Exchange Server Database Changes Over the Years

Exchange Server in its core form can be described as a database management server. The server over the period of time has gone through many changes and some of the notable changes are. For majority of people the only thing they believe that Exchange server can do is manage emails.

 

Let’s see how the Exchange Server Database technology evolved over the decade.

Exchange Server Version 2007

When it was in the process of launching up it was rumored that it going to be based on SQL storage technology but once it was released it proved to be a rumor only and as a matter of fact Microsoft increased the researched fund to enhance the functionality of Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) and it proved to be a great technology for Exchange Server database management over the years. The company brought many changes in Exchange 2007 and there were two major changes in database management.  The first change was in increase limit of available mountable database to 50. Second major change was in term of removing the file size restrictions from the mailboxes. Removing STM Files from Exchange Server was also a noticeable change made by the Microsoft in Exchange Server 2007. This removal of STM files gives total control of Exchange Server data on the shoulder of EDB Files.

Exchange Server Version 2010

Many changes were made noticeably in ESE framework which was redesigned after numerous technical inputs over the years from various sources and to match and meet the changing dynamics of the current corporate email management requirement.  Server architectural changes were incorporated in the framework and that includes better compression technology, larger page size, online runtime defragmentation and new database tables. This exchange server now allowed features which can help the storage cost as lower performance JBOD can be incorporated within the Exchange Server 2010 framework for storage cost minimization.

Exchange Server version 2013

Many improvisations took place in storage department to further improve how mailbox database is handled. To improve the server performance disk access was reduced. Changes in database schemas were also introduced. 

Exchange Server Storage Technology Mailbox Database:

All database setting can be managed via the configuration objects provided by the mailbox database. The administrator can configure different aspect of the database. There are various aspects that the administrator can manage such as location of the db file, transaction log file setting and other aspect of mailboxes that are part of the database.