Exchange and PST files

[danielson]

Hi guys..

I want to pitch to my boss a removal of our pst files used at work and instead just have an inbox with a higher size limit, but need some help with questions that will be raised..

the setup is Exchange 2003 and Outlook 2003 clients.

From my own experience i have only ever found cons with using them eg

2 x writing to pst per mail
Not accessible from Webmail
Corruption issues
Forgotten passwords
and so on..

1. Are there any pluses to them, especially if our users run in cached mode so for mobile users the inbox will be available offline?

2. Is there a way to automate the moving of mail/folders within a pst file back into a mailbox?

3. Are there any performance issues with exchange (if we do this) now working much higher sized mailboxes?

4. In terms of backups are there any issues, in terms of recovery?

any experience or help with these would be much appreciated..

TIA, Danny.

[malman]

2) exmerge utility should do what you want I think
3) depends on server and size of mailboxes and number of users
4) depends on your backup software. Its a database so online backups are possible some software will allow you to restore individual mailboxes, uses a mapi client to restore I think. I haven't done much with Exch2003 yet but I think they have added some extras to make restores easier.

I have a small number of users so I have never used pst but do use ost on laptops.

[puggit]

There most certainly are issues...

Having a larger Exchange DB leads to 2 problems:

1) Much more likely to witness corruption and downtime and therefore having to restore etc...
2) Backup times will grow and grow... and restores will too

Can I suggest using software such as KVS Enterprise Vault or Legato Email Xtender.

These products work by shifting unused emails on to 'cheap' storage platforms such as EMC's Centera (basically archiving to disk) while leaving pointers in the Exchange DB instead of whole emails.
This helps to minimize the size of the DB and therefore misses out on the problems outlined above.

It certainly isn't a cheap solution, but works VERY well (oh, and meets US compliance laws...)

Email me if you want more info - I may work in the business

[jh_007]

How big is the system here?

I run a cluster of Exchange 2003 servers in a global AD.

If you're talking about 50 users each wanting a 700mb email box, then providing you have the capacity, you should be ok. Exchange will on-line defrag the info stores nightly, and you can make full system shadow coppies for a full image back up.

If you're going larger then, I'd suggest (like the thread before this one) using an add-on. I use EAS for a total information store of 2Tb. Bloody good, if not a little fiddly to set up. www.essential.co.uk/products/EAS.asp

I have 600 users though.

Also makes your entire inbox available through OWA too.

JH

[malman]

Yeah what they said ^^^^^^^

[jimmyc412t2]

The important thing is to ensure you set a policy to limit mailbox size. With users that "hoard", mailboxes grow so quick (I have had to deal with one particular mailbox that swelled to 2GB!). If you have large mailboxes and laptop/remote users who use Outlook with synchonisation, this will take a VERY long time, even over 100mb and especially the first time. If limits are not set then you run into problems when the OST/PST grows beyond 2Gb i think.