I have an Exchange 2010 server running on a SAN-backed platform. The platform does block-level backups based on a snapshot/incremental basis, that only capture changed data. I was surprised to see a regular period of time where the data changes were happening at a high, sustained rate. Due to the way this system works, that can lead to 1.2TB of stored data per month.
The regularity implied a scheduled task, but it is not a fixed interval. It is approximately every 26-32hrs. The disks were performing read operations of ~5MB/s and write operations of ~4.5MB/s, for a period of 3-4hrs. The total written data was ~55-60GB.
Reading on TechNet, I am wondering if the following is causing this:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/12/14/database-maintenance-in-exchange-2010.aspx#checksumming
The somewhat restrictive thing is that the process only happens at most once every 24 hours. I was able to investigate while it was running, finding the following:
the process is store.exe
it is working on the mailbox database files
while running, it is generating .log files (in the mailbox database folder) consistent with database changes
the mailbox database is ~60GB in size, which fits with the total data changes on each iteration
I have currently switched to a fixed maintenance window, as a test. It's not clear whether this is the cause, as the symptoms fit, but are not conclusive.
Does anyone have any suggestions for additional troubleshooting?
