Exchange 2003 standard what happens when it reaches the limit of 75GB

[ranj]

Hi All

 

I have a server which is running Exchange 2003 Standard with SP2 where the database files are:

priv1.edb = 49 GB

priv1.stm = 25 GB

 

Can I just clarify the 75GB limit that is on the standard edition. Is that 75GB with both the edb and stm put together or is it seperate.

 

We run the mailbox management process on a sunday evening.

 

What exactly will happen once the limit has been reached? I know in the past we have had the store go offline. Is this all that will happen.

I have had a look at our environment and email is now available to more users than ever. We have grown an extra 100 users in the space of 3 months.

 

Currently this server is a VM inside an ESX4 cluster. Its a Windows Server 2003 Standard edition (32bit only) and I am concisious that exchange by defulat consumes all the memory which is has already done. I know I can't expand the memory unless 64 bit is installed but want to refrain from doing this as it would make more sense to upgrade. The issue is the cost of 100 or so licenses which are still 2003 licenses and would need to be upgraded. I also notice a lot of spikes on CPU usage which on occasions I have seen between 75% and 90%.

 

I want any ammunitation you folks can give to make a case for us to upgrade to Exchange 2010.

Any thoughts are welcome...

 

 

Thanks

[Dos_Box]

How about because support for Exchange 2003 ended in 2009. That should be plenty of ammunition to justify an upgrade.

[Arthur]

Can I just clarify the 75GB limit that is on the standard edition. Is that 75GB with both the edb and stm put together or is it separate.

It's both files combined, minus the white space.

 

With Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 and later, the limit is now a logical limit. The limit is the physical size of the two files, minus the white space.

 

The white space is reported by event ID 1221 during the night. (Source)

 

What exactly will happen once the limit has been reached? I know in the past we have had the store go offline. Is this all that will happen.

Look in your Event Viewer for events with IDs of 9688 and 9690.

 

when the specified database size limit is reached and the first database size check has been performed by Exchange (remember, this is once every 24 hours at 5am by default, unless you’ve used the registry change above) the database is NOT dismounted. Instead, event ID 9689 will be logged as shown below in Figure 4.

 

http://i.imgur.com/OcA4i.jpg

 

Figure 4 – Event ID 9689 Showing Database Size Exceeded

 

You then have 24 hours to rectify the problem, otherwise, when the next database check is performed 24 hours later, the database will be dismounted and event ID 9690 will be logged as shown below in Figure 5.

 

http://i.imgur.com/n5m2M.jpg

 

Figure 5 – Event ID 9690 Showing Database Dismounted

 

But wait! You can still mount the stores again even after event ID 9690 has been logged. Unfortunately, it will be dismounted again after the next database size check is performed 24 hours later but at least you now have time to rectify the problem. (Source)

Edited October 22, 2011 by Arthur

[ranj]

How about because support for Exchange 2003 ended in 2009. That should be plenty of ammunition to justify an upgrade.

 

The extended support though is still till 2014 and that is the reason why are still on it. Apparantly I been told they would still support us as we are a business. Obviouslly we would have to pay the extended support costs!

[ranj]

It's both files combined, minus the white space.

 

 

Look in your Event Viewer for events with an ID of 9688. This will tell you the logical size of the database.

 

[/b][/code]

 

yeh I have already done this and the only alerts I can see are before we increased the limit to 75GB. We hit the 18gb limit about 18 months ago, we then did the registry setting to update it to 75gb.

So far I can see no alerts for the 75gb limit but I would like to know where we currently at....

 

Is there a way I can find this out. I thought the exchange best practise analyser would tell me but it didnt.....

[Arthur]

Is there a way I can find this out.

Can you see any events with ID 1221? This will tell you the amount of white space. Subtract this figure from the combined size of your EDB and STM files.

[sukh]

1221 will give you whitespace info, for a true size you need to dump the exch database - Determining the True Amount of Space in an Exchange Database

 

Also, I'd recommend that yuo upgrade to 2010