Hi all,
My environment : 2 Exchange servers 2013 CU19 (CAS + Mailbox roles both) in 1 DAG, 5 mailbox databases.
Both servers : Exchange is installed on partition C and mailbox databases are stored on partition D.
All mailbox databases are enabled "circular loging" , Keep deleted items for 30 days , Keep deleted mailboxes for 30 days.
These are Exchange report generating every day on 8 AM
Total Servers: | Total Mailboxes: | Total Roles: | |||||
E2013CU19 | E2013CU19 | Org | CAS | EDGE | HUB | MBX | UM |
2 | 1308 | 1308 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Site: Default-First-Site-Name | External Names: mail.mydomain.com Internal Names: ex2.mydomain.com,ex1.mydomain.com,mail.mydomain.com | |||||||
Mailboxes: 1308 | Exchange Version | CAS | EDGE | HUB | MBX | UM | OS Version | OS Service Pack |
ex1 | Exchange 2013 CU19 | 824 | Windows Server 2008 R2 Ent | Service Pack 1 | ||||
ex2 | Exchange 2013 CU19 | 484 | Windows Server 2008 R2 Ent | Service Pack 1 | ||||
Database Availability Group Name | Member Count | Database Availability Group Members |
DAG01 | 2 | ex2 ex1 |
Server | Database Name | Mailboxes | Av. Mailbox Size | DB Size | DB Whitespace | Database Disk Free | Log Disk Free | Circular Logging | Copies (n) |
ex2 | Mailbox Database C | 253 | 339.77 MB | 375.88 GB | 8.08 GB | 28.5% | 28.5% | Yes | ex2 ex1 (2) |
ex2 | Mailbox Database B | 231 | 418.54 MB | 343.13 GB | 5.96 GB | 28.5% | 28.5% | Yes | ex2 ex1 (2) |
ex1 | Mailbox Database E | 251 | 353.37 MB | 522.13 GB | 50.27 GB | 18.6% | 18.6% | Yes | ex1 ex2 (2) |
ex1 | Mailbox Database D | 256 | 372.86 MB | 349.00 GB | 8.64 GB | 18.6% | 18.6% | Yes | ex1 ex2 (2) |
ex1 | Mailbox Database A | 317 | 379.15 MB | 776.13 GB | 358.42 GB | 18.6% | 18.6% | Yes | ex1 ex2 (2) |
Size of every mailbox database files (.edb)
D:\Exchange Mailbox Database\Mailbox Database A\Mailbox Database A.edb : 813 GB
D:\Exchange Mailbox Database\Mailbox Database B\Mailbox Database B.edb : 359 GB
D:\Exchange Mailbox Database\Mailbox Database C\Mailbox Database C.edb : 394 GB
D:\Exchange Mailbox Database\Mailbox Database D\Mailbox Database D.edb : 547 GB
D:\Exchange Mailbox Database\Mailbox Database E\Mailbox Database E.edb : 365 GB
Mailbox database files seem don't make sense for ex: Mailbox database A has 317 mailboxes , avg mailbox size : 379MB , most of mailboxes have quota 512MB (some managers, directors have larger quota)
317 mailboxes x 379MB + deleted items for 30 days + Keep deleted mailboxes for 30 days = 813GB ?
As you can see above partition D free space remain 18.6%, so I want to shrink mailbox database files to make more free space if it is possible .
Can I :
- mount a removable hdd into my exchange servers
or
- mount a network drive on my NAS device into my exchange servers
Then Use Windows Server Backup to back up Exchange to do VSS full backups on these databases ?
Will it help me shrink these mailbox database .edb files ? Should I run backup on server which has mailbox database active mount or passive mount ? Any dangerous effects ?
Please give me some advice , thank you very much.