Where to start 5.5 Exchange & Web Access

[conrail]

I have a 5.5exchange box with a nt4 platform and my AD web access box on a 2ksp3 platform. These two boxes have gone through many hands and now are dropped in my lap.

I have had many issues with the new Doom Virus running but SAV 7.5 seems to handle it. Though some users complain they are still getting the Doom where as these users were used to having most of these problems headed off at the server before it got to them (the user).

I now have SAV corp 8.0 on a separate server rolling out to clients and I am happy with the results. Anything that is opened is caught. <users!!just don't get it>

More to my point I want to clean out many mailboxes and the .edb assosiated. Do I use ESEUTIL? I have not practiced this before.

My AD web access box goes down time to time and I end up copying the msgina.dll which I know is not related to mail but it throws my 5.5 exchange box out then there is no email for anyone to access.

My real questions are; can I have my web access box and my 5.5 exchange box separate or less dependent on each other? Can they work independently of one another? What is the assosiation between them?

I realize this may be a bit much for a reply. This is not my forte but I would appreciate conversation or direction as to where to start or to get more information. Thanks

 

[rdroske]

Why did the viruses stop getting caught at the server?

Sounds like there used to be a exchange AV agent running that isn't anymore. If so you want to get it running again. If not look into getting one (or even better a front end device that stops tham before the exchange).

Cleaning out mailboxes is a manual task without a third party tool.

ESEUTIL just defragments and fixes inconsitencies in the Exchange dtatbase.

If you mean web acces to exchange email (OWA) sounds like you are as seperate as you can be. All the mail, permission info etc stays on the exchange box. The OWA box is basically just an asp web app that queries exchange and displays results to browsers (so they need to communicate).

 

[conrail]

Thanks for a to the point reply for a lot of post.

You are right about the AV. The AV running is a corperate edition that is not for exchange but still is better than nothing. I will have to get the right AV.

What would you suggest for a front end device to weed out viruses?

How do you clean out mailboxes? It seem as though they are still there or I am not finding the correct procedure for deleting. I am hoping the files assosiated with the mailboxes will be deleted as well.

Is it worth it to upgrade my exchange?

A lot of questions - Thanks

 

[rdroske]

The upgrade is definitely worth it but it's expensive. I still can't get mine approved.

There are lots of devices that sit in front of the exchange and weed out viruses/spam/known hacking attempts.

It could also be done with another NT box running the free SMTP based email server and a software solution or a Linux box doing the same.

Lot's of choices, I am not really enough of an expert to say which is best.

I use the Computer Associates Virus Add on for Exchange as well as a hardware device that does the same thing and the rest I mentioned but I'm not totally thrilled with either of those.

To delete a mailbox you just highlight it in the Admin and hit the delete key. It will also delete the files if they were sent to only that user. If an attachment was sent to more that on it will only be deleted when they all delete it.

If they no longer show up in the address list (and are not just hidden) then they are deleted. If you have deleted item retention set to a value higher than 0 they won't leave the store for that period.

If you think they are not deleted because your edb file doesn't shrink that is normal. The file never shrinkls unless you take it offline and do a defrag.

Thats not a problem because the space is freed up within the file. You check that by looking in the log for the entry from the nightly online defrag (I think it is 1221 event but not sure). Look for entries from MSExchange Private IS in the early AM. This tells the free space within the edb file. That amount should grow if you delete a large mailbox. The total available is that amount plus the difference between the physical size of your edb file and 16GB (unless you have the enterprise edition).