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Exchange Server Database Size Limit


Microsoft Exchange Server is mail server, contact manager and calendaring software which enables user to send or receive mails and stores all exchanged information in the exchange database file due to which size of exchange database growing day by day. So you required to manage size of database, to know the maximum size limit and how to increase database size read the complete article.

Complete Description of Exchange Database Size Limit

Microsoft developed and release Exchange Server as Mail Server, Contact Manager and Calendaring software in year of 1996. To remove the limitations and adding required facilities it was further introduces in various versions and every version of exchange server contains their own feature and removes the limitation of existing one. Here I am explaining Exchange database size limit of all versions separately and techniques to increase the size asper the requirement.

Exchange Server 2003 and Its Previous Versions

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 is released in two edition i.e. Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition, both the editions have their own features regarding database size. Let's discuss each separately.

Standard Edition: - The Standard edition launched in SP1 and SP2 edition and supports two database in single storage group, in sp1 edition the database size is 16 GB which cannot configured further however the sp2 edition is enabled with 18 GB database size which can be configured to 75 GB which means it supports configuration of exchange database size by using registry key.

Enterprise Edition: - The Enterprise Edition of Microsoft exchange server 2003 is enabled with 8,000 GB database size for each database basically it depends on the hardware of the system.

Database Size Limit for Exchange 2007

Most of the organizations are using the exchange server for mailing because it gives a secured communication with the administrative access and stores all data in exchange database, so let's discuss size limit.

Standard Edition: - The Standard edition of Exchange 2007 supports five database and up to five storage group (which is just two database in exchange 2003). The default size limit for exchange 2007 is 50 GB per database and which can be used up to 15 TB by updating registry key value and 250 GB in Exchange 2007 SP1 edition.

Enterprise Edition: - There is no database size limit for enterprise edition of exchange 2007 database.

Exchange 2010 Database Size Limit

Exchange server 2010 overcomes the database size limit of exchange 2007 and provides a wide range of database space which makes a user to store large amount of data. It is also released in Standard and enterprise edition.

Standard Edition: - The Standard edition of exchange 2010 has maximum database default size limit is 1024 GB (i.e. 1TB) and gives better control to manage database operations.

Enterprise Edition: - There is no database file size limit for enterprise edition of exchange 2010.

Exchange 2013 Database Size Limit

The exchange server 2013 is enabled with the maximum database size limit of 16 TB but it is recommended that use 2 TB size limit for exchange 2013 database because as the database become too large then you may face some trouble to manage the database. It is found that the database is associated with many tasks and need to perform many operation on database. To manage database efficiently use 2 TB database Size limit as default size limit.

What happens when Exceeds to its Size Limit

When a user mounts exchange database in Exchange Server then a set of process is required to be execute, the both process is given below

Step 1: - In Exchange Server the Store Process Compares the Physical Database Size with Configured Database Size Limit. If it founds the configured database size exceeds the physical database size then it generates Database Size Warning, and performs logical calculation of database size.

Step 2: - if it found the Configured Database Size is not exceeds the Physical Database Limit then it popups a successful configured message.

If the database size exceeds its size limit then it undergo to inconsistent state and this situation may led to exchange database corruption and database will stop responding for the query of any user and then you need to resolve the database size limit.

Method to Resolve Exchange Database Size Limit

Using Registry Key: - Be concentrate before changing registry key because any wrong change to registry may cause to various system failure.

  1. Open the Regedit and brows the following registry key value
        HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\<Server Name>\Private-<database GUID>
  2. If database size limit in GB then changed its value to desired size otherwise create new DWORD "database size limit in GB" and then set its value to desired size.
  3. Now restart the Exchange Information Store Service.
  4. Check event log ID 1216 to view information about current physical size of database.

You can resolve this issue by Reducing Exchange Database Size

If you are not able to resolve the issue by following these steps then you can use EDB to PST Converter Tool to convert exchange database to outlook format and save it on another location.

Conclusion
I have tried to discuss all the aspects which can affect the exchange database size the tries to give you best method to resolve Exchange database size limit issues. I hope that this effort will be helpful for you.