Mailbox export requests create never end, creating giant useless PST files

Question

_{Tuesday, May 15, 2018 12:48 PM | 1 vote}

I am in the process of exporting several mailboxes to PST files using New-ExportRequest. I have to frequently suspend them, delete a 50+ GB PST file, then resume them. Usually after restarting them, they put out a useful file. They are generally 3 GB in size. For whatever reason, the export just never ends and keeps making the PST file bigger and bigger.

All replies (19)

_{Thursday, May 24, 2018 2:30 PM ✅Answered | 2 votes}

I've figured it out.

The issue was due to disk latency. Apparently, whenever the request stalls and restarts, it has to write a significant amount of empty space to the PST file. It was doing this over and over again on some of these requests making the resultant file gigantic. I was stopping the exports prematurely because they seemingly never ended. Once I corrected the conditions for the disk latency issue, everything worked so much better.

_{Tuesday, May 15, 2018 12:55 PM}

Does this happen to all mailboxes? Can you try one by one?

Have you tried to use ediscovery to see if issue is the same there?

Please mark as helpful if you find my contribution useful or as an answer if it does answer your question. That will encourage me - and others - to take time out to help you. Thank you! Off2work

_{Tuesday, May 15, 2018 12:58 PM}

Hi bltechnical,

- Wich version of Exchange are you running?

When the mailbox is gonna grow, whats tells the Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics?

Get-MailboxExportRequest | Get-mailboxExportRequestStatistics

After the export of a mailbox, completed exports will not cleared automaticaly; they need to be removed by using the Remove-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet.

Get-MailboxExportRequest | where {$_.status -eq "Completed"} | Remove-MailboxExportRequest

Sincerely, Martien van Dijk. Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help. Check out My Blog!

_{Tuesday, May 15, 2018 1:14 PM}

No, but every mailbox it does happen to, restarting it ultimately works. I have not used the ediscovery function to do the same since we have a thoroughly vetted script that initiates this process and meets our criteria very well.

_{Tuesday, May 15, 2018 1:15 PM}

I don't understand what you mean by a mailbox sizing issue. I'm not trying to export the entire mailbox. It has the contentfilter parameter populated to export only the items that meet the criteria.

_{Tuesday, May 15, 2018 1:20 PM}

Exchange 2016 CU8

I'm not following your second question. For what it's worth, I'm not exporting the entire mailbox, just things that meet the criteria in the contentfilter parameter.

I'm aware that I have to remove the requests and have been doing so as they have been completing successfully.

_{Tuesday, May 15, 2018 3:01 PM}

Hi,

Check deleted file size by running shell command

get-mailboxfolderstatastics

while exporting mailbox add switch **-ExcludeDumpster **

**It will exclude deleted item **

_{Tuesday, May 15, 2018 4:04 PM}

What is the exact command your executing?
Has the server been fully patched/updated?

Search, Recover, Export Mailboxes, Folders, Email, Contacts, Calendars, Tasks, etc. from Offline Exchange Databases (EDBs), On-Premise Exchange Servers and Office 365. Migrate/Recover direct from any offline EDB into any On-Premises Exchange Server, even cross version i.e. 2003 → 2007 → 2010 →2013 → 2016 → Office 365 with Lucid8's DigiScope

_{Wednesday, May 16, 2018 8:51 AM}

Hi,

We need you to post the detailed commands or scripts here, then we could go a step further for troubleshooting.

As per my experience, we need to export the mailbox to the respective pst files according to the mailbox identity. Something like this:

Import-Csv c:\file.csv | % {New-mailboxexportrequest -Mailbox $_.alias -FilePath \\Sever\$($_.alias).pst}

Regards,

Manu Meng

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_{Wednesday, May 16, 2018 1:36 PM}

It is very relevant that after suspending the mailbox export request, then resume it, it completes as desired most of the time. Because of this, I don't think that selecting the -exculdedumpster parameter is relevant. Here's the command:

New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox $_.alias -FilePath $filepath -ContentFilter "`(received -lt `"1/1/2014`"`)"

I realize that the contentfilter parameter could have probably been escaped better using single quotes, but I know it works like this, so unless it's material to correcting the issue, I'd rather not go into that.

_{Thursday, May 17, 2018 2:48 AM}

Hi,

What does the $filepath stand for?

How about modifying the contentfilter part as -ContentFilter {received -lt '1/1/2014'} ?

Regards,

Manu Meng

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_{Thursday, May 17, 2018 1:42 PM}

Do you think that altering the content filter will fix the problem? If not, I'm not really open to changing it. $filepath is the answer to the parameter -FilePath. It's a UNC path that the exports are being saved to.

_{Friday, May 18, 2018 9:28 AM}

I cannot guarantee that modifying the content filter will solved the issue, but we recommend you to have a try.

Did you export the mailbox to difference pst files under the UNC path?

Regards,

Manu Meng

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_{Friday, May 18, 2018 10:33 AM}

I have 90 export requests that export to PST files named after the alias of the given user. I am pessimistic that changing the contentfilter parameter will have an impact, but I'll give it a try. I'll report the results.

_{Tuesday, May 22, 2018 12:34 AM}

Unfortunately, there is no improvement. Similar results with changing the ContentFilter parameter.

_{Tuesday, May 22, 2018 12:57 AM}

What is the Exchange Build Level? https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh435098(v=exchg.150).aspx

_{Friday, February 15, 2019 5:10 PM}

Could you please explain more detailed this part "Once I corrected the conditions for the disk latency issue, everything worked so much better."?

Thank you!

_{Tuesday, July 16, 2019 1:21 PM}

his is a problem I have faced for a year.

But if this is the problem, I do not even know how to solve it.
The Exchange 2016 server runs on a Hyper-V virtual machine with a dynamic disk.

Now that's my problem, how am I going to solve this latency problem?

Silvio Tavares - Analista de Sistemas

_{Thursday, August 29, 2019 9:37 AM}

This is Exchange throttling

When you find that Get-MailboxExportRequest lists "Stalled Due To Disk Latency" under StatusDetail, you know that you can modify throttling settings. Below Example is not stalled as it is in state: CopyingMessages.

Get-MailboxExportRequest | Get-mailboxExportRequestStatistics

Name StatusDetail SourceAlias PercentComplete

MailboxExport CopyingMessages username 52

To speed up exports, follow the guidelines mentioned here:

http://www.adnsolutions.com/speed-up-mailbox-moves-to-exchange-2013-theyre-too-slow/

They apply to Exchange 2016, too.

Last updated on 2018-05-15

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Mailbox export requests create never end, creating giant useless PST files

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