ATTENTION: DO NOT F- WITH YOUR EXCHANGE DATABASE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING – HILARITY MAY ENSUE.
The system volume on our Exchange server filled up over the weekend again. I got tired of addressing this issue, so spent a few minutes researching the problem. The offending files had the extensions edb and stm. Apparently, these files deal with the Exchange database information store.
Like any heavily used database, these guys will grow quite large if they aren’t groomed and compressed from time to time. How does one get a maintenance plan going for an Exchange information store database? With routine backups of course!
Don’t ask me why – I guess since I’ve learned to think like a Microserf over the last couple of years, now this sort of thing makes sense. When I think like Bill Gates, this is the obvious course of action. “Of course the exchange information store database compression and grooming maintenance program should be initiated by a backup. Duh! What’s wrong with you?”
So, that aside, MSExchange.org has a great article that targets this subject with laser-like focus. Of course, I didn’t find it until after I’d figured out the solution, but it is great for those (this guy) who care to do academic study of the subject.
QuantumTom 