Software for archiving mail messages?

[Anant Rege]

Hi

We have a big problem on our exchange server related to the sizes of
personal mail boxes. Lots of users have old messages still sitting in their
mail boxes, many of them having big attachments. It is obviously affecting
the performance of the server and I would like them to archive these old
mails. Now here is the problem. I am not sure whether it is because of the
sizes of mail boxes or not. But if anybody tries to open a really old mail
that has a big attachment, it takes some time before the mail actually
opens. You may see a thermometer going while the server is 'retreiving the
data'. Sometimes it could be even a minute before the mail opens. And I
suspect the reason is same for 'archiving' not working as expected. Here is
what happens. Suppose I set up a .pst file on the network for archiving
purpose, I can also have the same file as my personal folder, and then if I
try to use the 'Archive' function in outlook with say date filter and try to
archive everything before a certain date, I get an error message that 'the
mail item not found. It is either deleted or access is denied' or something
to that effect. Alternately if I try to highlight multiple items in my
current 'inbox' and then try to 'move' them manually to a folder in my
archive file, I get the same error message. If I sort the mails by
attachments and then move the ones without attachments by highlighting them
, no problem. The moment there are mails with attachments in the highlighted
items, it invariably fails. Forget about highlighting mulitple items. If I
try to move *even a single* mail that has an attachment, I may get the same
error message. If I try it again and again, it works after 2 or 3 tries. Now
moving 100s of mails one by one is an extremely tedious task. That is why I
am looking for some help in this forum. If anybody is aware of any good
software that can do this, please let me know. Or if anybody knows an
alternate way of doing this in outlook, it will be even better.

Thanks

Anant

 

[Anant Rege]

Do you mean defrag on the NTFS partition where the exchange database
resides? I haven't done it. And if there is a defrag function within
exchange, then I am not aware of it. I will give it a try if you think that
will certainly solve this problem but frankly I am not so certain.

Thanks

 

[Roady]

an Exchange database needs to be defragmented as well (so not a partition
defrag). You can compare it (just a little bit) like using the Compact Now
feature on a personal folder (which is a databse as well). Since you are
talking about very old e-mails and the fact that you are not aware of a
database defragmentation this could give you some speed back in Outlook.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Mailbox quotas are your friend. Apply them - start with the 'warning'
message, and scale up slowly to the "cannot send" - may want to avoid
"cannot send or receive" as that's often considered a bit Draconian.

I personally don't like PST files, so I don't like autoarchive - and you
can't manage autoarchive centrally, although there are third party apps that
will (search for 'archive' at www.slipstick.com). If you set reasonable
mailbox quotas, and make sure your server hardware is up to snuff (loads of
memory), you shouldn't be having performance problems.

To make people feel more comfortable deleting items, and emptying the
deleted items folder, make sure you're using deleted item retention on the
server on both private & public stores - I like 30 days - that way people
can get their own stuff back when they have an "oh-oh" moment, post
deleting.

PST files cause more problems than they resolve, in my opinion - see
http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq_appxf.htm

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Actually, an offline defrag of Exchange is not something to be undertaken
lightly, or done regularly. Exchange is very efficient about using
whitespace. I'd only do this if you're getting close to the 16GB store limit
in Exchange standard and have deleted a lot of stuff first - you can see how
much space you'd reclaim first by looking at the app event logs for your
online defrags.

 

[Anant Rege]

Thanks for your advice. I absolutely intend to enforce the mailbox quotas
for future. However I have this immediate problem in hand that I have
described. Unless people reduce the existing size of their mailboxes, either
by deleting or archiving old mail, I can not apply it. That was precisely
the reason for the original post.


"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

 

[Roady]

yes, but since it was stated that it was never defraged it could be
helpfull. We had a database of over 13GB (before I advised to set
quota's...) and it did help us maintaining it a bit up to speed (Exchange
5.5) and had to do it on a monthly bases. We set quota last year and now we
just migrated to Exchange 2000. Just for refference; I expect that the
Exchange 2000 databse is even more effiecient?

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I understand that. You can set the warning message and make them be
responsible for maintaining their mailbox sizes themselves. That's what I
do. If you use a reasonable quota (I use 200MB as my usual standard, but
your mileage may vary - you'll need to do the math) and show them how to use
PFs for items that need to be saved and shared, and use deleted item
retention so that they won't be afraid to throw things out, it will work.

Tell them in advance what you're doing, and why. I'd use the 'warning only'
for a few weeks, then turn on the "can't send" trigger.

If they want to use autoarchive, make them handle it and keep the files
locally - maybe burn a CD or something. But you cannot maintain them or back
them up in any reasonable manner, and as I said, storing them on the server
completely defeats the purpose. PST files are not permitted at any of my
client sites unless the users want to support them themselves - that's
company policy. The owners/managers recognize that unless their systems are
maintained properly, they won't run at all, and people with 2GB mailboxes
rarely need all that junk, in my experience.

