Database has reached maximum size

[SidebandSamurai]

Hi everyone,

I have found the actual article that has the key in it. the article is:

http://www.scalix.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8664

The message is quoted here:

Hi All,

The registry setting you require is:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Scalix\Scalix\MAPI\ExternalFileThreshold (DWORD)

This should be a size in bytes. The default value (which takes effect when the registry key is absent) is 65536 bytes.

Any attachment larger than this size will be stored outside of the database in the windows file system, so by reducing this you will obvisouly reduce the size of the database.

It is difficult to give guidence on the optimal value for your case because it depends on the statistical distribution of attachment sizes within the mailbox in question but a good starting point might be to try a value of say 15000. It may well be that you don't get significant DB size reductions until you reduce the value to around 1000 (or even into the hundreds) though.


Hope this helps. Please let us know how you get on.

Dave

as an additional note, this dword value defaults to Hex, so if you want to keep attachments up to 4K, if you enter the value 4096 which defaults to HEX, this would actually set this value to 16384 decimal. This means that attachments 16K or smaller would be stored in the database. Just make sure you click on the decimal radio button before entering a value. It will automatically be translated when saved. So a value of 1000 hex is actually 4096 bytes (decimal)

I have yet to figure out how to put http links into the forum

Sincerely,

Sideband Samurai

[billb3]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Scalix\Scalix\MAPI]
"ExternalFileThreshold"=dword:00000400

...is my setting.

I believe it affects any new data in your mailbox once that is added to the registry and Outlook is restarted...

[SidebandSamurai]

Hi Everyone,

Even after setting this value, destroying the cache and re-synchronizing it, I still have the problem of the database getting close to or larger than 2GB.

I ended up setting the smart cache to sync only send and receive folders, thought that helped somewhat, it does not alleviate the fact that I am having problems with smart cache with large accounts going over the T-1 WAN. most of the time with large accounts, the cache file gets so overwhelmed that it never completes synchronizing through out the day, then the client wonders why outlook and Scalix are not synchronized.

Is there anything I can do to make smart cache work over a T-1 with large accounts?

Sincerely,

Harold Robinson

[billb3]

How large are the accounts?

[SidebandSamurai]

Hi Billb3,

The accounts are 7gb to 15gb in size.

Sideband Samurai

[dougp23]

We had this happen as well, but the user was using Outlook as an "Internet Only" client, so everything was stored in the PST file.

Outlook 2007 can now supposedly store 20GB in the PST files, but they are Unicode not ANSI (like previous versions of Outlook). When I try to import older versions of PST files into newer Outlook versions, Outlook complains. There is now an OST file in Outlook 2007, the size limitation is once again 2GB.

So I'm wondering, if you don't use SmartCache, and you use the Outlook connector, isn't everything stored on the server? So size limitations should not matter, correct?

Don't mean to hijack your thread, Sideband! By the way, you say the accounts are 7GB to 15GB, are you getting this size through Scalix SAC?

[Valerion]

So I'm wondering, if you don't use SmartCache, and you use the Outlook connector, isn't everything stored on the server? So size limitations should not matter, correct?

Correct. Except that in such huge mailboxes you often have large folders, and it takes time to populate them into Outlook.

[SidebandSamurai]

Hi Everyone,

I have not had a chance to post back to this thread for a while. I have been just dealing with this problem a little at a time.

The particular account I am speaking of, the size is taken from SAC. The total size of his mailbox is 8.3gb in size. Please don't suggest that I place limits on these boxes, as that is not an acceptable solution, these are Lawyers and they want to save every email they get so that they can reference it later. I have larger accounts than this one for example I have another account that is over 13 gb. Again she saves everything she gets and with her account I can not set up SmartCache. Because she is mobile she above all needs it badly, as it can take up to 10 minutes for outlook to open.

