Network PST confusion

[Guest]

***apologies for the cross post**

All

I'm a bit confused

This article (http://support.microsoft.com/?id=297019) says Networked PSTs are bad
Yet another by MS (http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/xp/four/outd05.htm) supports the use of Network PSTs

If PSTs are no longer supported on network stroage, what is the recommended strategy nowadays for users to have access to mail in their personal archive? I know that by using some sort of 'near-line' storage 3rd party product I can 'automatically' archive mail based on age or size but these solutions are expensive

This is why in the past network stored PSTs were perfect for giving users access to thier archive, no matter where they sat. OWA is great for checking new mail but once again there is no access to a users' PST archive

If anyone knows what the recommended approach is, without shelling out for 3rd party products, please enlighten me

 

[Roady [MVP]]

It was and still is unsupported to my knowledge. The second article you
stated could be up for revision (I'll have that checked for you). Thanks for
pointing it out.

Storing pst-files on (fast) networkshares works in most cases without any
problems except for poor performance and the fact that connections could get
lost and could cause corruption of the file. In this case use scanpst.exe or
restore from back-up.

I do see it as a possibility but I would certainly not call it "recomended
practise" as it is unsupported.

I would recommend it if the following is true;
-It is a closed archive and you have a back-up on CD/DVD or any other medium
easily available to the end user
-It is an open archive and you make daily back-ups of the file and people
don't mind loosing a day of email in case you need to restore from back-up.

In the first case the user could also travel with his/her CD/DVD and place
local copies of it on the workstation he/she works on at that time (we do
that here as well). Just in case we made a copy of the CD/DVD which the user
can store in a safe place just in case the original gets damaged by the
traveling.

--
Roady [MVP] www.sparnaaij.net
Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office related News
Also Outlook FAQ, How To's, Downloads and more...

Tips of the month:
-Setting Permissions on a Mailbox
-Create an Office XP CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 3

-----

***apologies for the cross post***

All,

I'm a bit confused!

This article (http://support.microsoft.com/?id=297019) says Networked PSTs are bad.
Yet another by MS (http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/xp/four/outd05.htm)

supports the use of Network PSTs.

If PSTs are no longer supported on network stroage, what is the

recommended strategy nowadays for users to have access to mail in their
personal archive? I know that by using some sort of 'near-line' storage
3rd party product I can 'automatically' archive mail based on age or size
but these solutions are expensive.

This is why in the past network stored PSTs were perfect for giving users

access to thier archive, no matter where they sat. OWA is great for
checking new mail but once again there is no access to a users' PST archive.

If anyone knows what the recommended approach is, without shelling out for

3rd party products, please enlighten me!

 

[Guest]

Thanks Roady.

The CD idea is interesting although not feasible here, therefore what would you (or others reading this) recommend in terms of roaming users and access to archived mail? There are no legal requirements which need to be fulfilled, it's purely for users to access mail which they *manually* moved from their inbox to a PST to reduce their mailbox limit. All PCs are workstations and users sit at different workstations every now and again.

Is a 3rd party solution such as near-line storage the *only* solution or am I missing something? Or should I wait for Exchange 2005? ;-) Personally I'd be all for implementing a 3rd party solution if that is indeed the only way to access older mail stored in archives but I still need to hear from someone that there is no other way.

I know there is a terminal server approach but that's also gonna cost..


----- Roady [MVP] wrote: ----

It was and still is unsupported to my knowledge. The second article yo
stated could be up for revision (I'll have that checked for you). Thanks fo
pointing it out

Storing pst-files on (fast) networkshares works in most cases without an
problems except for poor performance and the fact that connections could ge
lost and could cause corruption of the file. In this case use scanpst.exe o
restore from back-up

I do see it as a possibility but I would certainly not call it "recomende
practise" as it is unsupported

I would recommend it if the following is true
-It is a closed archive and you have a back-up on CD/DVD or any other mediu
easily available to the end use
-It is an open archive and you make daily back-ups of the file and peopl
don't mind loosing a day of email in case you need to restore from back-up

In the first case the user could also travel with his/her CD/DVD and plac
local copies of it on the workstation he/she works on at that time (we d
that here as well). Just in case we made a copy of the CD/DVD which the use
can store in a safe place just in case the original gets damaged by th
traveling

--
Roady [MVP] www.sparnaaij.ne
Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office related New
Also Outlook FAQ, How To's, Downloads and more..

