Microsoft has put a soft limit in place for how much an Exchange 2010 Std Edition database can grow and the limit is 1024GB (1TB). An entry explaining the same can be found in the event viewer as event 1216.
The Exchange store DB1 is limited to 1024 GB. The current physical size of this
database (the .edb file) is <1 GB. If the physical size of this database minus its
logical free space exceeds the limit of 1024 GB, the database will be dismounted on a
regular basis.
The limit can be increased to 2TB, the maximum supported by Microsoft with a registry edit (theoretically, the limit can be anything upto 16000GB, the NTFS limit). Before that, the GUID for the database for the size to be increased should be noted. Run the command below to find the guid.
Get-MailboxDatabase DB1 | fl name, guid
To increase or decrease the limit for the maximum mailbox database size, open registry editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesMSExchangeIS
I have set a limit of 2000GB in my example.
This way, you can set a limit to all your databases and control the growth rather than waiting for the store to dismount because of lack of space / proper planning. The same steps can be executed to take off the soft limit as well.
Do I need to restart the info store service after this change?
Yes please Mark.
Is this safe to implement on Exchange 2010 SP1…? I have one database that is reaching over the 1024GB limit and it is now dismounting nightly. I have to restart the server to get things up and running again the next day.
The key is not present in RegEdit so I would have to create it. Just want to make sure it won’t blow something up..
Hi Robert,
It will be fine, set a higher limit or you can create a new database and move some of the mailboxes on the existing database to the new one.
Thanks
Hi Rajith,
Thank you so much for the regedit option. I would like to know what could be the alternatives or possibility if the database reach 2 tb size. In our case the archive database size. That too exchange 2010 std edition and all 5 databases already used.
Technically you can grow beyond 2TB, upto 16TB oer database. But would you want to manage a database of that size?
If you reach the limit of 5 databases, you need to buy an Enterprise license and apply the key (no need to reinstall)
Hi!
The public folder can have 2TB too?
Thank you!
Andreia
Yes, that is right Andreia.
I tried the solution above & it does not solve my problem…. please assist…
What is the problem Chix?