[reddlotus]

Hi,
I have some confusion.
We have two mailbox servers configured in CCR environment and working as active and passive servers.
There are six mailbox storage groups with single store in each because of CCR.
Now I want to defrag those databases but I have confusion that my planning is proper or not .
My planning is as below.
- Get all databases offline on active server.
- Make passive server as active for a while.
- Defrag all databases on active server.
- After that get online all databases.
- Sync with passive server (I have doubt that is there automatically update database file from active to passive).
Please give me proper suggestion.

[Sembee]

Why do you want to defrag them?
An offline defrag is not something that has to be done and it is not something that should be considered "maintenance". It is not risk free either.

If you are using CCR then you are on Enterprise edition, so if you have a database that you wish to shrink, move all the mailboxes and content to another database, drop the original one and recreate it. Zero downtime and zero risk.

Oh and to do an offline defrag it is total downtime of the entire Exchange server. If you can afford that sort of downtime, why did you bother with CCR?

Simon.

[reddlotus]

Thanks Sembee for quick reply and also your solution is amazing.

Also I do not want to do defrag now on live environment but I want to do it on to test environment. And want to clarify myself that defrag requires all servers downtime, right?

We have both live and test environment so this kind of R&D is possible.

[Sembee]

Doesn't matter whether it is test or live, there is no point in doing it.
I haven't done an offline defrag with Exchange 2007 ever - no need. I don't intend to start doing so now.

I don't actually think that Microsoft support offline defrag on a CCR, although I could be wrong there.

Simon.

[reddlotus]

Thanks Sembee to share your knowledge.