Tips of the month
-Setting Permissions on a Mailbo
-Create an Office XP CD slipstreamed with Service Pack

----

***apologies for the cross post** are bad
Yet another by MS (http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/xp/four/outd05.htm

supports the use of Network PSTsrecommended strategy nowadays for users to have access to mail in thei
personal archive? I know that by using some sort of 'near-line' storag
3rd party product I can 'automatically' archive mail based on age or siz
but these solutions are expensiveaccess to thier archive, no matter where they sat. OWA is great fo
checking new mail but once again there is no access to a users' PST archive

 

[Roady [MVP]]

All other solutions you suggested are also not supported. I don't see how
Exchange 2005 would help here either; it's just the mailserver. One thing
that could help is a complete redesign of the pst-filestructure. Note that
this has already been the case for Outlook 2003 and UNICODE support and a
practically unlimited growth of the file.

A real solution would be to upgrade to Exchange Enterprise Edition. With EEE
you can go beyond the 16GB database storage limit which the Standard edition
has. Since you are already thinking about storing the pst-files on the
network this won't cost you anymore harddisk space. In fact it will cost you
less storage space as Exchange stored mail a lot more optimized than a
pst-file does.

Another real solution would be to have people to clean up their mailboxes
and store attachments outside of their mailboxes and reduce the size of
their mailbox. A guide on how that can be achieved can be found here;
http://www.sparnaaij.net/howto/cleanmailbox.htm

--
Roady [MVP] www.sparnaaij.net
Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office related News
Also Outlook FAQ, How To's, Downloads and more...

Tips of the month:
-Setting Permissions on a Mailbox
-Create an Office XP CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 3

-----

Thanks Roady.

The CD idea is interesting although not feasible here, therefore what

would you (or others reading this) recommend in terms of roaming users and
access to archived mail? There are no legal requirements which need to be
fulfilled, it's purely for users to access mail which they *manually* moved
from their inbox to a PST to reduce their mailbox limit. All PCs are
workstations and users sit at different workstations every now and again.

Is a 3rd party solution such as near-line storage the *only* solution or

am I missing something? Or should I wait for Exchange 2005? ;-)
Personally I'd be all for implementing a 3rd party solution if that is
indeed the only way to access older mail stored in archives but I still need
to hear from someone that there is no other way.

I know there is a terminal server approach but that's also gonna cost...



----- Roady [MVP] wrote: -----

It was and still is unsupported to my knowledge. The second article you
stated could be up for revision (I'll have that checked for you). Thanks for
pointing it out.

Storing pst-files on (fast) networkshares works in most cases without any
problems except for poor performance and the fact that connections could get
lost and could cause corruption of the file. In this case use scanpst.exe or
restore from back-up.

I do see it as a possibility but I would certainly not call it "recomended
practise" as it is unsupported.

I would recommend it if the following is true;
-It is a closed archive and you have a back-up on CD/DVD or any other medium
easily available to the end user
-It is an open archive and you make daily back-ups of the file and people
don't mind loosing a day of email in case you need to restore from back-up.

In the first case the user could also travel with his/her CD/DVD and place
local copies of it on the workstation he/she works on at that time (we do
that here as well). Just in case we made a copy of the CD/DVD which the user
can store in a safe place just in case the original gets damaged by the
traveling.

--
Roady [MVP] www.sparnaaij.net
Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office related News
Also Outlook FAQ, How To's, Downloads and more...

Tips of the month:
-Setting Permissions on a Mailbox
-Create an Office XP CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 3

-----

***apologies for the cross post***

Networked PSTs
are bad.

Yet another by MS

(http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/xp/four/outd05.htm)
supports the use of Network PSTs.recommended strategy nowadays for users to have access to mail in their
personal archive? I know that by using some sort of 'near-line' storage
3rd party product I can 'automatically' archive mail based on age or size
but these solutions are expensive. giving users
access to thier archive, no matter where they sat. OWA is great for
checking new mail but once again there is no access to a users' PST archive. out for
3rd party products, please enlighten me!

 

[Roady [MVP]]

The latest word from Microsoft is that network stored pst-files are not
supported and the document you pointed to will be adjusted. Thanks!

--
Roady [MVP] www.sparnaaij.net
Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office related News
Also Outlook FAQ, How To's, Downloads and more...

Tips of the month:
-Setting Permissions on a Mailbox
-Create an Office XP CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 3