How to Confirm That You Set Mailbox Storage Limits Correctly

To confirm that the mailbox store limits work, change the generate warnings schedule to run constantly, create a dummy user account and mailbox, and then add messages to that mailbox until the warning messages are displayed. You may receive the warning message up to 15 minutes after you have added the messages. After you exceed the Prohibit send and receive setting, any messages that you send to the test account are returned as undeliverable.

After you confirm the mailbox store limits, configure different mailbox limits for the test user, log off Outlook, and then log on again. The mailbox receives mail again.

NOTE: To check for folder sizes in Outlook:

1.	Log on to the Outlook client computer.
2.	In the Folder List column, right-click Outlook Today, and then click Properties for Mailbox (User Name).
3.	Click the General tab, and then click the Folder Size.

To check folder sizes in Exchange System Manager, click the Mailboxes object under Mailbox Store (Servername) in the left pane. The mailboxes that are hosted on that store, their size, and the number of items that they contain are displayed in the right pane.

NOTE: After you finish testing, reset the schedule to generate warning messages.

Troubleshooting

If you configure storage limits, note that the mailbox limits are measured in KB and not megabytes (MB). If you do not make this distinction, you may type 100 KB instead of 100,000 KB as the mailbox limit.

How to Set Limits on Individual Mailboxes

All mailboxes that have a mailbox store have the same limit that is set on that mailbox store. However, you can configure individual mailbox limits to override the limits that you set for the mailbox store.

1.	Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click Active Directory Users and Computers.
2.	In the left pane, expand Domain, and then expand Organizational units.
3.	Open the organizational unit that contains the mailbox that you want to configure.
4.	Right-click the mailbox, and then click Properties.
5.	Click the Exchange General tab, and then click Storage Limits. The Use mailbox store defaults check box is selected and the mailbox limits are shaded by default.
6.	Click to clear the Use mailbox store defaults check box, and then configure either the Issue warning at setting, the Prohibit send at setting, or the Prohibit send and receive at setting as required on this mailbox.
7.	Optionally, click to clear the Use mailbox store defaults under Deleted Item Retention to configure different settings for this mailbox.
8.	Click OK, and then click OK.

How to Set Limits on a Mailbox Store

To set limits on a mailbox store:

1.	Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
2.	In the left pane, expand the Exchange 2000 hierarchy until you find the Servers container. If an Administrative Groups container is displayed, the Servers container is under the respective administrative group.
3.	Expand the Servers container, click the server that hosts the mailbox store that you want to configure, and then double-click Storage group in the right pane.
4.	Right-click the mailbox store that you want to configure, click Properties, and then click the Limits tab.
5.	Click to select one or all of the following check boxes under Storage limits: • Issue warning at: Select this check box to warn the user that their mailbox has exceeded its limit. However, normal functioning of the mailbox continues. • Prohibit send at: Select this check box to send a warning message that states that the user will not be able to send any more messages until they delete or archive their old mail. However, users can still receive messages. NOTE: Type a value (in kilobytes [KB]) for the size of the mailbox, for example, 100,000 KB for normal users or 200,000 KB for the power users. • Prohibit send and receive at: Select this check box to send a warning message that states that the user has exceeded mailbox limits. If the user receives this message, the user cannot receive any messages. NOTE: Type a value (in kilobytes [KB]) for the size of the mailbox, for example, 100,000 KB for normal users or 200,000 KB for the power users. If you have a limit of 100,000 KB on the mailbox, set the Prohibit send at setting to 110,000 KB and the Prohibit send and receive at setting to 120,000 KB. However, if 100, 000 KB really is the limit that you can give everyone, set the Issue warning at setting to 90,000 KB, the Prohibit send at setting to 95,000 KB, and the Prohibit send and receive at setting to 100,000 KB.
6.	Either click the time that you want the warning messages to be generated in the Warning message interval box or click Customize.
7.	If you click Customize, either click a day in the left column, and then click a time on the top row or click and hold the mouse button as you sweep across the time slots to configure warning settings. NOTE: To configure the schedule to be displayed in hour slots or in 15-minute slots, click the appropriate option under Detail View.
8.	After you configure the warning message interval times, click OK.
9.	If you want maximum control of your database sizes, configure the Keep deleted items for (days) setting to 0. Otherwise, Microsoft recommends that you a configure this setting to 7 days.

How to use one Mailbox Manager recipient policy to move items to the Deleted Items folder and then to delete the items

Problem description

In Exchange 2000 and in Exchange 2003, a customer wanted to use one Mailbox Manager recipient policy to move items to the Deleted Items folder after 30 days. Additionally, the customer wanted a second Mailbox Manager recipient policy to delete the items from the Deleted Items folder after five days. By design, only the highest priority recipient policy is applied. Therefore, if two recipient policies are created, only the first recipient policy is evaluated.

Solution

In Exchange System Manager, create one Mailbox Manager recipient policy to perform both actions. To do this, follow these steps:

1.	Specify the action to "move items to the Deleted Items folder" from any specified folders. This forces the items to be moved to the Deleted Items folder.
2.	In the same policy, set the Age Limit for the Deleted Items folder. This forces Mailbox Manager to delete the items that have reached the age limit that is specified for the Deleted Items folder.

This behavior occurs because the items that are moved to the Deleted Items folder cannot be moved to another folder. Instead, the items are deleted.

Confirm that your new mailbox management policy works correctly

To confirm that your new mailbox management policy works, follow these steps:

1.	Create a test Exchange user account.
2.	Configure the filter rule so that the recipient policy applies only to the test account.
3.	Import old and large messages to the test account.
4.	Run the mailbox management process manually from the server.

If your new mailbox management policy works, messages are moved according to the policy settings, and you receive the notification message as configured in the policy.

Note Mailbox Manager does not process mailboxes in the priority order that the mailbox management recipient policies are applied. When Mailbox Manager runs, it iterates through all the private stores on the server, and then iterates through all the mailboxes in each store. Each mailbox is cleaned based on the recipient policy that is applied to the user object for that mailbox in the Active Directory directory service by the Recipient Update Service. The order or priority of the recipient policies does not affect the order that the mailboxes are processed

Manually run mailbox management

To run mailbox management immediately, follow these steps:

1.	Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
2.	In the left pane of Exchange System Manager, expand the Servers object.
3.	Right-click the computer that you want to process, and then click Start Mailbox Management Process. Mailbox management starts after a short delay, depending on the current resource utilization on that computer.

Note Avoid using the mailbox management process when the system is busy, because this may affect server performance.

Configure mailbox management at the server level

To schedule the day and time when a policy will run, change the settings at a server level. To do this, follow these steps:

1.	Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
2.	In the left pane of Exchange System Manager, expand the Servers object.
3.	Right-click the computer that you want to configure, and then click Properties. The Servername Properties dialog box appears.
4.	Click the Mailbox Management tab to display the current settings.
5.	Under Start mailbox management process, do one of the following: • Click the drop-down list to select a time for the mailbox management to run. • Click Customize, click a day in the left column, and then click a time on the top row. After you select the times that you want, click OK.
6.	Click Reporting to select the type of report (either a detailed report or a summary) to create when mailboxes are processed. You must also select a recipient to receive the reports. Click Browse, select a recipient, and then click OK. Note You cannot send reports to distribution lists.
7.	Click OK to accept the mailbox management settings.