32 GB database OK?

[Bruce McL]

I have read this page on the MVP site:

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/size.html

I have looked in the Entourage 2008 help files. I don't see anything about a
size limit.

Still, I have a client that started having problems, seemingly when his
database hit 32 GB. Does anybody know if this size could cause problems?
Is anybody running Entourage 2008 with a database larger than 32 GB?

 

[Diane Ross]

I have read this page on the MVP site:

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/size.html

I have looked in the Entourage 2008 help files. I don't see anything about a
size limit.

Still, I have a client that started having problems, seemingly when his
database hit 32 GB. Does anybody know if this size could cause problems?
Is anybody running Entourage 2008 with a database larger than 32 GB?

It's not the size it's the number of items. There is no size limit, just a
limit to the number of items in the Entourage database: 2 million database
items. It sounds like they might have hit that limit.

This is HUGE!!! Most users have a database smaller than 5GB.

When the database is that large, you will see considerable slowdowns. If you
ever need to rebuild you are going to need 64GB of free space and
considerable breathing room for VM.

I suggest reducing the database

1. Duplicate the database in the Finder. Rename one to Archive.
2. Open the Main database and do a custom view for all mail older than 6
months.
3. Delete the old mail.

Now you have all of the archived mail available using Switch Identity, and a
current database with the last six months available. Be sure to Rebuild your
database to compress the size.

If the size of the database is that big because of attachments you might
look at some scripts that remove attachments and leave a note in the message
showing where it was moved. This will help in the future to stop bloat.

**Remove Attachments Script** By Jolly Roger- This script removes all
attachments from the currently selected messages in Entourage. The script
allows you to optionally extract removed attachments to a folder named
"Removed Attachments" on disk, and also optionally adds notes and links to
affected messages.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/downloads/scripts/Remove_Attachments.zip>

**Friendlier Claris it!** By: Rob Buckley

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/script/fav_scripts.html#favscript17>

**Save Attachments** by Paul Berkowitz
If you want to reduce the size of your Entourage Database or simply like to
save your attachments separately to a folder on your computer, you can do so
from an Entourage rule but then have the problem that there's no way to get
from the message to the saved and removed attachment. This script will save,
remove and link the saved files to the message, so you can open the file
directly from the message. You can also choose to go to the folder in Finder
instead from a companion script (useful if the file is stuffed, for
example).

<http://scriptbuilders.net/files/saveattachments20041.0.0.html>

 

[Bruce McL]

It's not the size it's the number of items. There is no size limit, just a
limit to the number of items in the Entourage database: 2 million database
items. It sounds like they might have hit that limit.

This is HUGE!!! Most users have a database smaller than 5GB.

When the database is that large, you will see considerable slowdowns. If you
ever need to rebuild you are going to need 64GB of free space and
considerable breathing room for VM.

I suggest reducing the database

1. Duplicate the database in the Finder. Rename one to Archive.
2. Open the Main database and do a custom view for all mail older than 6
months.
3. Delete the old mail.

Now you have all of the archived mail available using Switch Identity, and a
current database with the last six months available. Be sure to Rebuild your
database to compress the size.

The 32GB database will not open. Compressing and repairing do not work
either. The user has been running Entourage 2004 with a 20 plus GB database
for a year or more with no problems, although it was slow. Several users in
this organization are over 10GB. I'll check on the free space available on
the computer with the problem, perhaps that has something to do with the
inability to recover the db.

The documentation says that the user is supposed to be warned when
approaching the 2 million item limit. They did not see any warning.

I appreciate the help and want to add that this is not a major tragedy. The
user was able to go back to Entourage 2004 which we recently upgraded from.
They only lost about ten or eleven days of mail. They are deleting old mail
from the 31GB database in Entourage 2004.

 

[Diane Ross]

The 32GB database will not open. Compressing and repairing do not work
either. The user has been running Entourage 2004 with a 20 plus GB database
for a year or more with no problems, although it was slow. Several users in
this organization are over 10GB. I'll check on the free space available on
the computer with the problem, perhaps that has something to do with the
inability to recover the db.

One Entourage X user wrote about being able to repair a database by going to
a really large drive. See this article for details.

Rebuilding a damaged database that exceeded size limit

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2007/09/rebuilding_a_damaged_database_that_e
xceeded_size_limit.html>

The documentation says that the user is supposed to be warned when
approaching the 2 million item limit. They did not see any warning.

I don't thing there is a warning. The warning was for the 4GB limit. I doubt
the ever suspected anyone would reach the limit.

I appreciate the help and want to add that this is not a major tragedy. The
user was able to go back to Entourage 2004 which we recently upgraded from.
They only lost about ten or eleven days of mail. They are deleting old mail
from the 31GB database in Entourage 2004.

That's good. That's way too much data to loose.

 

[Bruce McL]

One Entourage X user wrote about being able to repair a database by going to
a really large drive. See this article for details.

Rebuilding a damaged database that exceeded size limit

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2007/09/rebuilding_a_damaged_database_that_e
xceeded_size_limit.html>

I don't thing there is a warning. The warning was for the 4GB limit. I doubt
the ever suspected anyone would reach the limit.

OK, good to know not to expect a warning!

That's good info about how lots of free drive space might be helpful.
Reconstructing events, there was probably 80-100 GB free on the hard drive
at the time we were trying to fix the Entourage 2008 db.

The user is back in Entourage 2004 with almost all of their data. They are
throwing away a year's worth and will compact the database afterwards. Once
this happens I'll close the book on this incident, and be more vigilant
about checking database sizes. Thanks for your help.

 

[Diane Ross]

OK, good to know not to expect a warning!

I found out this AM there is a warning. If you get one, you might be the
first. There should be a prize.

 

[Bruce McL]

I found out this AM there is a warning. If you get one, you might be the
first. There should be a prize.

A larger hard drive would be a good prize.
Thanks again for your help and your follow through on this. I did some
checking around and other people at this site are mostly under 10GB.