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I have recently inherited a mess of an IT system (we don't even use a domains and group policy despite having a server).

One major problem I am coming across frequently though is that users' Outlook data files are reaching massive amounts (such as 49gb) and as you can imagine it causes some issues. We use Microsoft exchange hosted through Rackspace. Our employees claim they need to retain these emails since we are a Title Insurance company.

My question is: Is there a better way to split that data files apart and just retain the files they need at the moment and have the deleted emails backed up for viewing later? Yes I know I can trying exporting the deleted emails folder to an outlook data file, but that file itself would be massive and take many hours to complete the backup for each user. If this is the best way I can probably do it overnight, but I'm just seeking a more graceful/fast way to handle this. I have a feeling anything I do with those emails is going to take time though. This probably sounds like a dumb question, but our users are very picky and change scares the crap out of them.

Action Jackson
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  • If you have legal data retention requirements, implement a proper archiving solution for the mail. – Sven Sep 14 '17 at 13:44
  • Would that provide easy access to them, without slowing outlook down every time? I'm rather new to managing Outlook inboxes with this volume of email. – Action Jackson Sep 14 '17 at 13:46
  • I guess that depends on the product. I am in no way an Exchange or Outlook expert (I don't use them at all), I just know that if you have legal retention requirements, you should never rely on your users to just not delete a mail. – Sven Sep 14 '17 at 13:48
  • To be honest I doubt anyone here knows what their policy is besides don't delete them, but thanks for the advise. I honestly should be performing periodic backups myself. Perhaps if I did the backups by date ranges it would make things more manageable and organized. They will just have to adjust to not being able to search all 40gb+ worth of emails at once. Thanks. – Action Jackson Sep 14 '17 at 13:54

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You have a few choices. You could create the users an Exchange Archive, and create a retention policy to move data into the archive (you can specify time). This would move data out of the primary mailbox and prevent OST bloat.

You can also use the Sync Slider in Outlook to ensure only a limited set of data are downloaded to the OST file (this needs Outlook 2013 or 2016). This would be difficult to manage without GPO's.

You also have lots of 3rd party products that can archive Exchange data, but I am not sure how they would work in a hosted environment.

Hope this helps.

LeMoore
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  • That sounds like what will need to be done. I had no idea previously how bloated outlook can get without any warning. Probably also helps that the previous IT guy never removed old outlook profiles before giving the computer to someone else. Thanks. – Action Jackson Sep 14 '17 at 14:42
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(I'm answering this because it's a subject near and dear to me, but it's a borderline question for ServerFault because it's got a huge "user management" component in additional to the technical aspects.)

As Sven said in comments, if you have legal retention requirements, you need a proper archiving solution. You tagged this , and if that's correct, there are numerous archiving, retention, and policy enforcement tools available.

Another thing I suspect you need to look at is document management. If you have users with gigabytes of email, I'm sure what you really have is people with gigabytes of attachments. Your users are keeping all those emails with (probably lots of redundant) attachments because they've gotten in the habit of using email for document management... they're essentially using emails as meta-data to the documents.

If that's the case, there are other tools for Outlook and Exchange that can give you more control over attachments, and if your users are relying on email to store documents with context, then the other tools you could look at are for extracting emails from Outlook.

Although implementing new business processes to better manager your documents and information isn't strictly a technical issue, if you're in charge of IT, this is an area where you can support the business by finding better technology for people to use.

Ward - Reinstate Monica
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  • Thanks, I agree. I was really only thinking about ways to get around the issue and let them keep doing what they do, but something definitely must change and I think I will begin drafting a very clear retention policy to enforce on the users. They absolutely hate any kind of change (they freaked out when I forced them to stop using Internet Explorer), but perhaps one of these numerous tools you mentioned will make things easier on everyone. The biggest gripe they have is that they need to be able to easily search their archived emails at any time in case they must provide proof of something. – Action Jackson Sep 16 '17 at 02:15
  • Personally, I like extracting emails into a file system. When I was using/Administering Outlook, I used EZDetach and MessageSave from this company: https://www.techhit.com/ – Ward - Reinstate Monica Sep 16 '17 at 02:51
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If they want to keep it in rackspace. I believe they have an archive feature you can use to archive older mail so it would back it up and wouldn't count toward data allowances of mailboxes. Or host files on a server that is backed up so they can get some email off of their mailboxes.

obi1kenobi2
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