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Free Up space after deleting mailbox RRS feed

  • Question

  • I have deleted a mailbox to get some free space, but after deleting the database i dis not get any free space
    Friday, January 25, 2013 10:50 AM

Answers

  • Hi

    The background cleanup will happen after the mailbox retention period has expired, but even then it will not reduce the size of the EDB file on disk it will only increase the white space in the database for new data to be written to.  The EDB file size can only be reduced by running an offline defrag which is not recommended as a regular maintenance task.  The best approach would be to create a new database on a disk where you have enough storage space and move all the mailboxes there.

    Cheers, Steve

    Friday, January 25, 2013 1:56 PM
  • Just as steve said, if you want to reduce the edb file size, you need do offline defrag.

    How to defragment Exchange databases
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328804

    Thanks,

    Evan

    Evan Liu
    TechNet Community Support

    Monday, January 28, 2013 10:15 AM
    Moderator

All replies

  • Hi,

    Even if you delete the mailbox, the free space can come only after the back ground maintenance operation on the databaseb is done. Also check whether the background maintenance is enabled for the database:

    get-MailboxDatabase -Identity 'database name' | fl BackgroundDatabaseMaintenance.

    If the output shows $True it's enabled and if it's false set it to true:

    Set-MailboxDatabase -Identity 'database name' -BackgroundDatabaseMaintenance $true


    Regards from ExchangeOnline Windows Administrator's Area

    Friday, January 25, 2013 11:24 AM
  • Hi Philip,

    if its true, then when will be run this background.

    Friday, January 25, 2013 12:27 PM
  • Hi

    The background cleanup will happen after the mailbox retention period has expired, but even then it will not reduce the size of the EDB file on disk it will only increase the white space in the database for new data to be written to.  The EDB file size can only be reduced by running an offline defrag which is not recommended as a regular maintenance task.  The best approach would be to create a new database on a disk where you have enough storage space and move all the mailboxes there.

    Cheers, Steve

    Friday, January 25, 2013 1:56 PM
  • To get free space you can remove disabled mailboxes but you will only get more whitespace in database, but size of .edb file will not reduce. 

    Exchange 2010 database create free space (white space)

    you can use Remove-StoreMailbox


    Remigiusz
    ExchangeBlog

    Friday, January 25, 2013 3:31 PM
  • Just as steve said, if you want to reduce the edb file size, you need do offline defrag.

    How to defragment Exchange databases
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328804

    Thanks,

    Evan

    Evan Liu
    TechNet Community Support

    Monday, January 28, 2013 10:15 AM
    Moderator