Is the offline defrag my only choice?
Hello, I am running Exchange Enterprise 5.5 SP3 on NT4 Enterprise Server. Before I started at this company, the previous Exchange admin wasn't deleting ANY mailboxes of old employees, which totaled approximately 11 GB that could be deleted. My pub.edb is just about up to 50GB, which takes almost 9 hours to backup, and I noticed after deleting roughly 4GB of old mailboxes, the edb file was still the same size. I really need to shrink this edb file, as the backups, and for that matter, the restore takes way too long. I am not 100% certain of the best, or safest, method to complete this process as I keep hearing conflicting stories. 1. Online defrag will free up the disk space, which is running nightly, but it's not clearing up space for me. These people also usually say that never run the offline defrag. 2. Offline defrag is the only method, and they use it on a regular basis, meaning once per month/every other month. Just looking for some more comments and/or concerns of doing the offline defrag, since the nightly online defrag isn't doing anything to free up space. TIA, ~Mike Z List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice?
The online defrag defrags data within the file. It doesn't change the file size. What does event ID 1221 show in the application event log? If the whitespace is significant, then perhaps an offline defrag would be appropriate for you. William Lefkovics, MCSE, A+ -Original Message- From: Mike Zatkalik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 11:25 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Hello, I am running Exchange Enterprise 5.5 SP3 on NT4 Enterprise Server. Before I started at this company, the previous Exchange admin wasn't deleting ANY mailboxes of old employees, which totaled approximately 11 GB that could be deleted. My pub.edb is just about up to 50GB, which takes almost 9 hours to backup, and I noticed after deleting roughly 4GB of old mailboxes, the edb file was still the same size. I really need to shrink this edb file, as the backups, and for that matter, the restore takes way too long. I am not 100% certain of the best, or safest, method to complete this process as I keep hearing conflicting stories. 1. Online defrag will free up the disk space, which is running nightly, but it's not clearing up space for me. These people also usually say that never run the offline defrag. 2. Offline defrag is the only method, and they use it on a regular basis, meaning once per month/every other month. Just looking for some more comments and/or concerns of doing the offline defrag, since the nightly online defrag isn't doing anything to free up space. TIA, ~Mike Z List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice?
Event ID 1221 says: The database has 369 megabytes of free space after online defragmentation has terminated. If I understand what you are saying, I would only be freeing up 369MB of whitespace by doing an offline defrag? My concern is that I have approximately 350 regular mailboxes, 50 dl's and 50 cr's, and I can't believe that I actually have 50GB of mail with 350 mailboxes. My 2 largest mailboxes are just barely over a 1GB, and only 20 or so mailboxes are above 500MB. If I am missing something here, please feel free to correct me. Thanks, Mike Z -Original Message- From: Lefkovics, William [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 1:54 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? The online defrag defrags data within the file. It doesn't change the file size. What does event ID 1221 show in the application event log? If the whitespace is significant, then perhaps an offline defrag would be appropriate for you. William Lefkovics, MCSE, A+ -Original Message- From: Mike Zatkalik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 11:25 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Hello, I am running Exchange Enterprise 5.5 SP3 on NT4 Enterprise Server. Before I started at this company, the previous Exchange admin wasn't deleting ANY mailboxes of old employees, which totaled approximately 11 GB that could be deleted. My pub.edb is just about up to 50GB, which takes almost 9 hours to backup, and I noticed after deleting roughly 4GB of old mailboxes, the edb file was still the same size. I really need to shrink this edb file, as the backups, and for that matter, the restore takes way too long. I am not 100% certain of the best, or safest, method to complete this process as I keep hearing conflicting stories. 1. Online defrag will free up the disk space, which is running nightly, but it's not clearing up space for me. These people also usually say that never run the offline defrag. 2. Offline defrag is the only method, and they use it on a regular basis, meaning once per month/every other month. Just looking for some more comments and/or concerns of doing the offline defrag, since the nightly online defrag isn't doing anything to free up space. TIA, ~Mike Z List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice?
