Writing on TechRepublic a couple of weeks ago, Erik Eckel covered 10 things you can do to keep Exchange running smoothly. Naturally, I was intrigued to see 20% of his list for keeping Exchange running smoothly was defragmentation specific. Now, to properly defrag Exchange, there are two aspects -- online and offline -- and Erik hits them both.
For background, Erik is a managing partner at Louisville Geek and president of Eckel Media Corp. He previously served as Executive Editor at CNET Networks' TechRepublic.
Number 3 on Erik's list reads as follows:
Review defragmentation operations
Exchange servers include default online maintenance operations, which are typically scheduled during off hours. Among the tasks the automated maintenance operations perform are transaction log management and database integrity checks and defragmentation.
When database checks begin, Exchange notes the event using ID 700 within application log files. When full online defragmentation passes complete within allotted time, Event ID 701 is recorded. If a full online defragmentation is interrupted, such as by a backup operation, Event ID 704 is recorded. When interrupted maintenance operations ultimately complete, Event ID 703 is written within the server’s application log.
Administrators should regularly review the server’s event logs to confirm that these operations are completing without error. While failures typically appear within daily performance reports, manually reviewing these records helps ensure failures are not overlooked.
Number 9 on Erik's list is the following:
Defragment database stores using Eseutil
Not necessarily for the faint of heart, Eseutil is Microsoft’s utility for manually defragmenting Exchange information stores and directories offline, going all the way back to Exchange version 5.5. The utility should not be used before first creating and verifying an Exchange backup.
Defragmenting an Exchange store typically improves performance by contiguously locating storage data, eliminating unused storage, and compacting the Exchange database. I’ve even seen Eseutil recover failed or corrupted Exchange stores on Small Business Servers.
Running the Eseutil command with the /c switch performs a restore operation, while running the command with the /d switch instructs the system to defragment the .edb database and leave the new defragmented database in a temporary location without overwriting the original database. Using the /d switch with the /p switch adds repair operation. Running the command with the /g switch simply verifies the logical integrity of the Exchange database. Numerous other switches are available, and you can research them online.
I especially like Erik's comment that Eseutil is not necessarily for the faint of heart. Indeed. This is really what led us to develop PerfectDisk Exchange. Eseutil can be a bear, and several years ago our Exchange administrator spent much of a weekend using, playing fighting it. The result of that frustration was PerfectDisk Exchange, which automates the defragmentation and compaction of Exchange databases via Eseutil. It's a huge time saver (and aggravation saver) for administrators looking to perform their offline defrag Exchange database.
And while Erik correctly points out the performance benefits, we hear regularly from users who have recaptured lots of disk space. We run PerfectDisk Exchange regularly here at Raxco, and we're always recapturing several gigabytes of space. Without the PerfectDisk Exchange tool, it's too cumbersome and the defrag Exchange job just wouldn't be done as frequently.
Defrag Exchange today to keep it running smoothly -- and more.
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