Scalix Forums

Posted: **Wed Jun 07, 2006 11:58 am**

Hi,

i've just migrated an exchange 5.5 server with about 6gb in its message store over to Scalix business edition.

I setup /var/opt/scalix as its own partition on a Centos 4.3 server. based on the size of the message store i made the file system about 22gb.

To my surprise after migrating the message store (all in the /var/opt/scalix/data directory) has consumed 14gb.

However if i login to the SAC and check each users mailbox size and add them all up they total around the 6gb mark (even including the wastebaskets). This is also true if i run an omscan and compare its output (it too shows about 6gb in total)

I am at a loss as to figure out what has eaten up the rest of the space.

Can someone enlightenme please?

TIA

Posted: **Wed Jun 07, 2006 2:23 pm**

See my post here:
http://www.scalix.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2173

I also just saw that my ~scalix/temp folder has 14gb - how did this happen?

Posted: **Wed Jun 07, 2006 5:47 pm**

mephisto wrote:See my post here:
http://www.scalix.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2173

I also just saw that my ~scalix/temp folder has 14gb - how did this happen?

Thanks mephisto.

But it still begs one question - will it always be like that? or will it clean up automatically?

I've already decided that using imap sync tools in an Exchange migration are no good because calendar and contacts and journal dont go across properly. also there are differences in the header.
i'd prefer to migrate via PST using a microsoft tool called Exmerge which sucks all mail out of exchange directly to psts.

One other question - would using pst files to migrate cause a "doubling" of the size of mail messages?

If so - say a user has a 300mb message store in reality but scalix sees it as 600mb.
could i export to a pst from outlook all of a users folders/files, then delete the user, save 600mb and then reimport the 300mb and reclaim diskspace?

Maybe a Scalix person can clarify these questions.

Posted: **Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:25 pm**

You've got a few questions here...

1) Be careful importing via PSTs. It generally works, but there are situations where you'll have problems, and it isn't recommended. Just test it before you commit to it.

2) Importing email seems to greatly increase the size of the storage because when a message is recieved for several users, it is stored once, and each user is given a pointer to it. When you import messages, each user gets a copy of each individual message. So if I send a 1meg email to 20 people, you will see about 1 meg of storage space used. On the other hand, if I import this same message from 20 people's PSTs, I'll see 20 megs of disk space used.

3) I posted in an earlier thread that I clean out the temp file with the command
find /var/opt/scalix/temp/ -type f -ctime +7 -exec rm -f '{}' \;
This may or may not be recommended. Use it at your own risk...

Posted: **Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:45 pm**

kanderson wrote:You've got a few questions here...

1) Be careful importing via PSTs. It generally works, but there are situations where you'll have problems, and it isn't recommended. Just test it before you commit to it.

Either way it seems that there will be problems.

I've used imapsync from courier imap and its fine.
Using imapsync from Exchange screws up Journal, Contacts, Calendar. These all had to be re-done by PST import through outlook - which worked fine.
I doubt whether the recommended proprietary product - Email Shuttle will be any better. Even it suggests doing calendar and contacts seperate and also suggests using a pst file to import/export public folders. i never used it because it seems like a glorified gui around something like "imapsync" and you have to pay for it.
...and just at a quick look it appears that its $2000 US for a 100 user license to migrate from exchange using stellar email shuttle. Way too much money esp since im in Australia :)

Thus i would say my best bet is pst files, sure i'll still have some problems, but at least special folders dont get screwed up on import.

2) Importing email seems to greatly increase the size of the storage because when a message is recieved for several users, it is stored once, and each user is given a pointer to it. When you import messages, each user gets a copy of each individual message. So if I send a 1meg email to 20 people, you will see about 1 meg of storage space used. On the other hand, if I import this same message from 20 people's PSTs, I'll see 20 megs of disk space used.

I guess then there's no easy way to clean it all up, just have to account for it with a larger filesystem.

3) I posted in an earlier thread that I clean out the temp file with the command
find /var/opt/scalix/temp/ -type f -ctime +7 -exec rm -f '{}' \;
This may or may not be recommended. Use it at your own risk...

But ive only got 37mb of files in /temp and i got about 7gb increased in size, dont think that would help too much??

Thanks for your insights,

Scalix Forums

Filesystem Size vs Mailbox total size

Filesystem Size vs Mailbox total size