Article ID: 319439
Article Last Modified on 2/27/2007
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Standard Edition
This article was previously published under Q319439
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SUMMARY
This step-by-step article describes how to configure storage limits on both public folder stores and individual public folders in Exchange 2000. Typically, the storage limit on public folders is not a significant issue because postings to public folders tend to be text-based messages. However, if your organization uses of public folders regularly, particularly to store items with attachments or to subscribe to Internet newsgroups, you may want to configure storage limits on public folders in addition to configuring storage limits on mailboxes.
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Requirements
The following list outlines the recommended hardware, software, network infrastructure, and service packs that you need:
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 2 (SP2)
- Active Directory
- Exchange Server 2000 with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
This article assumes that you are familiar with the following topics:
- Exchange System Manager
- The mailbox sizes that your users need to carry out their jobs.
How to Plan Public Folder Limits
If you plan to use the public folders regularly, Microsoft recommends that you consider the maximum size of these folders, and then implement the limits before you make the folders available to users. This order is important for a number of reasons:
- Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) clients such as Microsoft Outlook can only use the default public folder tree, which is associated with the default public folder store in the first storage group that is created on each Exchange 2000 computer. If you want all of your public folders to be accessible over MAPI, you need to limit yourself to one public folder store for each server.
- Although Exchange 2000 Enterprise edition removes the 16-gigabyte (GB) limit on an individual mailbox store, there are practical limits for backing up and restoring databases. Microsoft recommends that you use a 50-GB limit (approximately) for a single mailbox store.
- Public folders are often used as archives; therefore, they tend to fill up eventually unless controls are implemented.
- You can configure expiration policies on public folders to delete postings that are older than a certain age. However, this procedure is not appropriate for certain types of public folders, such as those folders that store contact details.
- You may want to configure limits on a typical public folder that is used for simple posts to 20 megabytes (MB) and the limits on an archive folder to 100 MB. However, you may not want to configure limits on a Contacts folder (to make the space unlimited).
- Like mailbox limits, you configure public folder limits on the public folder store; however, you can configure individual public folder limits to override the limits that you set on the store.
- To perform an in-place restore, Microsoft recommends that your disks have at least as much free space as the size of the database itself plus at least 10 percent. For example, a 35-GB database runs on an 80-GB partition.
- Remember that the deleted item retention time also affects the size of a public folder store because items are not actually deleted until after the deleted item retention time has expired.
How to Set Limits on Public Folder Stores
You use a slightly different procedure to set limits on public folder stores than the procedure that you use to set limits on a mailbox store because you cannot set the prohibit send setting on a public folder.
- Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
- In the left pane, expand the Exchange 2000 hierarchy until you find the Servers container.
If an Administrative Groups container is displayed, the Servers container is under the respective administrative group. - Expand the Servers container, click the server that hosts the public folder store that you want to configure, and then double-click Storage group in the right pane.
- Right-click the public folder store that you want to configure, click Properties, and then click the Limits tab.
- Click to select one or all of the following check boxes under Storage limits:
- Issue warning at: Select this check box to warn the users that have public folder Owner or Folder Contact roles that their public folder has exceeded its limit. However, normal functioning of the public folder continues.
- Prohibit post at: Select this check box to prevent new messages from being posted to the folder if the folder reaches the size that you specify.
- Maximum item size: Select this check box to prevent anyone from posting messages that are larger than a certain size, regardless of how full the folder is.
NOTE: Type the size value in KB for the majority of the public folders that are hosted in this store, for example, type 20,000 KB for the limit of a message-based public folder and type 100 KB for the Maximum item size setting.
- Either click the time that you want the warning messages to be generated in the Warning message interval box or click Customize.
- If you click Customize, either click a day in the left column and a time on the top row or click and hold the mouse button as you sweep across the time slots to configure warning settings.
NOTE: To configure the schedule to be displayed in hour slots or in 15-minute slots, click the appropriate setting under Detail View. - After you configure the warning message interval times, click OK.
- If you want maximum control of your database sizes, configure the Keep deleted items for (days) setting to 0. Otherwise, Microsoft recommends that you a configure this setting to 7 days. Deleted item retention time is more important on public folders, where items are deleted immediately and are not sent to the Deleted Items folder.
- After you finish configuring public folder store limits, click OK.
How to Set Limits on Individual Public Folders
You can configure individual public folder limits on a folder that exists in the public folder store to override the store limits:
- Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
- In the left pane, expand the Exchange 2000 hierarchy until you find the Servers container.
If an Administrative Groups container is displayed, the Servers container is under the respective administrative group.
- Expand the Servers container, click the server that hosts the public folder store that you want to configure, and then double-click Storage group in the right pane.
- Expand the public folder store that you want to configure, and then click Public Folders.
A list of the public folders that are hosted on the selected public folder store is displayed in the right pane.
- Double-click on the public folder that you want to configure, and then click the Limits tab.
The Use public store defaults check box is selected and the public store limits are shaded, by default.
- Click to clear the Use public store defaults check box, and then configure the Issue warning at setting, the Prohibit post setting, and the Maximum Item setting to the limit (in KB) that is required on this public folder.
- Optionally, you can clear the Use public store defaults check box under Deletion Settings to configure different settings for deleted items on this public store.
- Click OK.
How to Confirm That You Set Public Folder Storage Limits Correctly
To confirm that you configured the public folder limits correctly:
- Change the generate warnings schedule to run constantly on the public folder store.
- Modify the permissions on a test public folder so that only you can add items to that public folder.
- Log on to Outlook as yourself, and then add postings and attachments to the public folders until you receive the warning messages.
NOTE: It may take up to 15 minutes after you add the postings to receive the message.
- Add postings that have attachments that exceed the allowable size limit.
These postings cannot be saved to the folder.
If you exceed the prohibit post limit, any messages that you send to the public folders are returned as undeliverable. After you confirm the public folder store limits, use the same procedure on a public folder on which you set individual limits.
To check for folder sizes in Outlook:
- Log on to the Outlook client computer.
- In the Folder List column, expand Public Folders, right-click All Public Folders, and then click Properties.
- Click the General tab, and then click Folder Size.
To check folder sizes in Exchange System Manager, click the Public Folders object under Public Folder Store (Servername) in the left pane. The mailboxes that are hosted on that store, their size, and the number of items that they contain are displayed in the right pane.
NOTE: After you finish testing, reset the schedule to generate warning messages.
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Troubleshooting
If you configure storage limits, note that the public folder limits are measured in KB and not MB. If you do not make this distinction, you may type 100 KB instead of 100,000 KB as the mailbox limit. Also, remember that the warning messages are typically only generated once a day rather than immediately.
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REFERENCES
For more information about how to configure storage limits in Exchange 2000, refer to the Exchange 2000 Server Resource Kit and Exchange 2000 Server Help.
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