Web mail is not an option as they have an application called Abacus Law, which manages their cases. there is an outlook plugin they use that allows them to link all communications directly to their case in Abacus Law. Because of this plugin, they have to use outlook.

I have not looked to see how large the inbox actually is, is there an easy way to tell with out using outlook? Also my question still stands, how can I get smart Cache to work with these large accounts. With the first account I have been keeping it under 2gb barely. Scalix has been warning him for a few months now that it has been approaching the 2gb limit. Today his outlook will not load because I think it finally exceeded two gb.

Thanks a lot for all your help.

Sincerely,

Sideband Samurai

[SidebandSamurai]

Hi Everyone,

I don't mean to be a pest, but I have not had any answers regarding my questions with Smart Cache since December 14th.

I know someone out there has run into a problem like mine and I would like to hear how to fix it.

I have another user from the same company, Smart Cache is set to only cache his INBOX and Sent Items. In addition to that Smart Cache is only set to cache the HEADERS of those messages. I was able to get Smart Cache to successfully complete, but it keeps warning me that he is near the 2GB limit. When he hits the 2GIG limit, then the scalix outlook addin will crash preventing him from receiving e-mail. This man is the partner of the firm and has a lot of say so when it comes to projects such as this and he is starting to ask me some really hard to answer questions. like "Why does this happen" "Did we not buy this system so that it would be better?"

I like Scalix and still feel its a good fit for the company, so I defend it as much as I can, but when I don't get answers to my questions, its tough to defend.

If I have mis-configured Scalix, then I need to know how to make it right. You have major Companies on the front page of your website. One Company I saw was 15,000 users with multiple servers. They certainly must have run into this problem.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Sideband Samurai

[billb3]

We limit our accounts to 2GB, so I have not had this issue. But if you are working with mailboxes that are 7-15GB, you might want to consider dropping smartcache and having them work online. If they need offline access, maybe setup a secondary client such as Thunderbird.

[SidebandSamurai]

HI Billb3

Thanks for your quick response regarding this question.

Dropping Smartcache, That is a good thought, and I might have to do this. I have considered it but then his mail store takes "FOREVER" to load when he is on the VPN, which is 2 to 3 times a week plus weekends. For my largest account (Yes I have larger) she can not run smartcache, and is forced to work "On Line"

I can not consider Thunderbird, they have to use Outlook. The reason is they have a special outlook addin which interacts with their case management software. When they email a client, this outlook add in is triggered and a link is sent to their case management software, so that all conversations with their clients is tracked through his system. Their case management software is called Abacus. So.. I am forced to stay with the Outlook Solution.

Thank you for the suggestions.

Sincerely,

Sideband Samurai

[billb3]

It would be a poor hack, but what about creating additional user accounts that they can access as a shared accounts. They could keep their inbox and newer emails in their regular account and then file/keep everything in the shared account. This would help reduce the size of the mailbox allowing the use of smartcache while still giving access to all of their emails.

[les]

It would be a poor hack, but what about creating additional user accounts that they can access as a shared accounts. They could keep their inbox and newer emails in their regular account and then file/keep everything in the shared account. This would help reduce the size of the mailbox allowing the use of smartcache while still giving access to all of their emails.

Or you could use Public Folders with permissions only for that user to access.

other than that maybe archiving? Its not ideal, but it would reduce the size of the mailbox....

[florian]

Well,

my mailbox is 7 GB, and with the Registry threshold set to 1024 bytes, my .MDB ends up being about 2 GB, so I'm still in good shape.

Attached is an extract from the 11.5 documentation draft where this is documented.

Florian.

[SidebandSamurai]

Hi Everyone:

Florian: Thanks for the excerpt, I reviewed it and looks like this will work. I might have to do this when he is at home on the VPN, it will take longer to get results, but I will not interrupt his use of Outlook while this is being fixed.

What about the setting in Smart Cache called headers only, does that exclude all attachments automatically?

Currently his smart cache is set to Inbox, Sent items and Headers only.