How to increase the Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 18-gigabyte database size limit

New functionality has been included with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). You can now configure database size limits.

The database size limits for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition have been increased from 16 GB to 18 GB. The limit can be increased to as much as 75 GB by using a registry key.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition does not have a maximum database size limit.

For more information about how to set the database size limit, see the Exchange Server 2003 Help topic. The Help topic was updated during the installation of Exchange Server 2003 SP2.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

To have us increase the Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 database size limit for you, go to the "Fix it for me" section. If you prefer to fix this problem yourself, go to the "Let me fix it myself" section.

Fix it for me

To fix this problem automatically, click the Fix it button or link. Click Run in the File Download dialog box, and then follow the steps in the Fix it wizard.
Increase the Exchange Server 2003 SP2 database size limit
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Notes

• The automatic fix only works for Exchange Server 2003 SP2 Standard Edition. Exchange Server 2003 SP2 Enterprise Edition does not have a default configured database size limit.
• You should type an integer value between 1 and 75 in the value box. These integer values represent the maximum size of the database in gigabytes (GB).
• This wizard may be in English only. However, the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows.
• If you are not using the computer that has the problem, save the Fix it solution to a flash drive or a CD and then run it on the computer that has the problem.

Then, go to the "Did this fix the problem?" section.

Let me fix it myself

To increase the Exchange Server 2003 SP2 database size, follow these steps:

Important Before you increase the maximum size of an Exchange database, verify that sufficient hard disk space is available for the larger database.

1. On the computer that is running Exchange 2003 SP2, click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Click one of the following registry subkeys, as appropriate for the store that you want to increase:
   • For a mailbox store, click the following registry subkey:
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\Server name\Private-Mailbox Store GUID
   • For a public folder store, click the following registry subkey:
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\Server name\Public-Public Store GUID
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
4. In the New Value #1 box, type Database Size Limit in Gb, and then press ENTER.
5. Right-click Database Size Limit in Gb, and then click Modify.
6. Click Decimal, and then type an integer from 1 to 75 in the Value data box.
   
   Note These integer values represent the maximum size of the database in gigabytes (GB). For example, a value of 75 represents a database that has a maximum size of 75 GB.
7. Click OK, and then exit Registry Editor.
8. Restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
   2. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
      net stop msexchangeis
   3. After the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service has stopped successfully, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
      net start msexchangeis
9. Examine the Application log to verify that the database size has been set successfully. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Run, type eventvwr, and then click OK.
   2. In the Event Viewer tool, click Application.
   3. Double-click event ID 1216 to verify that the database size has been set successfully.

For more information about how to configure the new database size limit when you use Exchange Server 2003 SP2, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For more information about how to temporarily increase the database size in Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 or an earlier version of Exchange Server 2003, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about how to temporarily increase the database size in Exchange 2000 Server, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Did this fix the problem?

• Check whether the problem is fixed. If the problem is fixed, you are finished with this section. If the problem is not fixed, you can contact support.
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