Exchange Server Forums

Mailbox limits

Users viewing this topic: none

Logged in as: Guest

Printable Version

All Forums >> [Microsoft Exchange 2007] >> General >> Mailbox limits

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

Mailbox limits - 2.Jul.2008 11:33:15 AM

goody3335

Posts: 41
Joined: 25.Jun.2008
Status: offline

I know this is somewhat subjective, but I'm wondering if Exchange 2007 has bigger recommended limits than Exchange 2003.
For instance, in 2003 it's recommended that a mailbox not have more than 5,000 items. In 2007, is that still the case? I know it all depends on hardware, too, but if someone could just provide me with a general answer. Thanks!

Post #: 1

Featured Links*

RE: Mailbox limits - 2.Jul.2008 11:55:16 AM

John Weber

Posts: 533
Joined: 20.Apr.2005
From: Portland, Oregon
Status: offline

There are lots of "recommendations" out there in the wild.
MSFT recommends not having an "excessive" number of items in the default folders because of the refresh that occurs.
I have well more than 5000 items in my mailbox - however, I try very hard to keep the default folders cleaned out.
One of the specific things that kill me are folks who keep everything in their inbox, and then complain that the refresh on their mobile device is slow. Well duh! They have 3500 items in the inbox, and every time their mobile refreshes, it has to look at each one to determine if it is new or not.

In general, 5k items is nothing to a properly run Exchange mailbox.

_____________________________

-jmw
http://tsoorad.blogspot.com

(in reply to goody3335)

Post #: 2

RE: Mailbox limits - 2.Jul.2008 12:57:33 PM

jassyca

Posts: 223
Joined: 20.Jul.2006
Status: offline

Excessive numbers of messages in your Inbox will also have a big affect on how slowly Outlook performs too.

Then again, you can't do anything about how many messages people have in their Inbox or any of their other folders. You can only set size restrictions on the mailbox.. not "number of items" restrictions. And how many items/messages your users will have per megabyte really depends on your environment. Maybe they send messages with really huge attachments to one another, etc? Or maybe they send just short notes, meeting requests and so forth. We don't know. So no one can say, on average, if you restrict your mailboxes to so-n-so many megabytes, how many messages that will be. But management always asks that.

Oops.. edited to add: Almost forgot. You can also configure things so messages are automatically deleted from the mailbox (or from specific folders within the mailbox) after the message gets so-n-so old by using Mailbox Folder Management. For instance, some companies delete everything that's over 90 days old, etc. But how many messages that will leave, on average, in someone's mailbox.. again.. who knows.

< Message edited by jassyca -- 2.Jul.2008 1:06:28 PM >

(in reply to John Weber)

Post #: 3

RE: Mailbox limits - 2.Jul.2008 1:07:07 PM

Sembee

Posts: 3130
Joined: 17.Jan.2008
From: Somewhere near London, UK
Status: offline

The number limit you have referred to is a recommendation for OUTLOOK, not Exchange. Outlook struggles with more than 2,500 items in a single folder, so simply split them up.

Microsoft have never made recommendations on mailbox size to my knowledge - although many IT people would like them to! The closest you will get is a recommendation to keep stores at around 50gb, but that is because it provides a good trade off when planning for disaster recovery purposes and a good recovery time. I have certainly run stores much larger than that without any problems.

Simon.

_____________________________

Simon Butler,
Exchange MVP
Blog: http://www.sembee.co.uk/
Web: http://www.amset.info/
In the UK? Hire me: http://www.amset.co.uk/

(in reply to jassyca)

Post #: 4

RE: Mailbox limits - 2.Jul.2008 3:21:27 PM

live4spd

Posts: 13
Joined: 27.Aug.2002
From: Southfield, MI
Status: offline

Reccomendations on max of 5000 items in one folder.... I guess it's not reccomended but we have some pretty high limits and some people have 20000 items in their inbox. It definately gets slow though. Mostly the Outlook client starts to bog down, particularly if they are on a notebook.

(in reply to goody3335)

Post #: 5

RE: Mailbox limits - 2.Jul.2008 3:48:49 PM