Note, however, that you might also improve performance by checking out your
hardware on the server. You may need more memory - Exchange is a resource
hog. Having large mailboxes should not cause performance problems if you
have adequate hardware.

Thanks for your advice. I absolutely intend to enforce the mailbox
quotas for future. However I have this immediate problem in hand that
I have described. Unless people reduce the existing size of their
mailboxes, either by deleting or archiving old mail, I can not apply
it. That was precisely the reason for the original post.


"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

Mailbox quotas are your friend. Apply them - start with the 'warning'
message, and scale up slowly to the "cannot send" - may want to avoid
"cannot send or receive" as that's often considered a bit Draconian.

I personally don't like PST files, so I don't like autoarchive - and
you can't manage autoarchive centrally, although there are third
party apps that will (search for 'archive' at www.slipstick.com). If
you set reasonable mailbox quotas, and make sure your server
hardware is up to snuff (loads of memory), you shouldn't be having
performance problems.

To make people feel more comfortable deleting items, and emptying the
deleted items folder, make sure you're using deleted item retention
on the server on both private & public stores - I like 30 days -
that way people can get their own stuff back when they have an
"oh-oh" moment, post deleting.

PST files cause more problems than they resolve, in my opinion - see
http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq_appxf.htm

 

[Roady]

Thanks

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

I have clients who've run for years and never needed an offline defrag - I
set the quotas and calculate roughly how much DIR space I need so they won't
hit the limit if they're using Standard. I'm not sure E2k is more efficient,
in fact, SIS is kinda less relevant as you can have multiple stores
now....it's pretty much the same overall, tho.

yes, but since it was stated that it was never defraged it could be
helpfull. We had a database of over 13GB (before I advised to set
quota's...) and it did help us maintaining it a bit up to speed
(Exchange
5.5) and had to do it on a monthly bases. We set quota last year and
now we just migrated to Exchange 2000. Just for refference; I expect
that the Exchange 2000 databse is even more effiecient?

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

Actually, an offline defrag of Exchange is not something to be
undertaken lightly, or done regularly. Exchange is very efficient
about using whitespace. I'd only do this if you're getting close to
the 16GB store limit in Exchange standard and have deleted a lot of
stuff first - you can see how much space you'd reclaim first by
looking at the app event logs for your online defrags.


Roady wrote:
an Exchange database needs to be defragmented as well (so not a
partition defrag). You can compare it (just a little bit) like using
the Compact Now feature on a personal folder (which is a databse as
well). Since you are talking about very old e-mails and the fact
that you are not aware of a database defragmentation this could
give you some speed back in Outlook.

"Anant Rege" <arege.at.rogers.dotcom> wrote in message
Do you mean defrag on the NTFS partition where the exchange
database resides? I haven't done it. And if there is a defrag
function within exchange, then I am not aware of it. I will give
it a try if you think that will certainly solve this problem but
frankly I am not so certain.

Thanks


message have you already ran a defrag of the Exchange database?

"Anant Rege" <arege.at.rogers.dotcom> wrote in message
Hi

We have a big problem on our exchange server related to the sizes
of personal mail boxes. Lots of users have old messages still
sitting in their mail boxes, many of them having big attachments.
It is obviously affecting the performance of the server and I
would like them to archive these old mails. Now here is the
problem. I am not sure whether it is because of the sizes of mail
boxes or not. But if anybody tries to open a really old mail that
has a big attachment, it takes some time before the mail actually
opens. You may see a thermometer going while the server is
'retreiving the data'. Sometimes it could be even a minute before
the mail opens. And I suspect the reason is same for 'archiving'
not working as expected.
Here
is
what happens. Suppose I set up a .pst file on the network for
archiving purpose, I can also have the same file as my personal
folder, and then
if
I
try to use the 'Archive' function in outlook with say date filter
and
try
to
archive everything before a certain date, I get an error message
that 'the mail item not found. It is either deleted or access is
denied' or something to that effect. Alternately if I try to
highlight multiple items in my current 'inbox' and then try to
'move' them manually to a folder in my archive file, I get the
same error message. If I sort the mails by attachments and then
move the ones without attachments by highlighting them , no
problem. The moment there are mails with attachments in the
highlighted items, it invariably fails. Forget about highlighting
mulitple items.
If
I
try to move *even a single* mail that has an attachment, I may
get the same error message. If I try it again and again, it works
after 2 or 3
tries.
Now
moving 100s of mails one by one is an extremely tedious task.
That is
why
I
am looking for some help in this forum. If anybody is aware of
any good software that can do this, please let me know. Or if
anybody knows an alternate way of doing this in outlook, it will
be even better.

Thanks

Anant