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Exchange 16GB limit reached.

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by jeff

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I have a customr who has just reached the 16gb limit on the size of the priv1.edb. I have done a defrag, etc, and am out of the woods for a month or two. My question is; If I create a second Storage Group in the System Manager, will I get another 16GB after I move the biggest hogs into the new Storage Group, or is 16GB the magic number for a server?

10 replies

by bfilmfan

The limit is per database ? i.e. 16GB for the priv.edb and 16GB for the pub.edb.

Either upgrade to Enterprise or off-load the mail into long term storage PST's on DVD.

by skidoggeruk

You could create a networked pst, say on their H drive, for archiving all the old rubbish that accumulates. And even offer to cut these to a CD/DVD for them. Maybe cutting a tape of these for when they lose/scratch/destroy that CD/DVD.

You could teach or create a How-to for email housekeeping of mailbox and pst. This usually helps for some of my more persistant people. Once you show them how to organise their folders a bit better, they seem to get a bit better. IE by year/month, customer/contract, etc/etc

Course it might be possible for them to upgrade, but you would probably still like to enforce some sort of upper limit.

Good Luck

by jennys.lists

With SP2 for Exchange 2003 the 16GB limit has been raised to 75GB, so hang in there till it's released very soon.

by yodatech

EMC makes a great software product for archiving Exchange. It also serves as a compliance product for Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPPA. This will allow ALL of the mail to be available and allow aging of the databases.
James Yearnd
yodatech@yahoo.com

by chaotic1

The 16gb limit is imposed on the version that you have, however, there is no limit to the size of the database when using Enterprise edition. If budget allows, upgrade to that, but still look into putting a limit on the users. The size of that database will affect the time the for the backup as well as any maintenance time if you ever have to take down the server for any reason.

The other comments here are also good advice. You can reduce the size by having users do some housekeeping, but if you're in a situation anything like i was, that won't happen anytime soon. Your other options are to be (as i was once called) the email nazi. Make an annoucement that all mail before a certain date will be deleted, and run the mailbox cleanup wizard to remove old mail. -- this will anger a lot of users, and could possibly cause some problems (if the user REALLY DID need all of that mail) but you'll be able to mount the database again, and continue to recieve mail. :)

by risunantony

I would say hold on till the the release of SP2. I've heard that they are increasing the limit to 75GB. I agree with jennys on this. Also from the above posts mailbbox house keeping is a good practice. Also try using some upper limits on your mailboxes.

by drvtach

Most everyone is right here. There are a few things that can be done.
[Microsoft Knowledge Base:319583
First, The 16-GB size limit for the Exchange private mailbox store database and the 16-GB size limit for the Exchange public mailbox store database is the sum of the size of both the Priv.edb and the Priv.stm files. When you view the space that a mailbox uses in Exchange System Manager, the amount only includes the space that is used by the Priv.edb file. The amount does not include the space that the Priv.stm file uses. When you put a limit on a mailbox, you only limit the storage in the Priv.edb file, but not in the Priv.stm file. For example, a mailbox may appear to use only 250 MB of space in Exchange System Manager, but the total space that the mailbox uses may be 450 MB. This difference occurs because the 200 MB of space that the Priv.stm file uses does not appear in Exchange System Manager.
NOW M$ says there is a REG Hack to "Temp" Increase the size to 17Gs. I find this strange.
Maybe a check to see how big you can truly go and if it is truly a temporary fix. It should be just a matter of finding the Dat file that resets the size. I think $ here.
To much to post here so give this a look.
http://helpdesk.emailclean.com/cgi-bin/kb.cgi?view=16&lang=en

Have fun all
Bill MacG

by nostaff

The reg hack to 17 Gb found here at tech Republic works. It allows mail to begin flowing again, but it just intended to buy IT time to work on the store to get below the 16 GB limit. The hack should not be left on indefinetly, since if you allow it to grow to 17 GB you will truly be dead in the water. We too have been told that SP2 will allow 75GB store. This is a more reasonable size for the non-enterprise version as it will still require management of mail, but not be so small as to prevent the pratical use of e-mail with file attachments.

by dschneider

My IS is almost 30gb. I am now on 2003, but this IS started out in life as a 5.5 IS. So it is up to you to make multiple IS's.

by bruno fonseca

Since you are not running Enterprise, the cost might be a factor for your customer or else you would be running Enterprise Edition. Try to get by for another month or so and MS is coming out with SP2 for exchange and it does bump up the storage capacity to 75GB. There is a way to edit the registry to give you an extra 1GB of space, BUT IT IS ONLY TO BE USED ONCE YOU REACH THE 16 GB LIMIT. This entry will allow you to get your info store back online, do some clean up and then don an online and offline defrag. Don't use it to give you extra space on your store or else once you fill it that's it, your're screwed

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