Optimal configuration for backup

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Hi,

We're running Exchange/Outlook 2003 on Windows SBS 2003. I've got user
default mailbox size set to 200mb. I really don't want to increase it as I
find users just get lazy and don't clean out their mailboxes..

The issue comes however, in needing to backup their email. We don't backup
their PC's - only servers. I have their accounts configured to store all
mail not in the inbox in personal folders on a network share. The users get
confused when creating new folders, and more times than not, they end up
creating new folders underneath their Inbox. Of course, when their folders
fill up, they bump up against the default mailbox limits. Their personal
folders end up way down at the bottom of their folder list and they don't
scroll down to look for it.

My questions are: "am I configuring Outlook in the best way for what our
needs are? Are there other ways that will: keep their mailbox size below
200MB, allow for server backup and be relatively painless for our end users?"

Thanks in advance for any direction.

Tom
 
well... if you have the disk space, I would raise the default. if they
receive large files as part of their work or are required to keep copies of
email, a larger mailbox is a cheap investment.

Are you using mailbox manager to keep the deleted items and junk folders
low? (I prefer a policy of 7 days on both, to allow time to recover mail
moved to either folder by mistake). The mailbox manager can also keep old
tasks, journal items and appointments cleaned out - but I would be very wary
of enabling it on those (or any other) folders as the contents may be
required for business purposes. You can use it to delete messages over a
certain size - which often works good for the journal, provided users aren't
required to journal items for business purposes. The only other folders you
can safely clean out with it are the sync folders (if using an ost).

if you aren't using a spam and virus filter on the server (or better yet,
the gateway) get one so the users don't have to delete it. (I hate to say
it, but I probably have several hundred junk mails I missed deleting on busy
days.)


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/
 
Thanks

Yes, I have connection filtering enabled, running IMF and Brightmail
antispam, so the majority of junk is filtered out.

The other reason for keeping the screws on the mailbox size was b/c the
consultants that originally configured the Exchange server partitioned the
primary drive at 12GB, for what reason, I don't know. I could relocate the
mailbox store to another drive I suppose, but I'm keeping that as a last
resort.

I'm just looking for ideas on what you and others do - if need be I can
raise the limit for those that need it, but from my experience, users can be
lazy housekeepers and just let old stuff pile up.

ts
 
partitioning makes it easier to recover from problems... but not if the
mailbox store is on the partition too. Moving the store is pretty simple -
unmount it, tell exchange where you want it and it moves it. Moving the logs
frees space too and it's as automated as moving the stores.

Yes we are lazy housekeepers... but even on a 2.5 gb mailbox, I doubt more
than 5 megs is trash... lets make that 5 megs of mail - I haven't looked in
the journal lately. <g> .[whew... it's only a half meg] Oh, and lets not
count the rss feeds I pull into outlook. <g> (If your users are using RSS,
you might want to discourage apps that bring the feeds into outlook. While
you can use mailbox manager to clean the rss folders up, you need to know
the full folder path to do it.)

Assuming you store profiles on the server (so the files are backed up), you
might want a policy that requires attachments be removed from email. You can
do it with VBA or addins - most add a link to the attachment to the email so
you can easily find it later. (I use Mapilab's attachment processor to
remove PDF's, documents, and fax images from email.)

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/
 
Thanks for all the tips... I'll see what I can do.

t

Diane Poremsky said:
partitioning makes it easier to recover from problems... but not if the
mailbox store is on the partition too. Moving the store is pretty simple -
unmount it, tell exchange where you want it and it moves it. Moving the logs
frees space too and it's as automated as moving the stores.

Yes we are lazy housekeepers... but even on a 2.5 gb mailbox, I doubt more
than 5 megs is trash... lets make that 5 megs of mail - I haven't looked in
the journal lately. <g> .[whew... it's only a half meg] Oh, and lets not
count the rss feeds I pull into outlook. <g> (If your users are using RSS,
you might want to discourage apps that bring the feeds into outlook. While
you can use mailbox manager to clean the rss folders up, you need to know
the full folder path to do it.)

Assuming you store profiles on the server (so the files are backed up), you
might want a policy that requires attachments be removed from email. You can
do it with VBA or addins - most add a link to the attachment to the email so
you can easily find it later. (I use Mapilab's attachment processor to
remove PDF's, documents, and fax images from email.)

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/


Tom said:
Thanks

Yes, I have connection filtering enabled, running IMF and Brightmail
antispam, so the majority of junk is filtered out.

The other reason for keeping the screws on the mailbox size was b/c the
consultants that originally configured the Exchange server partitioned the
primary drive at 12GB, for what reason, I don't know. I could relocate
the
mailbox store to another drive I suppose, but I'm keeping that as a last
resort.

I'm just looking for ideas on what you and others do - if need be I can
raise the limit for those that need it, but from my experience, users can
be
lazy housekeepers and just let old stuff pile up.

ts
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Back
Top