Questions from Exchange newbie

[Kerbouchard]

We are currently using Ipswitch Imail with Outlook. We keep the .pst files on a single server for easy backup--

1. Would the Exchange server itself hold all of the .pst files now?

2. Can the exchange server also act as the mail server?

3. Web access easy to configure? We currently have a PIX with our web/mail server in the DMZ.

I'd especially appreciate any suggestions or recommendations. Some of our executives receive a tremendous amount of email and accessing the .pst over the network is just too slow.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Marcs41]

1: An Exchange server does not have PSTs

2: Of course, it IS a mailserver....

3: Yes, OWA

Marc
[sub]If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all. Please specify details.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC!
How Do You Get Great Answers To your Tek-Tips Questions? [/sub]See faq222-2244

 

[Speaker]

We are currently using Ipswitch Imail with Outlook. We keep the .pst files on a single server for easy backup--

This is not generally considered a good thing to do. The purpose of PSTs is so mail will be available in case of network connectivity problems. If your users are unable to connect to the pst server, they should be able to connect to the email server. PSTs are usually stored on the local machine. However, you might want to google PSTs. Many admins don't like them because they become corrupted easily and can be difficult to work with.


1. Would the Exchange server itself hold all of the .pst files now?

PSTs are the files in Outlook. Exchange can hold the users mailboxes in a message store, which is one big file instead of users' PSTs scattered all over the place. One drawback to this is that if a user loses their mailbox for any reason (they will sometimes delete their own entire mailbox and swear they did nothing) you have to restore exchange to a like server built just for mailbox restores. This means a quick server build if an exec wants his mailbox restored or having a pre-built exchange clone sitting around most of the time doing nothing.


3. Web access easy to configure? We currently have a PIX with our web/mail server in the DMZ.

If you mean OWA, I'd say not really. MS recommends that you have OWA installed on a different server than Exchange. Configuring to access through your firewall, etc... shouldn't be too much of a problem.



I'd especially appreciate any suggestions or recommendations. Some of our executives receive a tremendous amount of email and accessing the .pst over the network is just too slow.

Move the PSTs to the local drive or configure the clients to store mailboxes on the server store and copy the pst contents to it.

 

[Marcs41]

OWA 2003 is a dream to work with, configuring a piece of cake. You just need a good insight of you router/firewall. If you don't, keep your hands of it.

Marc
[sub]If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all. Please specify details.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC!
How Do You Get Great Answers To your Tek-Tips Questions? [/sub]See faq222-2244

 

[Speaker]

Oops. Didn't proof my own post. The first reply ("If your users are unable to connect to the pst server, they should be able to connect to the email server.") should say, "If your users are ABLE to connect to the server containing the PSTs, they'll also be able to connect to the Exchange server, so why not just have them connect directly to it?"

 

[Marcs41]

That is not entirely accurate. For all w know, the PST's can be stored on a totally different Fileserver, nothing to do with Exchange.
It is still a bad idea, but do not assume things without having Kerbouchard confirm it.
It would be nice if he ever replies.

Marc
[sub]If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all. Please specify details.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC!
How Do You Get Great Answers To your Tek-Tips Questions? [/sub]See faq222-2244

 

[Kerbouchard]

Hi guys thanks for all the comments. I've kept the pst's on a server for several years now the reason being I can back them up every night. I haven't had any trouble yet,(knock on wood) however a couple of the executives are starting to get extremely large files, even after archiving, which is another of the reasons I'm looking at Exchange.

 

[DanMIS]

Kerbouchard - if the PST files exceed 2 Gb, they will no longer open. There is a utility to trim it under 2 Gb, but it doesn't allow you to see what was removed to get below that limit, nor to choose what you want to delete.

If they're close to 2 Gb, have them either purge old mail or start a second one (I'd probably not even tell them of option 2, just have them clean out their mail).

Dan

 

[athelu]

Exchange standard has a phsycal store limit of 16GB. so, before you decide to move to exchange make sure you don't excede that amount already.

Speaker posted about having to build up a duplicate Exchange server for restore. - This is no longer the case in exchange 2003. it was quite a bit of disaster recovery and restore capabilites on its own now.

OWA is easy to use, and you need to do nothing but open up HTTP (port 80) and SSL (port 443) on your pix firewall to get it to work.

I would not recommend putting ANY mail server in a DMZ, especially since you are running a pix. As long as the ports are open by protocol, you should have no problems keeping it behind the firewall. Just let the pix have all of the external ip addresses and and nat them via port to the mail server.