Microsoft Exchange Server 2003: Configuring Recipient Objects (part 5) - Configuring Storage Limits with Mailbox Store Policies

Configuring Storage Limits for Individual Mailbox Stores

Configuring storage limits for individual mailbox stores is done through Exchange System Manager, by navigating to the mailbox store you want to configure and editing its properties, and then selecting the Limits tab. The configuration dialog box, shown in Figure 13, has some elements similar to those in Figure 7-12 but also some important differences.

Figure 13 shows the default settings for an Exchange Server 2003 installation. Note that in addition to configuring the storage limits for every mailbox in the mailbox store, you can also configure the Deletion settings for the mailbox store. Here you decide how long deleted mailboxes are kept before being purged and how long deleted items within a mailbox are kept before being purged. Configuring these settings makes Exchange administration easier in recovering from unintended deletions, whether of user mailboxes or when users want to restore deleted e-mail.

This dialog box is also where you configure the schedule that Exchange Server 2003 uses to send out warning messages to mailboxes that have crossed their storage limit thresholds. By default, warnings are sent daily at midnight. By clicking the drop-down list, you can select from a number of predefined schedules or create a custom schedule to match your needs (such as if you want to send out warnings multiple times per day or at a time not provided as an option in the predefined list).

Configuring Storage Limits with Mailbox Store Policies

Configuring storage limits at the mailbox store level simplifies Exchange administration in that you do not have to configure limits for every individual mailbox. But what if you have a large Exchange organization with 50 mailbox stores worldwide, and you need to make the same storage limit changes to all of them? Fortunately, you do not have to configure each individual mailbox store. Exchange Server 2003 allows you to simplify the administration of multiple mailbox stores by using policies.

Mailbox store policies allow you to configure a single policy and then assign it to all the mailbox stores that exist within the administrative group. You can also copy the policy to other administrative groups rather than duplicate the administrative effort of configuring storage limit settings. To create a mailbox store policy, perform the following steps:

1.	Open Exchange System Manager. By default, there is no container for system policies in an administrative group, so if you haven’t previously created a policy, you probably don’t have a policy folder. To create one, right-click the administrative group container that contains your server and select New, and then click System Policy Container.
2.	Next, right-click the System Policies folder and select New, and then click Mailbox Store Policy. This will open the dialog box shown in Figure 14, which prompts you to choose which property pages you want to have available in the policy. You might wonder why you wouldn’t have every property page available. However, since you create policies for specific purposes, it makes sense to select only the pages that you need for your policy. With the flexibility of policies, it is recommended that you create a policy for a specific purpose rather than trying to account for everything in one policy. This is especially true in large organizations, where you may need multiple policies to manage different needs. Select the Limits page and click OK. Figure 14. Choosing which pages display for a policy
3.	The new policy is opened and ready for configuration. The General tab prompts you to name the policy. Give it a descriptive name, such as Storage Limits.
4.	When you click the Limits (Policy) tab, you will notice that the page is the same as the dialog box for the individual mailbox store, shown in Figure 13. The settings are not the same if you have configured individual mailbox store storage limits, but all the options are the same. After you configure your policy and click OK, you are returned to Exchange System Manager, and you can see your new policy in the System Policies container.
5.	Right-click the policy and select Add Mailbox Store. (Even though you’ve created a new mailbox store policy, at this point it doesn’t apply to anything. You have to assign the policy to the desired mailbox stores.)
6.	The Select The Items To Place Under The Control Of This Policy dialog box, shown in Figure 15, appears next and prompts you to enter a mailbox store name that you want to apply the policy to. If you know the name of the mailbox store, you can type it in, but in a large Exchange organization, you may not want to type in every mailbox store name. A quick way to view all of the available mailbox stores for the policy is to click Advanced, which opens the dialog box shown in Figure 16. Figure 15. Assigning a mailbox store policy Figure 16. Searching Active Directory for mailbox stores
7.	The easiest way to search is to not enter anything but simply to click Find Now. This will return all the mailbox stores in your administrative group, similar to what is shown in Figure 16. Select the mailbox stores you want the policy to apply to, and click OK. Exchange Server 2003 will confirm that you want to add the mailbox store to the policy.
8.	Once you’ve finished adding the mailbox stores to the policy, you’ll see them in the contents pane of the Storage Limits policy container. Double-clicking a mailbox store will allow you to see the effects of the policy. For example, notice in Figure 17 that because a mailbox store policy that configures storage limits has been applied to Server2, all the options on the Limits page for the individual mailbox store are unavailable. When a policy applies, you cannot override the policy with local settings. Clicking on the Policies tab shows you what policies are in effect on this mailbox store, as shown in Figure 18. Figure 17. Policy effects on local settings Figure 18. The Policies tab
9.	The final step after configuring the policy is to apply the policy, which hasn’t yet been done even though you selected the mailbox stores that the policy should apply to. To apply the policy, right-click it in Exchange System Manager and select Apply Now. This will cause your policy settings to be applied as you have configured them. Manually applying the policy prevents unintended changes from taking effect immediately.

Once you have created a policy, you do not have to re-create it under every administrative group that you want to apply the same settings to. Using Exchange System Manager, you can simply right-click and drag the policy from the System Policies container in one administrative group to the System Policies container in another administrative group, and then choose Copy from the shortcut menu. Apply the policy in the destination administrative group, and you are finished.