder in program files is a massive 22GIG and that had taken the hard drive down to 12mb not good!

 

Should this folder be this big? (only have 2 users so far) and would this stop exch from sending/receiving?

/QUOTE]

 

Not sure about the stop/start - you'd need to check the logs and see what's falling over. For the folder sizes, you need to drill down further than the top level. The MDBData folder and the .log folders are the ones that should be building up. Have a look in MDBData - you should have 2 large files for data stores, but if you haven't been doing an Exchange aware backup you will have a huge pile of log files that don't get cleared until it is backed up...

[iownitcouk]

Thanks all, this info is very helpful...I had no idea it could all get this big (oo er)

I reckon the reason it all stops working is im simply running out of disk space.

 

Once again thank you

[Dos_Box]

I have to be frank here, but installing, or even using any drive that is about 20GB means you are using a very old drive (liable to fail) to begin with, not to mention pitifully small for the task in hand.

[PiqueABoo]

the Exchsrvr folder in program files is a massive 22GIG

 

Well I think something is wrong. For a recent install with two, presumably test users who haven't done a lot that is much too much too big. What are the biggest files in there?

 

When/if that's sorted, you really should move the DBs to another logical drive and the transaction logs to yet another one (and add a few hundred MB of junk files you can happily delete to make some emergency fixing space on the transaction log drive).

 

For ref, I've got a E2K3 VM for testing with a couple of accounts and the whole thing i.e. 2K3 + E2K3 is < 4GB

Edited January 26, 2009 by PiqueABoo
VM size