Can you clarify on the "empty space" bit? Is that analogous to White Space? I.e. if a customer hits the new licensed limit (75GB) and then sets DIR to 0, deletes a bunch of mail, then runs online maintenance to purge those items, they can then re-mount the database as there would be a decent amount of white space?

Ben

Ben,

"Empty space" is analogous to "white space".

If the limit is reached by logical size, then deleting messages should resolve the issue. As long as it's done within 24 hours of the limit being reached (i.e., before the next database size check).

Please let me know if I can clarify further. I'm not sure what you meant by the "DIR to 0" comment.

I'm a little confused to this. Currently I have an Exchange 2003 SP1 server that is bumping around 15.5 GB no matter how much it seems I have my users delete. (The company grew and the size limit restriction was not changed. It has since been changed.)

When I upgrade from SP1 to SP2 at one point in the install do I make this registry change? Do I make the change and reboot the server to make sure things work correctly? If I have problems with this change and call support will I still be supported?

Thanks for all the great info I'm learning from this site.

Jonathan,

By default, after SP2 is installed, your Configured limit will be 18 GB but you will start getting warning events at around 16GB. If you want to change that, the configured limit should be increased.

However, if you check your online defrag events (should get them every night) - you will see how much "white space" there is in the DB now. If this is a large number (few GBs for example) - then your DB file might grow more than 16 or 18GB in size and things will still work even with default setting, because we now take into consideration only actually USED space rather than the space of the actual database file.

As was metnioned: "Size check done against the database now uses logical database size. Empty space in the database will not count against the configured database size limit..."

Thanks for the quick response to my message

Ethan,

Thanks for the response. You've confirmed what I thought. I just hasn't heard White Space referred to as empty space before.

I was referring to setting Deleted Items Retention to 0. If you've reached the limit and delete a bunch of mail, it isn't purged until the DIR window is past (of course you know that though). So you'd have to use the combination of setting Deleted Items Retention to 0, delete messages, then wait for Online maintenance to run to purge the items and create whitespace.

That sounds like a welcome addition. Just eliminating the Offline defrag step will be huge!

Ben

Other than one line here saying that Exchange 2003 SP2 will be supported as a VM in Virtual Server 2005, I have seen no reference anywhere else talking about this issue, certainly not on any Exchange-related page.

http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=897614

Quote: "Microsoft Exchange Server. Exchange is currently not supported running within Microsoft Virtual Server. Exchange will be supported within Virtual Server starting with Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 and subsequent releases."

Would you, being the General Manager, be able to officially comment on this? Some of us need to run Exchange 2003 on virtual hardware to consolidate servers. Thanks.

I would much appreciate a detailed information about the DSAccess functionality in SP2. And the effects in different topologies, where a forest has multi domains and Exchange and users are not in the same domains but Exchange sites contain GCs also from domains with no users etc...

Virtualy Yours,

When Exchange 2003 SP2 is released there will be a KB article published that will outline the support policy for Exchange 2003 SP2 support on Virtual Server 2005.

Regards,
Ethan McConnell

Any word on a release date? Working for a commercial real estate firm that emails tons of CAD drawings, I am constantly getting close to the 16Gb limit... and the next time I tell the CEO to clean his mailbox I will probably be shot (he would say firing is too merciful-- the same guy will not spend the money to get Enterprise though--- go figure)

Hi,
My organization uses the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Standard and the additional space for the Exchange store DB was desperately needed, so the SP2 limit size increase was received like a blessing.
However after the SP2 was installed I run the Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyser Tool and keep receiving a Critical Issue warning that Mailbox store exceeds 15 GB.
I followed the procedures described at the related article to change the default storage using the registry editor, checked and rechecked, the server restarted, etc., but the BPAnalyserTool keeps sending the same warning.
How can I be sure that the database limits were increased and are in use?
Can you help me?

Note: Version installed 6.5 (Build 7638.2: Service Pack 2)
This installation is an upgrade from Microsoft Exchange 2000 server and runs with Microsoft 2003 Server (also upgraded from Windows 2000 server)

Reinaldo,

Great question. I have confirmed that the Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer (EXBPA) tool will be updated shortly to reflect a check for the database size check modficiation for servers that have Exchange 2003 SP2.

As per your second question concerning how to verify if the database limits were increased: beyond confirming the registry values are set properly (remember, those values are in decimal, and the blog has been updated to show a sample screenshot of those entries), you can set the database warning buffer to warn at a lower threshold.

A test example would be to set the Database Limit to 20GB, but have the warning buffer percentage set to 50%. This way you should get a warning in the Application Event Log, at the next database size check interval, as long as the database has grown to 10GB or larger.

So, I create a DWord Value for "Database Size Limit in GB" and if I want to set the limit to 20gb, I put 20 in the value? And I also must make sure that it's decimal? Correct? I just dont want to mess something up....

meechp123,

You are correct - the value of "20" would be correct for 20GB. And yes, this value should be DECIMAL.

By the way, not sure if you noticed but we updated the post yesterday to say that all values are in decimal plus there is a screenshot now of sample registry values. Hope that helps!

Thanx for your clarification how to get a bigger database. I also learned that this larger DB size is valid for the Public Store. The most important question for me is: Do I have to set up the registry keys for the public store seperatly (meaning putting them in under HKLM\SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\<SERVER NAME>\Public-<HexCode>) or is it enough to set them up like described above (meaning: keys in private area)?

Does the increase in DB database size work with the version of Exchange 2003 with SP2 on Small Business Server 2003?

Im heutigen Webcast hatten wir anscheinend viele Teilnehmer, die zum ersten Mal einen Webcast angeschaut...

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Hello,
I have exchange 2003 std SP2 installed. My database size limit is set to 70GB. Presently the size of the database is at 66GB.

What all steps shall I do so that I get the database size down to around 55GB.

Thanks
Ameet