Losing connection to *.pst file

[bcny33]

Hello,

We have Ms Exchange 5.5 on a windows 2000 server. Alot of our workstations seem to lose the connection to there networked mapped drive for the pst file... Now they dont lose other network mappings (other mappings such as home directories on a unix box etc...) only the pst file mapping which is used in the Ms outlook... If the workstation gets rebooted then all is good as far as connecting to the pst file... It seems like their is a hickup and it loses its connections at least once daily... Some users have complained that they have to reboot like 2 or 3 times a day becasue they cant access there email... Does anybody have any kind of recommendations on how to try and determine the problem??? Any help would be appreciated..
Thanks
BC

 

[strongm]

I don't have a fix - but I do have advice: don't store PSTs on a network share. Here's just one of Microsoft's articles on the subject

(I'd personally go further and advise against using a PST at all whwerever possible)

 

[bcny33]

Well the main reason that its stored on the networked exchange / windows 2000 server is because of backup purposes... The Server is backed up every night... If it was to be stored on the individual workstation hard drive then we probably couldn't rely on every user to backup their pst file... I appreciate the article and its a possibility that maybe their is to much overhead as far as having the link of a personal pst file on a networked drive. Especially if you network is not the greatest (such as ours) and a users pst file is way to big in size.... Like I said a lot of users dont seem to have any problems... But there are users that have to reboot 2 or 3 times a day to get their pst file back in their outlook... Thanks...

 

[strongm]

It is somewhat more complex than simply 'overhead'. As the article emphasises

When you store .pst files [on a network share], shares may stop responding. This behavior may cause several client-side problems, such as causing Outlook to stop responding or freezing desktops on client computers

 

[cmeagan656]

Why are the users using PST files at all? You end up using a lot more disk space and lose single instance storage when you do that.

Leave all email on the Exchange server and have Outlook connect to Exchange. Then backup the exchange server.

Cheers.

 

[dennisbbb]

Leaving all email on the Exchange server is not feasible when your users prefer to save every single email and for every single day that they work for the company. They tend not to delete emails at all. Multiply that by 300 users and I can attest the uselessness of storing on the Exchange server. No policy is possible. The policy is to keep all email, or at minimum 3 years. Now please tell me if there is a way around this requirement?

For bcny33 I would say try changing their computers or network cards. Try look into their connection topology. Maybe use a backup script to automatically copy their pst files to the network drive.

 

[strongm]

>if there is a way around this requirement?

There are various options (3rd party archival tools, for example, although I suspect that you might be hard-pressed to find any for Exchange 5.5 these days) - but using storing live PSTs on a network share is probably the very worst choice.

 

[Zelandakh]

Worst being: Most likely to corrupt themselves and slow your clients and servers down.

An archiving service is what you need.