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Exchange Limitations

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by mwogaman

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First, we run an NT server with several WIN 95 client machines that continue to give the "you have exceeded the limits set by your administrator...". I have gone into exchange admin and noticed that some people have 10 megs of space with 14,000 items, while others have 30 megs of space with 600 items. I am wondering what files/folders are included under the limits set? In other words, do they need to clear out other folders besides their inbox, deleted items, and sent items? Some of these folks are cleaning out constantly yet they still get the message. I have set everyone up for a 20 meg limit.
Secondly, I have noticed under exchange admin that some of the client machines list a different user than the one logged on as the primary nt account. Any ideas?
Thanks.

9 replies

by glm

If you're running Exchange 5.5, the mailbox manager in Service Pack 3 is a great tool. You can schedule it to automatically delete items from specific folders when they reach a certain age. If your users have messages in other folders that they havecreated, then yes, they would need to clean those as well. You can tune the mailbox manager to only delete messages and not contacts, tasks, etc.
Another nice feature of the mailbox manager is that you can audit the mailboxes to determine what typeof content is taking up the space before anything is deleted.

As for the other user name, that is probably from someone opening other user's folders. If they have permission to view another person's inbox, calendar, etc, the Exchange Administrator program will show the last person to access the mailbox. When we run the mailbox manager, the mailbox shows the administrator username instead of the user's name.

Hope this helps.

by mwogaman

thanks, but i guarantee no one is opening other people's mailboxes...so there's something else here.

we are running exchange 5.0 - i should've clarified that for you. i guess my real question here is, what files, folders, directories, etc. add to the size of the mailbox? are items in task manager, calendar, etc included under the blanket of "mailbox" and therefore use up some of the allotted space? thanks again!

by mckaytech

A couple of comments - anything stored in personal folders (including attachments) is included in the storage space used. If you're using the Outlook client on the desktop, you can right-click on the mailbox, choose properties and click the Folder Size button.

Also, the space will not immediately be recovered. If you're using Exchange v5.5, the space will be reclaimed during the next on-line defrag cycle and that could be a couple hours.

For the folks with 14k of messages but only 10megof space occupied, it's likely that a lot of those items are return receipts. We have some folks who request a receipt on all global mailings so they get back 1600 messages per message sent.

For the folks with 30meg and only 600 items, it is likely that a lot of those items are attachments that could, perhaps, be stored somewhere other than the Exchange Information Store.

regards!

paul

by mwogaman

see my comments to previous answer...

you mentioned space reclamation in exch 5.5 - what about exch 5.0?

yes some file sizes are due to attachments which people are advised to move into project directories...we normally don't copy alot of people on our e-mails, so even if they did request a return receipt, it shouldn't be eating up that much space.

thank you anyway

by ronnonf

My ultimate advice would be to upgrade to version 5.5 (not because what the others said), this is for future considerations. Eventually if you decide to upgrade to Exchange 2k you cannot go from Exchange 5.0 to 2k you need to go to 5.5 then 2k (a client of mine has this requirement).

Now lets get down to business. Any folder that is stored on the server (ie. Deleted, sent, inbox...). My advice for this problem is to have each user create a personal folder for off-line storage and maybe increase the amount of space each user can have.
The second problem I am having problems understanding. It could be that the account listed is the admin account or the NT account for the mailbox or a user that has send as rights.

by curlergirl

First - the "mailbox" includes ALL folders - everything that shows up in Outlook listed under the "Outlook - [Mailbox (username)] - Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, Journal, Drafts, Contacts, Notes, Sent and Deleted Items, and any other folders if the user has added folders. The number of items and the size of the mailbox really aren't necessarily consistent. If the user receives a lot of attachments (esp. pictures, graphics, faxes or long documents), you could have a relatively small # of items in a mailbox using a large amt. of space. We have some clients who use fax software that routes faxes to their Exchange mailbox. These users have VERY LARGE mailboxes - average size of about 60-75MB - but a relatively small # of items (a few hundred or a thousand usually). In order to preserve space on the server, you can teach your users how to set the archiving settings in Outlook - if they really need to save the emails and/or attachments. You can place the archive folder anywhere - on a different server drive or on the local workstation. An alternative is to allow some users - if they have a particular need - to have a larger limit than others. As to your second point, the only time I've ever seen this happen is when a user has given someone else permission to access their mailbox (or an administrator has logged onto the mailbox for some reason). Are you sure this isn't happening - i.e., could you have users who have given a secretary or assistant the rights to enter appointmentsor add contacts to their mailbox? This is commonly how we've seen this occur. Remember that the user listed in Exchange Administrator was the LAST user to log on to the mailbox, not necessarily the ONLY user that has that mailbox open. Hope this helps.

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