Is that your Priv.edb or Pub.edb that has 369Mb of whitespace? From what your saying 50Gb does seem unusually large. Simon -Original Message- From: Mike Zatkalik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, 21 December 2001 9:39 a.m. To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Event ID 1221 says: The database has 369 megabytes of free space after online defragmentation has terminated. If I understand what you are saying, I would only be freeing up 369MB of whitespace by doing an offline defrag? My concern is that I have approximately 350 regular mailboxes, 50 dl's and 50 cr's, and I can't believe that I actually have 50GB of mail with 350 mailboxes. My 2 largest mailboxes are just barely over a 1GB, and only 20 or so mailboxes are above 500MB. If I am missing something here, please feel free to correct me. Thanks, Mike Z -Original Message- From: Lefkovics, William [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 1:54 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? The online defrag defrags data within the file. It doesn't change the file size. What does event ID 1221 show in the application event log? If the whitespace is significant, then perhaps an offline defrag would be appropriate for you. William Lefkovics, MCSE, A+ -Original Message- From: Mike Zatkalik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 11:25 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Hello, I am running Exchange Enterprise 5.5 SP3 on NT4 Enterprise Server. Before I started at this company, the previous Exchange admin wasn't deleting ANY mailboxes of old employees, which totaled approximately 11 GB that could be deleted. My pub.edb is just about up to 50GB, which takes almost 9 hours to backup, and I noticed after deleting roughly 4GB of old mailboxes, the edb file was still the same size. I really need to shrink this edb file, as the backups, and for that matter, the restore takes way too long. I am not 100% certain of the best, or safest, method to complete this process as I keep hearing conflicting stories. 1. Online defrag will free up the disk space, which is running nightly, but it's not clearing up space for me. These people also usually say that never run the offline defrag. 2. Offline defrag is the only method, and they use it on a regular basis, meaning once per month/every other month. Just looking for some more comments and/or concerns of doing the offline defrag, since the nightly online defrag isn't doing anything to free up space. TIA, ~Mike Z List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm # Notice of Confidential information The information contained in this electronic mail is CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION and may be LEGALLY PRIVILEGED, intended only for the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that the use, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this document is strictly prohibited. If you have received this electronic message in error, please immediately notify us by return or telephone call collect to 07 577 6049) and destroy the original message. Thank you. This e-mail message has been scanned and cleared by MailMarshal www.marshalsoftware.com # List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice?
What is your deleted item retention line set to? -Original Message- From: Mike Zatkalik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 3:39 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Event ID 1221 says: The database has 369 megabytes of free space after online defragmentation has terminated. If I understand what you are saying, I would only be freeing up 369MB of whitespace by doing an offline defrag? My concern is that I have approximately 350 regular mailboxes, 50 dl's and 50 cr's, and I can't believe that I actually have 50GB of mail with 350 mailboxes. My 2 largest mailboxes are just barely over a 1GB, and only 20 or so mailboxes are above 500MB. If I am missing something here, please feel free to correct me. Thanks, Mike Z -Original Message- From: Lefkovics, William [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 1:54 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? The online defrag defrags data within the file. It doesn't change the file size. What does event ID 1221 show in the application event log? If the whitespace is significant, then perhaps an offline defrag would be appropriate for you. William Lefkovics, MCSE, A+ -Original Message- From: Mike Zatkalik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 11:25 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Hello, I am running Exchange Enterprise 5.5 SP3 on NT4 Enterprise Server. Before I started at this company, the previous Exchange admin wasn't deleting ANY mailboxes of old employees, which totaled approximately 11 GB that could be deleted. My pub.edb is just about up to 50GB, which takes almost 9 hours to backup, and I noticed after deleting roughly 4GB of old mailboxes, the edb file was still the same size. I really need to shrink this edb file, as the backups, and for that matter, the restore takes way too long. I am not 100% certain of the best, or safest, method to complete this process as I keep hearing conflicting stories. 1. Online defrag will free up the disk space, which is running nightly, but it's not clearing up space for me. These people also usually say that never run the offline defrag. 2. Offline defrag is the only method, and they use it on a regular basis, meaning once per month/every other month. Just looking for some more comments and/or concerns of doing the offline defrag, since the nightly online defrag isn't doing anything to free up space. TIA, ~Mike Z List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice?
