PST on Server

[Pascal Dorion]

Hi!

How can I configure Outlook and Windows so that users have their PST files
on the Server. We use POP3 only. The idea is that laptop users get their PST
"offline" too and then syncronize when back on the LAN.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

PMD

 

[Vince Averello [MVP-Outlook]]

It's not usually recommended to store PSTs on a server due to corruption
issues plus syncing them in offline folders would take a long time at
power-down/log-off

 

[Bob Bob]

Hi Pascal

I use to do this with the archive.pst folder in a Exchange env. Be aware
that there are some data corruption issues that may occur if you lose
connectivity or the laptop/server crashes. If it does you can almost be
guaranteed that you'll have to run a PST repair (scanpst.exe)

You'll also find that by default (in W2K anyway) PST files wont be
included in offline files. You can certainly modify this through
gpedit.msc but be warned that it is possible to create many copies of
the one file as their individual timestamps change.

I also read somewhere that the access method for PST files is not very
good over a LAN. I don't remember the meat of the argument but the
bottom line is that it is slower than using a HDD copy.

I found the best method here was to actually change the server or put
one in! If you cant use Exchange look at an IMAP server where the
primary mailbox copy is held at one location. It only unfortunately
handles email. (not contacts etc)

You could of course copy the PST file back and forth to the server (as a
backup) at login and shutdown time, if data protection is your issue.

Cheers Bob

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

Hi!

How can I configure Outlook and Windows so that users have their PST
files on the Server. We use POP3 only. The idea is that laptop users
get their PST "offline" too and then syncronize when back on the LAN.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

PMD

Hi -

a) this is not supported
and
b) PST files cannot be used with Offline Files in Windows, without a
registry hack, as far as I know. There would be no merging of data, either -
it would be a wholesale replacement of one copy of the file, with another
one - and I don't recomend it.

If you have a large enough environment, you really ought to look into
Exchange server. You could get a hosted Exchange account from many different
providers....and this would be much better overall. POP3 is really not
suitable as a corporate mail protocol.

 

[Gordon]

If you have a large enough environment, you really ought to look into
Exchange server. You could get a hosted Exchange account from many
different providers....and this would be much better overall. POP3 is
really not suitable as a corporate mail protocol.

If the OP is not bothered about calendar and task sharing there are free
mail servers out there he could implement instead of Exchange.....

 

[edavid3001]

I suppose you could put the PST file in the roaming profile directory
and then when they log in and out, the PST file would be stored on a
server.

Not sure if that gets your goals or not.

We store our PST files on a centralized server. It is a little
slower, but not too bad. If you have old hardware or use Netware, you
will see a much larger slow down.

We have a few users with their PST files in their roaming profile
directory. When these get around 500MB they can take a while to log
in and out.

 

[Oliver Vukovics]

Hi Lanwench,

b) PST files cannot be used with Offline Files in Windows, without a
registry hack, as far as I know.
"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

PST file are not supported in "Offline Files", but I thought it works if you
change the ending of the file (e.g. to .txt)

If you change the name to "outlook.txt" the Offline files accept the file
(Windows checked only the ending).

If you open Outlook and select "show all files" (instead of "Personal Folder
..PST), then Outlook accept also this ".txt" as a PST file. Strange, but in
the past it works. I don´t know if this still works with the actual updates.

 

[Oliver Vukovics]

Hi Pascal,

you could "share" the PST file on a Server without Exchange with 3rd Party
tools:
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.htm

Our sharing solution (Public ShareFolder) don´t use a "server" PST
connection, we use a local connection to a PST file with an "Outlook as
server".

Our Software makes the network connection (like Exchange) and the Outlook on
the server is connected with the PST files you want to share/synchronize.
You could create for every user a PST file on the Server, add this PST
files in Outlook (max. 128 PST file) and then you can make (with the client
part of the software) the connection to this PST files.

Now you can synchronize this PSTs between the server and the clients. Once
again, this is not a network connection to a PST file.

We have a customer with 80 users and 128 Unicode PST files (1400GB) as
shared PST files, so it works.

We work since 6 years with the same PST files (stored on a server) and
didn´t get any problems.

This is one idea, it may help.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

I suppose you could put the PST file in the roaming profile directory
and then when they log in and out, the PST file would be stored on a
server.

Not sure if that gets your goals or not.

We store our PST files on a centralized server. It is a little
slower, but not too bad. If you have old hardware or use Netware,
you will see a much larger slow down.

We have a few users with their PST files in their roaming profile
directory. When these get around 500MB they can take a while to log
in and out.

Yep.....I use folder redirection for my clients, esp. those with roaming
profiles. You really do not want a large profile.....you will have
corruption at some point. I try to keep my clients' profiles under about
30MB. And I don't think PST files are suitable for a business large enough
to have a domain!

 

[edavid3001]

Yep.....I use folder redirection for my clients, esp. those with roaming

profiles. You really do not want a large profile.....you will have
corruption at some point.

Yes. We have corruption at times. This is a valid point. We do have
to run the PST Scan from time to time. But it is worth it to be able
to backup the PST files from the server via "previous version"
snapshots.

I try to keep my clients' profiles under about
30MB. And I don't think PST files are suitable for a business large enough
to have a domain!

What would you use? We have a POP3 server. Exchange is over $70,000
for our license count. Exchange brings nothing to the table that is
worth $70,000 to us. We are looking at IMAP servers. Other ideas?

 

[Gordon]

What would you use? We have a POP3 server. Exchange is over $70,000
for our license count. Exchange brings nothing to the table that is
worth $70,000 to us. We are looking at IMAP servers. Other ideas?

If you are not bothered about sharing calendars and Tasks (which I
presume you are not), there are several free mail servers out there.
Here's one:
http://www.pmail.com/overviews/ovw_mercury.htm

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

Yes. We have corruption at times. This is a valid point. We do have
to run the PST Scan from time to time. But it is worth it to be able
to backup the PST files from the server via "previous version"
snapshots.



What would you use? We have a POP3 server. Exchange is over
$70,000 for our license count. Exchange brings nothing to the table
that is worth $70,000 to us. We are looking at IMAP servers. Other
ideas?

If your users' email data is important to your company, you need something
that can centrally store & manage it. PST files will not let you do this.
IMAP would be a better choice, indeed....but it won't do anything besides
e-mail, such as calendars/contacts/etc.

I know Exchange isn't cheap - but how much is your data worth? Remember that
data in a PST file takes up more space than it would if it were in an
Exchange database (single instance storage), for one thing. There are other
groupware products - some are open source. Much depends on your hardware,
infrastructure, tech support, and so forth.

You might check out
http://www.exchangefaq.org/faq/Exchange-5.5/Why-PST-=-BAD-/q/Why-PST-=-BAD/qid/1209
for a nice little rant on this topic.