XADM: How to Determine the Size of Recoverable Items in the Information Store

Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 has a new feature called Item Recovery, which allows a user to recover deleted items.

If Item Recovery is enabled, when an item is deleted from the client it is not actually removed from the private or public information store, but only hidden from view. These deleted items no longer count towards the mailbox quotas for users. This can cause the size of the information store databases to grow beyond what was originally planned, depending on the number of users and the mailbox quotas on each mailbox.

This article explains how you can determine how much space in the information store is taken up by deleted items that can be recovered (recoverable items).

Using the Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Administrator program, you can determine the number of deleted items on a per user basis from the Mailbox Resources of the Private Information Store properties by performing the following steps:

1. In the Exchange Server Administrator program, expand Configuration, Servers, and select the Server object.
2. To expand the server object, click the Plus Sign (+) next to server name.
3. To expand the Private Information Store object, click the Plus Sign (+) next to Private Information Store.
4. Click the Mailbox Resources object.
5. Information on each mailbox is now displayed in the right window of the Administrator program.
6. If the Deleted Items K column is not displayed, on the View menu, select Columns. The Columns dialog box appears.
7. In the Available Columns list, select Deleted Items K, click Add, and click OK.
8. You are now able to see the amount of space used by recoverable items for each mailbox. Remember that this space does not count toward the mailbox storage limit.
9. To export the Mailbox Resources information to a delimited file:
   1. Click on the right pane of the Exchange Server Administrator window.
   2. On the File menu, select Save Window Contents.
   3. Type a file name, and click Save.
   4. The mailbox resources data is saved to the specified file.

The data in the file can then be manipulated using a spreadsheet in any way you want; for example, you can chart the amount of space used by recoverable items versus total space used. This gives you information on whether or not to change the current Item Recovery settings.

The above steps do not provide the total amount of space taken up by recoverable items in the private or public store. The total amount of space used by recoverable items can be determined in one of two ways:

• Import the data file created in the above steps into a spreadsheet and sum the data in the column. This gives the total amount of space used by recoverable items.
• Use the Microsoft Exchange Server Performance Monitor counters. Both the private and public information store objects, MSExchangeIS Private and MSExchangeIS Public, have the following counters that provide data on the total number and total size of recoverable items in the private and public stores:
  Total Count of Recoverable Items
  Total Size of Recoverable Items