That number is not exact. It would be the worst case scenario (ie the least you would recover). There are separate 1221's for the pub and priv. But I certainly wouldn't bother for 369MB. William Lefkovics, MCSE, A+ --- Why just ride, when you can fly? http://www.airborne.net --- Rent this space: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: Mike Zatkalik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 12:39 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Event ID 1221 says: The database has 369 megabytes of free space after online defragmentation has terminated. If I understand what you are saying, I would only be freeing up 369MB of whitespace by doing an offline defrag? My concern is that I have approximately 350 regular mailboxes, 50 dl's and 50 cr's, and I can't believe that I actually have 50GB of mail with 350 mailboxes. My 2 largest mailboxes are just barely over a 1GB, and only 20 or so mailboxes are above 500MB. If I am missing something here, please feel free to correct me. Thanks, Mike Z -Original Message- From: Lefkovics, William [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 1:54 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? The online defrag defrags data within the file. It doesn't change the file size. What does event ID 1221 show in the application event log? If the whitespace is significant, then perhaps an offline defrag would be appropriate for you. William Lefkovics, MCSE, A+ -Original Message- From: Mike Zatkalik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 11:25 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Hello, I am running Exchange Enterprise 5.5 SP3 on NT4 Enterprise Server. Before I started at this company, the previous Exchange admin wasn't deleting ANY mailboxes of old employees, which totaled approximately 11 GB that could be deleted. My pub.edb is just about up to 50GB, which takes almost 9 hours to backup, and I noticed after deleting roughly 4GB of old mailboxes, the edb file was still the same size. I really need to shrink this edb file, as the backups, and for that matter, the restore takes way too long. I am not 100% certain of the best, or safest, method to complete this process as I keep hearing conflicting stories. 1. Online defrag will free up the disk space, which is running nightly, but it's not clearing up space for me. These people also usually say that never run the offline defrag. 2. Offline defrag is the only method, and they use it on a regular basis, meaning once per month/every other month. Just looking for some more comments and/or concerns of doing the offline defrag, since the nightly online defrag isn't doing anything to free up space. TIA, ~Mike Z List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice?
What is your deleted item retention set for? And you have no public folders? ~ -K.Borndale Network Administrator Sybari Software 631.630.8569 -direct dial 631.439.0689 -fax http://www.sybari.com One man's ceiling is another man's floor |+ || Mike Zatkalik | || zatkalik@clickcom| || merce.com| ||| || 12/20/2001 03:39 | || PM| || Please respond to | || MS-Exchange Admin| || Issues | ||| |+ --| | | | To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | cc: | | Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? | --| Event ID 1221 says: The database has 369 megabytes of free space after online defragmentation has terminated. If I understand what you are saying, I would only be freeing up 369MB of whitespace by doing an offline defrag? My concern is that I have approximately 350 regular mailboxes, 50 dl's and 50 cr's, and I can't believe that I actually have 50GB of mail with 350 mailboxes. My 2 largest mailboxes are just barely over a 1GB, and only 20 or so mailboxes are above 500MB. If I am missing something here, please feel free to correct me. Thanks, Mike Z -Original Message- From: Lefkovics, William [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 1:54 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? The online defrag defrags data within the file. It doesn't change the file size. What does event ID 1221 show in the application event log? If the whitespace is significant, then perhaps an offline defrag would be appropriate for you. William Lefkovics, MCSE, A+ -Original Message- From: Mike Zatkalik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 11:25 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Hello, I am running Exchange Enterprise 5.5 SP3 on NT4 Enterprise Server. Before I started at this company, the previous Exchange admin wasn't deleting ANY mailboxes of old employees, which totaled approximately 11 GB that could be deleted. My pub.edb is just about up to 50GB, which takes almost 9 hours to backup, and I noticed after deleting roughly 4GB of old mailboxes, the edb file was still the same size. I really need to shrink this edb file, as the backups, and for that matter, the restore takes way too long. I am not 100% certain of the best, or safest, method to complete this process as I keep hearing conflicting stories. 1. Online defrag will free up the disk space, which is running nightly, but it's not clearing up space for me. These people also usually say that never run the offline defrag. 2. Offline defrag is the only method, and they use it on a regular basis, meaning once per month/every other month. Just looking for some more comments and/or concerns of doing the offline defrag, since the nightly online defrag isn't doing anything to free up space. TIA, ~Mike Z List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
Re: Is the offline defrag my only choice?
