Database Size Soft Limit In Exchange 2010 Std Edition…

Microsoft has put a soft limit in place for how much an Exchange 2010 Std Edition database can grow and the limit is 1024GB (1TB). An entry explaining the same can be found in the event viewer as event 1216.

The Exchange store DB1 is limited to 1024 GB. The current physical size of this
database (the .edb file) is <1 GB. If the physical size of this database minus its
logical free space exceeds the limit of 1024 GB, the database will be dismounted on a
regular basis.

The limit can be increased to 2TB, the maximum supported by Microsoft with a registry edit (theoretically, the limit can be anything upto 16000GB, the NTFS limit). Before that, the GUID for the database for the size to be increased should be noted. Run the command below to find the guid.

Get-MailboxDatabase DB1 | fl name, guid

To increase or decrease the limit for the maximum mailbox database size, open registry editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\<SERVER NAME>\Private-<database GUID> and edit the DWORD “Database Size Limit in GB” and enter the desired value. Create the DWORD if it doesn’t already exist.

I have set a limit of 2000GB in my example.

This way, you can set a limit to all your databases and control the growth rather than waiting for the store to dismount because of lack of space / proper planning. The same steps can be executed to take off the soft limit as well.