[itdiscuss] Exhange Defrag

Tue May 26 18:40:23 EDT 2009

For Exchange servers with no maintenance window at all, you can bring up a new Storage Group (assuming you have Enterprise or 2007) and run a mailbox move.  Just dump users over from one to the other.  It means that users will have downtime while their mailbox is actually moving, but then they can get back to work again.  Once you get all your users moved to the new storage group, you can kill off the old storage group files and recycle it for the next time you need to move mailboxes.  It has pretty much the same effect as eseutil except it doesn't do the same level of error-checking.

Better question: Remember the good old days when users didn't think recipe-swapping and tired jokes were critical apps?

   Kevin

From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org] On Behalf Of Jason Powell
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 4:51 PM
To: IT Discussion Forum
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] Exhange Defrag

Kevin,
I think you nailed it ... our email stores are so huge that it's difficult to plan a 12+ hour maint window for email ... that's assuming it could even finish in 12hrs.
If memory serves right you can also exmerge a user from one store to another which defrags and reclaims white space for that mailbox ... I think we're up to 4 stores now for our user base.
Remember the good old days when email was a convenience and not a mission critical app? ;-)

Jason

Jason Powell
IT Director
Granger Community Church
630 E. University Drive
Granger, IN 46530
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From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Brunson
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 5:21 PM
To: 'IT Discussion Forum'
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] Exhange Defrag

I think it is safe to say that most people use eseutil more for reactive than proactive reasons.  For those of you who have had to use eseutil and isinteg to repair a database after <power failure|out of disk space|Exchange just wanted to ruin your weekend> you know exactly what I am talking about.  There is nothing quite like watching the little progress bar for 14 hours straight while someone calls every 15 minutes to see if the Exchange server is back up yet.  It is sometimes hard to justify the downtime (eseutil can take a LONG time if you have large databases, and who doesn't these days) unless the server is already actually broken.  But for those of you who manage to proactively maintain your server using eseutil, I applaud you.  I think running a disk defrag immediately after a DB defrag is a perfect idea if you can get away with it.  If you can't manage that kind of extended downtime (or don't relish spending your Thanksgiving watching the a defrag while everyone else eats turkey), at least do the eseutil even if you can't do the defrag.

From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org] On Behalf Of Bobby Stewart
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 4:06 PM
To: IT Discussion Forum
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] Exhange Defrag

I found this insightful, "Exchange databases run a defragmentation process once a day by default..." The rest of the article, How can I defragment Exchange 2000/2003 Server databases? can be found at:
http://www.petri.co.il/defragment_exchange_2000_2003_server_databases.htm

The article goes on to describe the process of ESEUTIL offline defragmentation. It seems to me that one would want to follow this procedure with a disk defrag while the store is still offline after the database defrag.

Bobby Stewart
Network Analyst
Brentwood Baptist Church
Brentwood, TN
(615) 324-6149 office
(615) 830-0012 cell

From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Brunson
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 2:03 PM
To: 'IT Discussion Forum'
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] Exhange Defrag

I agree that running a disk defrag on a running Exchange store is not the best idea.  However, I think I need to clarify something.  Disk defrag and eseutil are serving two different purposes.  Eseutil moves data around inside the database file to make sure it is all contiguous IN the file, and disk defrag makes sure that the sectors containing the files are all contiguous ON the disk.  As an Exchange database file grows, it can get spread all over the disk just like any other file.  Running eseutil for a database on a fairly full disk actually has the potential to make the database files significantly more fragmented, even if the data inside those files is made more contiguous.  Windows has to find a place to put those files when it makes them or expands them, and that may mean filling gaps on the hard drive.  If the drive is dedicated to Exchange databases you are less likely to find fragmented DBs, since the only thing on there will be DBs, but it is still possible.
A disk defrag will almost certainly not be able to defrag the Exchange DB files while the DB is mounted, and if it could that could result in a damaged DB.  So if you want to run a disk defrag, I would suggest you dismount the DB or stop the services.

Kevin Brunson

From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org] On Behalf Of Jason Hand
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 1:14 PM
To: 'IT Discussion Forum'
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] Exhange Defrag

I would not try a defrag on a volume with the exchange store on it while in production.  The store is just a couple of large database files and are not defragmentable except for what you mentioned, eseutil.  As for the other files, surely they are not causing performance problems for Exchange.

JKDefrag works well and I have used it on file servers and workstations with success.  Since it runs as a command-line utility it works very well and is easy to schedule via the Task Scheduler.

Defragmenting can help in situations where the drive is being used to do lots of read/write access to the files stored on it like a File server but since Exchange is like any other database system it houses it's files in 'containers' and therefore doesn't really benefit from the rest of the drive being defragmented.

-Jason

________________________________
From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org] On Behalf Of Stephen W. Klose
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 1:57 PM
To: discuss at itdiscuss.org
Subject: [itdiscuss] Exhange Defrag
Are there any issues with running a file level defrag on drive that also has the Exchange Server Stor?

I know there is eseutil, but at the same time, there are other files on the drive that are fragmented and affecting performance.

Here are some links that indicate it is okay, but I have seen warnings on the subject as well:
Microsoft Help Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328804
Article with user comments: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2004/10/25/247342.aspx

Also: Does anyone know of any issues with jkdefrag? (open source alternative to the windows defrag)

Thanks,

Steve Klose
Altadena Valley Presbyterian Church
Cell: 205.427.5420
Home: 205.987.7545
Pager: pager at klose.cc<mailto:pager at klose.cc>

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