0
Firstly a bit of context:
I'm managing a business network with 30 windows workstations, each one has Outlook installed and configured for an Exchange account. The Exchange server grant 4G of space per account, but many users will fill up this space quickly. Till now the solution was quick and dirt: a local pst archive where to tranfer all old emails to make room for new ones. It works, but, it's a local archive and need to be backed up regularly to prevent loss of the emails in case of problems with the pc. Backing up a pst file is...tricky, since Outlook need to be closed and a large file must be copied over the network (even 10G for some users) or using some incremental backups like rsync (a pain to setup). This could hardly be done automatically (just because Outlook need to be closed) and not all users are able/willing to.
---end context---
Yesterday i came up with an idea: Why not set up a local IMAP mail server and configure an IMAP account instead of the local pst file? This way all users could store theirs old emails in this local account that might be easily backed up on the serer.
But...it seem too easy...and i don't find any reference to alike solution till now, so i was wondering:
where is the problem? What am i missing? Do you think that this would be a viable solution?
UPDATE
New facts and problems:
- IMAP is a bidirectional protocol (it permit to upload emails) *;
- Outlook (and other email clients) will force to configure also a SMTP server, this should be solvable using a fake SMTP server (to be verified);
- Upload emails to an IMAP account seem a slow process (to be verified on the local network);
- This method could work, but still seem an overkill
*** Or it use SMTP to upload?
lelmarir
Posted 2014-02-11T14:41:06.613
Reputation: 113
Easier solution would be to archive every email recieved. This way users don't have to worry about backing up email unless they wanted to. There are commericial soluions to do this. – Ramhound – 2014-02-11T15:26:21.670
@Ramhound, that is not a good solution since it would also archive unwanted emails including SPAM, it might also create uncontrolled archives of sensitive emails. – Julian Knight – 2014-02-11T16:59:32.820
@JulianKnight - They have solutions that delete the spam and encrypt what emails remain. – Ramhound – 2014-02-11T17:05:47.603
That isn't stated. However, you could do that but now it is getting more complex as you have to make sure that you are doing things in the right order. In any case, you still are archiving far too much since most emails can be deleted - but only users know which. – Julian Knight – 2014-02-11T17:09:52.940
@Ramhound, Julian Knight is right, archiving all emails would be too much, and there is no way to set up an automatic filter (the only one that can tell if a mail is to be kept is the user) – lelmarir – 2014-02-11T17:35:13.000
Not sure who is voting this down - I think it is an excellent question. I've voted back up. – Julian Knight – 2014-02-11T19:29:16.177
IMAP has some odd side effects in Outlook that might be annoying to some of your users. You should probably test it if you opt to go that direction. Things like deleting items for instance require you to "purge" before they are deleted. They are not moved to the deleted items folder like a typical Exch connected mailbox is. But the suggestion for archiving all mail is a better all around solution as it can file mail by person and is designed for use case scenarios like these. Often as an admin you won't want the users to delete things and having another backup lets you "undo" mistakes. – MikeAWood – 2014-02-12T01:11:37.890