Ummm... PST's burned to a CD are not accessible due to the
"Read Only" attribute.
As
for your 5 year storage requirement, that is what tape backups are
for. We're required to keep 7 years worth of mail for the FDA and SEC,
we don't nor will we ever use PST's, not to mention, I won't support
them. That's what a backup strategy is for. 30mb for a storage
limit might work for you, but it certainly doesn't work for every
one.
The other side of this coin is SIS, otherwise known as Single
Instance Storage. Exchange works wonders with this feature, you should
read up on it. In addition, disk space is cheap, feed your Exchange
server some of that disk space on the SAN and you'll be a happier
admin.
5GB is definitely not the norm for mailboxes, Kevin is a case in his
own there. My mailbox is a whoppin 500mb, but it doesn't even compare
to the 2GB my CFO has and I'm not going to complain to him about it since I
have a rather large RAID array that will support larger mailboxes.
PST's actually use more disk space than the Exchange IS. I
believe the ratio is something like 1.2:1. In addition to that, PST's
can degrade PC performance dramatically due to memory
usage.
In
short, what's good for the goose is not good for the gander. While
your solution might work for you, it is not one I would ever advocate nor
would I find it acceptable...
--------------------------------------------
Don
Ely
Network Engineer
Tripath Imaging, Inc.
(336) 290-8293 -
Direct
(336) 516-4519 - Mobile
[EMAIL PROTECTED] - email
http://www.tripathimaging.com
Working at a college, I see a wide range
of users. Some users are required by the state or grant institiution to
hold onto all correspondese for a "project" for 5 years. We estiblished
"reseanable" (30 meg) limits on their mailboxes (IS) and expect them to
keep them clean. This means that they can't hold e-mail there for 5 years.
(who would want to anyway?)
While
PSTs and OSTs may not be the best idea (yes I know all about their
issues), they are a storage type we can provide. Opening the limits on the
IS for 5 gig folders like Kevins would be impossible. Our people just will
abuse that sort of limit. they would never delete anything! My bosses,
and I agree, that a 30 meg limit is more then acceptable limit for
a mailbox via Exchange.
We
store the PSTs on the file server (which is on a SANS) and they are backed
up. When the psts get around 650 megs in size, I burn it to a cd and have
them start a new one. I copy the cd version on to the hdd but leave it in
read-only attribute so they can't add to it but can access the info.
(remember in our case, the e-mails and attachments may need to be "held"
for several years) They use the "new" PST on the server for storing info.
I actually only have 2 usuers who have required this. A few have gotten to
300 megs then clean it up on their own because they find they can't find
anything..... We only allow 1 PST on the server per user at a
time...
Elizabeth Thompson
Service and Support Technician
CCBC - Catonsville
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