Exchange 2010 Hard Drive Space Issues

nadnerB

We used to use Windows backup (before I was employed). Exchange 2010 on Server 2008 R2.
It will truncate the logs, but personally, I'd be looking for a permanent solution that covers this and the rest of your DR plan.

If the logs are that big, then you haven't had a successful backup in a while. You're flying by the seat of your pants.

First port of call: Why isn't Windows backup working?

nadnerB

Since it's been almost a day since you posted this, how'd you go?

wirestyle22

@nadnerB I informed my boss of this and he's going to be working on this during the weekend

wirestyle22

I checked the Volume Shadow-copy Service to verify that it was turned on. It was set to manual to I changed it to automatic. Now I'm going to check the type of Windows Backup we are running.

wirestyle22

It's a copy backup. That's why this has been happening for over a year. It needs to be either a full backup or incremental to truncate.

momurda

Your first full backup is going to take a long time.

JaredBusch

@wirestyle22 said in Exchange 2010 Hard Drive Space Issues:

It's a copy backup. That's why this has been happening for over a year. It needs to be either a full backup or incremental to truncate.

There you go.

wirestyle22

@momurda said in Exchange 2010 Hard Drive Space Issues:

Your first full backup is going to take a long time.

I'm expecting at least 24 hours

wirestyle22

@JaredBusch said in Exchange 2010 Hard Drive Space Issues:

@wirestyle22 said in Exchange 2010 Hard Drive Space Issues:

It's a copy backup. That's why this has been happening for over a year. It needs to be either a full backup or incremental to truncate.

There you go.

Thank your for your help

wirestyle22

A full backup did not truncate the logs. Took 3 days.

travisdh1

@wirestyle22 said in Exchange 2010 Hard Drive Space Issues:

A full backup did not truncate the logs. Took 3 days.

The backup was taken using SQL Manager, right?

wirestyle22

@travisdh1 No, windows server backup as I discussed above

wirestyle22

I read this in a MS article:

"After about six hours on the phone with MS Support, the problem is related to the Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer Service. I don't know if it is a bug in Exchange or something in my design, but I had to dismount databases, stop the Exchange Information Store Service then delete catalogs from all database copies (active and passive). After restarting Exchange Information Store Service and remounting the databases the backs now truncate logs. The rep said the Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer Service wasn't allowing the Replication Service to truncate logs.

In addition to this issue I am seeing problems with the ContentIndexState, upon replica creation, being set to Crawling and never coming out. If I restart the Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer Service, the state moves to Healthy.

It appears all my issues point to the Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer Service and it's manifesting itself in different ways. My case is in the process of being escalated so I'll post back with an update. Hopefully someone else won't have to spend weeks fighting this too."

Dashrender

Definitely sounds like one possibility.

Dashrender

So what's your plan to fix this?

If you have another server with enough storage on it, you might be able to stand up another Exchange server and migration fully over to that, then decom the old one.

wirestyle22

@Dashrender I don't have anything I can use to migrate it. I'm not sure. The full backup took 3 days, I was hoping to have a little more time to resolve this. Not sure.

Dashrender

@wirestyle22 said in Exchange 2010 Hard Drive Space Issues:

@Dashrender I don't have anything I can use to migrate it. I'm not sure. The full backup took 3 days, I was hoping to have a little more time to resolve this. Not sure.

What about those new servers that were ordered a few weeks ago? are they coming in?

momurda

Was the backup successful? What Event viewer logs were generated on completion of your backup?

wirestyle22

@Dashrender said in Exchange 2010 Hard Drive Space Issues:

@wirestyle22 said in Exchange 2010 Hard Drive Space Issues:

@Dashrender I don't have anything I can use to migrate it. I'm not sure. The full backup took 3 days, I was hoping to have a little more time to resolve this. Not sure.

What about those new servers that were ordered a few weeks ago? are they coming in?

Politics slow everything down.

wirestyle22

@momurda said in Exchange 2010 Hard Drive Space Issues:

Was the backup successful? What Event viewer logs were generated on completion of your backup?

I haven't been able to look at it myself. My boss said they were. I can't verify. I'm out in the world today