Public Folders? Logs? - Original Message - From: Mike Zatkalik [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 15:39 Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Event ID 1221 says: The database has 369 megabytes of free space after online defragmentation has terminated. If I understand what you are saying, I would only be freeing up 369MB of whitespace by doing an offline defrag? My concern is that I have approximately 350 regular mailboxes, 50 dl's and 50 cr's, and I can't believe that I actually have 50GB of mail with 350 mailboxes. My 2 largest mailboxes are just barely over a 1GB, and only 20 or so mailboxes are above 500MB. If I am missing something here, please feel free to correct me. Thanks, Mike Z -Original Message- From: Lefkovics, William [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 1:54 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? The online defrag defrags data within the file. It doesn't change the file size. What does event ID 1221 show in the application event log? If the whitespace is significant, then perhaps an offline defrag would be appropriate for you. William Lefkovics, MCSE, A+ -Original Message- From: Mike Zatkalik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 11:25 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Hello, I am running Exchange Enterprise 5.5 SP3 on NT4 Enterprise Server. Before I started at this company, the previous Exchange admin wasn't deleting ANY mailboxes of old employees, which totaled approximately 11 GB that could be deleted. My pub.edb is just about up to 50GB, which takes almost 9 hours to backup, and I noticed after deleting roughly 4GB of old mailboxes, the edb file was still the same size. I really need to shrink this edb file, as the backups, and for that matter, the restore takes way too long. I am not 100% certain of the best, or safest, method to complete this process as I keep hearing conflicting stories. 1. Online defrag will free up the disk space, which is running nightly, but it's not clearing up space for me. These people also usually say that never run the offline defrag. 2. Offline defrag is the only method, and they use it on a regular basis, meaning once per month/every other month. Just looking for some more comments and/or concerns of doing the offline defrag, since the nightly online defrag isn't doing anything to free up space. TIA, ~Mike Z List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm _ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice?
