Archive psts

Hi Anuj,

archiving PSTs is just a nightmare, whatever option you use. - Yes, you can do it centrally by administrators but that takes ages.

With your requirements, I only see one option: The users are set to have no Exchange quota and they move the content of their PST files back into their mailboxes and you archive and shortcut the information from there. Afterwards, you can set the quotas again.

But note, shortcuts take up space: If you archive 10 x 1GB of PST files and these PSTs contain 10.000 items. 10.000 x 4KB = approx. 40MB. You move tons of small files back to Exchange!
-> the size of the shortcut depends on two things: the number of users in the header (e.g. in To or CC field). And secondly, if you shortcut the mailboy or not. You can easily have shortcuts that are way bigger than 4KB.

But note, the number of files might slow done Exchange/Outlook. The performance of Exchange/Outlook and Domino/Lotus is not based on the size of a mailbox or the size of a milefile. It's based on the number of items you have in a view. Mail systems are databases.
-> Therefore, if you have more than 1.000 items in the default views (e.g. Inbox, Sent items, calendars, etc.) and you navigate these views in Outlook, the performance will always be slow. Even with shortcuts.

Hope this answers you question around migrating PSTs.
Keep well, Jochen.

Thanks for your response but this looks a pretty long process.

We are looking for something hands free for the administrator. The user has all the activity to do and all the responsibility, the administrator may not even be aware of the whole things.

Yes, it is a very long process.

Sorry, I don't want to sound rude: But the term "wishfull thinking" just comes to my mind in terms of "hands free for the administrator". :-S

Just remember, what you've got to import PSTs to EmailXtender: EmailXtract! Deploying this to user PC's is just not an option; never mind to explain the users what to do; never mind granting the permissions required or securing these!

EMC has developed a toolset to help with the migration of PST files (done centrally by administration). The improvement and automation is apparently enormous; but as it's a set of tools and no standard product, some EMC consultant has to get out to the customer, it needs adaptation and fine tuning... so this was extra in terms of money.

If you want to explore the EMC offering and don't find anybody, please let me know and I try to find out if this is only done/offered in EMEA (which I hope is not the case)!

I am curious what the next version of EX 6.5 is offering in terms of PST migration.

And hey: Other products might offer more comfort, but still require central administration to do the bulk work, the planning, etc. I know of a product that goes on top of Symantec Enterprise Vault called "Flightdeck" from VCare (Germany/Swiss based company). This truely puts the users in the drivers seat of the PST migration. - I hope I don't get cut out to name somthing like Syxxxxec here.

In the end, moving all PST data to Outlook doesn't sound too far off from your requirements.

Sorry, but I have done many PST migrations with various products. It was never easy. Please make the customer aware that this is darn difficult and resource intensive!

I tell the customers that in a company with 1000 users, if every user has ever only spent 2hrs on moving data from Exchange to PST files, in managing and organizing these, this cumulates up to 2.000hrs. This is more a person works in a year and it's very likely the real number is way beyond this. And if now PST migration takes say 2 months to bring the data back, this is still a wonderful ratio in reducing "complexity" again. They mostly grasp my idea.

I am really getting passionate about migrating PSTs, so sorry for the lengthy post.
I hope this still helps somehow,
Jochen.