Say Bye Bye to PST Files with Exchange 2010 – Honest Guv, Honest
Posted by Marine Barbaroux in Exchange, Exchange 2010, IT Professional, Outlook, PST Files, PST Importer, SysAdmin, email on 26-05-2010
Tags: email, Exchange, Exchange 2010, IT Professional, Mailbox performance, messages, Outlook, PST, PST Files, PST Importer, SysAdmin
Are you planning to use the Personal Archive feature in Microsoft Exchange 2010 to get rid of all those nasty PST files on your network?
In a way, it is a reasonable call: with the secondary mailbox of Exchange 2010, your users will not need to generate PST files to try and comply to their mailbox quota limits….
… but you now have a new dilemma: what do you do with all the PST files already spread over your network?
Here are your options:
-
Do nothing –> I wish you good luck next time one of your end users contacts you because they lost a VERY IMPORTANT email.
-
Let your users import manually (or not) their PST files into exchange –> Go to 1)
- Take action to deal with this PST hell –> import them into Exchange yourself.
Sadly, Microsoft doesn’t make the import easy to do. For some reason, they got rid of the functionality in the Exchange Management Console GUI, and we are left with just a cmdlet, that is apparently rather clumsy.
This is why Red Gate Software are currently developing a tool for a PST search and import into Exchange 2010. It is based on the existing PST Importer tool developed to complement Exchange Server Archiver, but works independently with Exchange 2010. It is still work in progress, but here is a preview of the tool:
Step 1 (optional if you know where your PST files are located): Find the PST files on your network, via a 4 step wizard.
Step 1: Find the PST files on your network.
Step 2: Search is completed (in this case returned 4 files)
Step 3: Set the destination mailbox. In this case, we automatically select the PST file owner, Anne.
Step 3: Set the destination mailbox
Step 4: Click “Import all now” to start the import.
Step 4: Start the import.
Et voila, now Anne can access her PST files in Outlook:
- PSTs are imported and visible in Users’ Outlook mailboxes
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Definitely better than a cmdlet in my opinion (provided it offers more features, which I’m sure it will!) A lot of people are scared off by powershell, therefore a GUI should be a far more welcoming option to the overcautious Exchange admin. Especially one coming straight from Exchange 2000 or 2003 with little or no Exchange powershell experience.
Thanks Sean! I know from reading your articles how painful experience you had with PSTs… You say “provided it offers more features”… Do you have any specific features you want to see in?
Hi Marine, well I was just being conscious of the powershell cmdlet itself – as long as the PST importer provides as much functionality or more, I think it’ll be great (I’m sure it will provide that though!) Regarding features, I think I need more exposure to Exch. 2010 before I can make any specific requests, but some kind of summary or report on finished imports would be great in my opinion. Perhaps before and after mailbox sizes could be one, that would help identify which users or groups of users would need stricter storage policies set
Aaaaarg! I thought I’d answered this, but manifestly not
Just thanks for this feedback… an stay in touch!