Thanks for you input. I guess I should wait around and let this number grow. Thanks again, Mike Z -Original Message- From: Lefkovics, William [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 3:08 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? That number is not exact. It would be the worst case scenario (ie the least you would recover). There are separate 1221's for the pub and priv. But I certainly wouldn't bother for 369MB. William Lefkovics, MCSE, A+ --- Why just ride, when you can fly? http://www.airborne.net --- Rent this space: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: Mike Zatkalik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 12:39 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Event ID 1221 says: The database has 369 megabytes of free space after online defragmentation has terminated. If I understand what you are saying, I would only be freeing up 369MB of whitespace by doing an offline defrag? My concern is that I have approximately 350 regular mailboxes, 50 dl's and 50 cr's, and I can't believe that I actually have 50GB of mail with 350 mailboxes. My 2 largest mailboxes are just barely over a 1GB, and only 20 or so mailboxes are above 500MB. If I am missing something here, please feel free to correct me. Thanks, Mike Z -Original Message- From: Lefkovics, William [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 1:54 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? The online defrag defrags data within the file. It doesn't change the file size. What does event ID 1221 show in the application event log? If the whitespace is significant, then perhaps an offline defrag would be appropriate for you. William Lefkovics, MCSE, A+ -Original Message- From: Mike Zatkalik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 11:25 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Hello, I am running Exchange Enterprise 5.5 SP3 on NT4 Enterprise Server. Before I started at this company, the previous Exchange admin wasn't deleting ANY mailboxes of old employees, which totaled approximately 11 GB that could be deleted. My pub.edb is just about up to 50GB, which takes almost 9 hours to backup, and I noticed after deleting roughly 4GB of old mailboxes, the edb file was still the same size. I really need to shrink this edb file, as the backups, and for that matter, the restore takes way too long. I am not 100% certain of the best, or safest, method to complete this process as I keep hearing conflicting stories. 1. Online defrag will free up the disk space, which is running nightly, but it's not clearing up space for me. These people also usually say that never run the offline defrag. 2. Offline defrag is the only method, and they use it on a regular basis, meaning once per month/every other month. Just looking for some more comments and/or concerns of doing the offline defrag, since the nightly online defrag isn't doing anything to free up space. TIA, ~Mike Z List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice?
I guess I do need to correct myself. The file in question is my priv.edb, NOT pub.edb. Logs, from what I understand, are not stored in the priv.edb file. I am checking the properties on the priv file directly, so I do not believe public folders, or logs are the issue. I just looked at the item retention settings and did notice that it is set to 14 days, which I think should be lowered to 7 days, but have to make sure that I can go that short. With this new information, it makes a little bit more sense in regards to the size of the file. What is the ideal time frame for this retention period? Is my thought of 7 days too short? We do full backups on the weekends and incremental nightly, obviously without circular logging enabled. Thanks again, MZ -Original Message- From: David N. Precht [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 3:45 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Re: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Public Folders? Logs? - Original Message - From: Mike Zatkalik [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 15:39 Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Event ID 1221 says: The database has 369 megabytes of free space after online defragmentation has terminated. If I understand what you are saying, I would only be freeing up 369MB of whitespace by doing an offline defrag? My concern is that I have approximately 350 regular mailboxes, 50 dl's and 50 cr's, and I can't believe that I actually have 50GB of mail with 350 mailboxes. My 2 largest mailboxes are just barely over a 1GB, and only 20 or so mailboxes are above 500MB. If I am missing something here, please feel free to correct me. Thanks, Mike Z -Original Message- From: Lefkovics, William [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 1:54 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is the offline defrag my only choice? The online defrag defrags data within the file. It doesn't change the file size. What does event ID 1221 show in the application event log? If the whitespace is significant, then perhaps an offline defrag would be appropriate for you. William Lefkovics, MCSE, A+ -Original Message- From: Mike Zatkalik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 11:25 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Is the offline defrag my only choice? Hello, I am running Exchange Enterprise 5.5 SP3 on NT4 Enterprise Server. Before I started at this company, the previous Exchange admin wasn't deleting ANY mailboxes of old employees, which totaled approximately 11 GB that could be deleted. My pub.edb is just about up to 50GB, which takes almost 9 hours to backup, and I noticed after deleting roughly 4GB of old mailboxes, the edb file was still the same size. I really need to shrink this edb file, as the backups, and for that matter, the restore takes way too long. I am not 100% certain of the best, or safest, method to complete this process as I keep hearing conflicting stories. 1. Online defrag will free up the disk space, which is running nightly, but it's not clearing up space for me. These people also usually say that never run the offline defrag. 2. Offline defrag is the only method, and they use it on a regular basis, meaning once per month/every other month. Just looking for some more comments and/or concerns of doing the offline defrag, since the nightly online defrag isn't doing anything to free up space. TIA, ~Mike Z List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm _ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
