How to defrag exchange 2010 database [Step By Step Guide with Screens]

Why do we need to defrag the exchange mailbox database? Here are some situations in which you have to perform defragmentation on your exchange mailbox database:

1. No additional space left to create a new database to migrate the mailbox.
2. Active alerts for the low disk space.
3. In order to claim whitespace created by archiving process.

Your options to reclaim space (whitespace) created due to deletion of mails and other items from mailbox are to either:

• Create a new mailbox database and move all the mailboxes to that database: A mailbox migration has fewer risks, can be less disruptive as a whole, but will generate a lot of transaction logging that needs to be kept under control so it may take longer (i.e. several nights/weekends to migrate) as opposed to just one outage for a defrag.
• Perform an offline defrag (using eseutil /d command): An offline defrag involves an outage for all users on that database, but may be more convenient if there is not additional storage available to allocate to the Exchange server to hold the new database.

Defrag exchange 2010 database using eseutli /d (Step by Step Guide)

Note:

• You can defragment a database only if it is dismounted which means no user can access the database (emails) until the defrag process is complete.
• You need some available disk space (1.2 times free space) to perform the defrag. This is because a new file is written during the defragmentation process. 
• Most important one the backup that you can use for recovery if something goes wrong during the defrag. 

Here the steps that you can follow to perform defragmentation exchange 2010 database:

Step 1: Check the size of mailbox (how big it is?) and how much whitespace is there. To check this you need to run the following command in Exchange Management Shell.

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabase -Status | ft name,databasesize,availablenewmailboxspace –auto

This command will show Name, Size and Available New Mailbox Space (whitespace). The whitespace is created due to             archiving. If you want to reclaim this space go to step 2.

Step 2: Open the Exchange Management Shell and navigate to the folder containing the database file.

cd D:\Data\MB-HO-01

Step 3: Dismount the mailbox database.

Dismount-Database MB-HO-01

Step 4: Run ESEUtil to defrag the file.

[PS] D:\Data\MB-HO-01>eseutil /d MB-HO-01.edb /t\\testserver\defrag\temp.edb

Note:

  It is recommended that you immediately perform a full backup

  of this database. If you restore a backup made before the

  defragmentation, the database will be rolled back to the state

  it was in at the time of that backup.

Step 5: Mount the database again.

mount-Database MB-HO-01

Step 6: check that the file is smaller, and all the white space is gone.

Get-MailboxDatabase -Status | ft name,databasesize,availablenewmailboxspace -auto

Reasons why not to do offline defrag

Here are the top reasons why you should not perform offline defrag using Eseutil /d unless or until it is very necessary:

1. Database Dismounted during the defrag process: During the defragmentation process as stated above you need to dismount the database first. Dismounting the database for a long time can cause problem (emails can’t be accessed). After the defragmentation process complete you need to remount the database and take a full backup immediately which is time consuming.
2. Risk of Database Corruption: There is risk of database corruption during the defrag process.
3. Complicated and time consuming: offline defrag not only complicates the process of backup and recovery but also a time consuming process. 

So what’s the alternative for offline defrag process?

So what to do in case of getting active alerts for low space on storage (database need to be cleared) otherwise database dismounting problem.

Read the following post for better solution to increase the size of database and other life saving strategies that you can perform in order to save you exchange database from being corruption. 

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How to take Backup of a PST file in Microsoft Outlook

You can take Backup of your PST file which contains your emails, contacts and other data. So, why do you need to create a backup of your PST file at all? The answer is very simple because a PST file is very susceptible to corruption. There is file size limitation for every PST folder you created. If the size limit exceeds then the PST is more prone to corrupt. Having backup of your PST file is good in case of PST corruption.

Steps by Step Guide to take Backup of PST file in MS Outlook 2007

Step 1: Locate the PST file in your system

There are many ways to locate your PST files the easiest one is described below:

Open Control Panel    

Start-->Control Panel-->Mails

 

A Mail Setup Window will appear as shown. Click on Show Profiles Tab to choose profile [or user account for which you want to take backup].

   

Select profile and click on Properties.

   

Now Click on Data Files to locate your PST files.

   

Select PST folder which you want to a backup of and click on Settings button.

   

Copy the path under Filename (this is the actual location where the PST is stored in your system).

   

Step 2: Paste this path to Windows Start Button-> search the actual file in the system and copy the file using right click.

   

Step 3: Copy this file to CD/DVD/Flash Drive/or any other storage device. You can also upload this file to cloud (like Google Drive or your Dropbox Account) to access your PST anywhere. 

Shortcut Method to take a backup of PST File 

There is an alternative way through which you can locate your PST file within a second and take Backup of it. Simply go to My Computer and on the right side search bar enter *.pst and hit Enter. You will get a whole list of PST stored in your system. This trick is useful for finding all the PST in single hit but finding your PST can be troublesome in case you are having bunch of PST files stored in your system.

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