Best Practices

Optimizing Exchange Through Ongoing Maintenance

Through typical usage, Exchange databases become fragmented . This fragmentation gradually slows server performance and can also lead to corruption over extended periods of time. In order to ensure that an Exchange Server continues to service requests in an optimized manner and the chances of corruption are minimized, it is important to perform regular maintenance on Exchange.

Although Exchange Server 2003 performs online maintenance tasks on a nightly basis, this accounts for roughly only 60 “70% of the maintenance tasks that are recommended. Offline maintenance, on the other hand, achieves the true optimization of the information stores, as well as prevents and fixes corruption. Offline optimization routines help keep the messaging server operating like a well-oiled engine and ensure that Exchange provides the highest serviceability and reliability.

CAUTION

It is of utmost importance to perform a full backup of Exchange Server 2003 prior to and immediately after running offline maintenance. After the backup has completed, it is equally important to verify the backups .

Because offline maintenance procedures require at least one database or that the entire server is offline, it is also important to schedule maintenance during the off-peak hours and notify the end users in advance.

NOTE

If Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition is being used, you can perform maintenance on a single database and not affect other data that is stored within other databases. In addition, the entire server does not have to be offline.

The utilities to use for offline maintenance are ESEUTIL ( ESEUTIL.EXE ) and the Integrity Checker ( ISINTEG.EXE ). These utilities perform a number of functions, including, but not limited to, checking database and table integrity, identifying and correcting corruption, and defragmenting databases. For further information on the recommended best practices on maintaining Exchange Server 2003 and step-by-step instructions for offline maintenance, refer to Chapter 19, "Exchange Server 2003 Management and Maintenance Practices."