Re: Eseutil utility Defrag question
- From: HockeyMullet <HockeyMullet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 07:51:04 -0800
Sorry about the link. Here's the article.
Exchange Server Standard Maintenance Checklist
By Brien Posey, SearchExchange.com Contributor
Brien M. Posey, MVP and technology consultant, provides this standard
maintenance checklist to help you keep your Exchange servers running like
well-oiled machines.
□ Keep Windows up to date
One of the most important tasks in maintaining your Exchange organization is
keeping the Windows operating system up to date. After all, Exchange Server
is completely dependent on Windows. If a security weakness or software bug
exists in Windows, there’s a good chance it will affect Exchange on some
level as well.
Microsoft routinely releases patches for Windows that correct new bugs and
security holes that have been discovered. Fortunately, you don’t have to
constantly search the Web for the latest updates. Windows Server 2003
contains a feature called Windows Update, which allows you to check for the
latest patches and install them automatically.
If you are depending on Windows Update for your software updates, I
recommend scanning for new ones at least three times per week. However, there
are also many third-party applications available that automate the patch
management process.
□ Keep Exchange up to date
Some administrators don’t realize that Windows Update does not check for
Exchange Server patches. The easiest way to check for any Exchange updates is
to run the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer.
Microsoft also has another free tool called the Microsoft Exchange Best
Practices Analyzer, which checks to make sure that your server is running an
optimal configuration, and that there are no potential problems on the
horizon. Although this tool isn’t technically designed to help you to
download software updates, I recommend taking the time to run it once per
week.
□ Monitor disk space consumption
As you are no doubt aware, Exchange Server is hungry for disk space. If
Exchange runs out of disk space, the Information Store will shut down,
leaving you with no e-mail. It is therefore extremely important to keep tabs
on the amount of free disk space on the server. You not only want to monitor
the volumes containing the Exchange databases, but also those volumes
containing transaction logs.
Keep in mind that while running out of disk space is a big problem, letting
the Exchange databases get too large is an even bigger problem. Exchange
Server 2003 Enterprise Edition doesn’t impose an Information Store size
limit, but all other versions of Exchange have a 16 GB limit. If the
Information Store reaches the 16 GB threshold, the repair process is very
messy, so it’s important to keep tabs on things so that ceiling is never
reached.
□ Monitor hardware utilization
Monitoring the way Exchange is utilizing your server’s hardware isn’t
something you need to do every day, but it is important to do once in a
while. As your user base grows, you may find that your server’s CPU becomes
overworked and that available memory starts to dwindle. So run Performance
Monitor about once a month to compare the current hardware utilization
against the previous month’s recorded utilization. This will allow you to
spot trends over the long term, so you can upgrade your server hardware
before major performance problems arise.
□ Monitor and document license usage
What would you do if the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA)
visited your office tomorrow and performed a software license audit? If you
aren’t prepared for such an audit, the fines alone could be enough to drive
your company out of business.
It is extremely important to keep accurate records of the number of
employees who access your Exchange organization. You must ensure that you
have enough Windows Client Access Licenses, Exchange Client Access Licenses,
Windows XP Licenses, and Microsoft Outlook Licenses to accommodate the number
of people who are accessing your Exchange server. Hopefully, you have an
asset management program that tracks software license compliance. If not, you
should be updating your records every time you create or remove a mailbox.
□ Perform regular backups
Obviously, it’s important to back up your Information Store in case your
server ever crashes. Exchange backups are important for another reason
though. When Exchange receives a message, the message is not written directly
to the Information Store, but rather to a transaction log. Running an online
backup forces the contents of the transaction logs to be committed to the
Information Store. If you don’t regularly back up your Exchange server, the
transaction logs can continue to grow until your server runs out of disk
space.
□ Defragment the databases
As messages are created and deleted, the Information Store becomes
fragmented. Exchange 2000 and 2003 perform automated defragmentation of the
databases to help reduce the effects of fragmentation. The problem with this
automatic defragmentation is that free space within the database is never
released. The only way to release the free space (and decrease the database’s
size) is to perform an offline defragmentation. To do so, you will need to
take the Information Store offline and run the ESEUTIL program with the /D
switch.
The volume containing the Information Store must have at least the size of
the database that you are defragmenting, plus 10% in free space. Therefore,
if you had a 1 GB database, an offline defragmentation would require 1.1 GB
of free disk space. The disk space will be returned to you after the
defragmentation is complete, but is needed as temporary work space. I
recommend performing an offline defragmentation once every one to two months.
□ Schedule periodic reboots
Just as a database can become fragmented, so can the server’s memory. The
easiest way to get rid of the fragmentation is to reboot the server. If your
corporation’s server availability policy will allow it, I recommend rebooting
your Exchange server about once a month.
□ Let MOM help
As you can see, there are lots of things that you can do to maintain a
healthy Exchange environment. One of the best things you can do though is run
Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM). Although MOM can be a little pricy, it
monitors thousands of aspects related to Windows and Exchange. If an issue is
encountered, MOM takes corrective action or alerts you to the issue before it
has a chance to become a problem. In my opinion, MOM is the ultimate
maintenance tool.
"Ben Winzenz [Exchange MVP]" wrote:
> Membership required. Strike one.
>
> There is a fairly good reason that you don't find that information on
> Microsoft's website. You certainly won't find any PSS engineers that will
> recommend offline defrags every 1-2 months.
>
> What other items are on their "maintenance checklist"? There are perhaps
> other things that need to be cleared up, no?
>
> --
> Ben Winzenz
> Exchange MVP
> MessageOne
> Read my blog!
> http://winzenz.blogspot.com
> http://feeds.feedburner.com/winzenz (RSS Feed)
>
>
> "HockeyMullet" <HockeyMullet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:16007481-B8C3-475F-803C-4516D9DF732E@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid43_gci1064013,00.html?track=NL-368&ad=539998
> >
> > "Andy David - MVP" wrote:
> >
> >> On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 06:32:02 -0800, HockeyMullet
> >> <HockeyMullet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >>
> >> >I'm actually going through a "maintenance checklist" from an Exchange
> >> >website
> >> >that recommends doing offline defrags every one to two months.
> >> >
> >>
> >> Can you post a link to that? I have never heard of this.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> >"Andy David - MVP" wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 06:08:02 -0800, HockeyMullet
> >> >> <HockeyMullet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> >I'm about to run a defrag, so what I was wondering how long does it
> >> >> >generally
> >> >> >take (average time)? My priv1.edb is about 12 GB. I'm trying to
> >> >> >plan a good
> >> >> >time to do this. Thanks.
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> I am more interested in why you are running it in the first place.
> >> >>
> >>
>
>
>
.
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