NOTE Even though Public Folders have been deemphasized in Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft will support them until the end of 2016, so most of you should have suffi cient time available t
Trang 1Exchange 2007 Public Folder Databases
Public Folders are still supported in Exchange Server 2007, but bear in mind that they have been deemphasized, which means that there’s a good chance they won’t be included in the next version
of Exchange (currently code-named E14) With this in mind, it’s a good idea to start thinking about migrating to another solution, such as SharePoint
NOTE
Even though Public Folders have been deemphasized in Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft will support them until the end of 2016, so most of you should have suffi cient time available to migrate Public Folder data to another solution, such
as SharePoint
A Public Folder database is a database used to store Public Folders The data contained in a Public Folder can be accessed by any mailbox-enabled users as long as they have the appropriate permissions The Public Folders in the Public Folder database can exist as single copies or multiple
copies (also referred to as replicas) Using replicas, you can confi gure Public Folders to be
synchronized between specifi ed servers so that they always are up to date, no matter which mailbox server a given client is connected to Since a Public Folder isn’t replicated automatically, you must confi gure which Public Folder database should contain a replica of any given Public Folder
Because Public Folders are widely used by organizations for sharing documents, calendars, contacts, and tasks and for archiving distribution lists, one would think that you could administer these folders from within the EMC, but unfortunately the administration tasks you can do from within the EMC are extremely limited So, if you need to do tasks other than create, delete, and move Public Folder databases as well as confi gure limits and the like, you will, depending on the specifi c task, need to do so using the EMS, an Outlook client, or System Manager on an Exchange
2003 Server that’s still part of the Exchange organization The following step-by-step instructions tell you how to perform the most common tasks regarding administration of Public Folders
Creating a New Public Folder Database
Creating a new Public Folder database is just as straightforward as creating a mailbox database It is done by performing the following steps:
1 In the Exchange Management Console, click the Server Confi guration work center node, then select the Mailbox Server subnode.
2 Now click the storage group in which you want to create the database, then select
New Public Folder Database in the Action pane Alternatively, you can right-click the respective storage group and select New Public Folder Database from the
context menu
Trang 23 In the New Public Folder Database Wizard, enter a name for the database, then click
the Browse button and specify the location for the EDB fi le.
4 Finally, click New (see Figure 4.12)
Figure 4.12 Creating a New Public Folder Database
NOTE
You can also create a new Public Folder database via the EMS using the
New-PublicFolderDatabase CMDlet.
Trang 3Now that we have created a new Public Folder database, let’s take a look at the Properties page for the database
The General tab is almost identical to that of a mailbox database, so let’s move on and click the
Replication tab As you can see in Figure 4.13, you can specify the Public Folder database replication interval, the replication interval for “Always Run” (in minutes), and the replication message size limit The replication intervals used to confi gure the interval at which replication of Public Folders or content may occur and the Replication interval for “Always Run” (minutes) is used to defi ne what
“always run” means (by default, it’s 15 minutes)
The “Replication message size limit (KB)” setting is used to specify the size of a replication message If it’s set to a large value, smaller messages can be aggregated into a single replication
messages as high as the defi ned value
Unless you have a specifi c reason for changing these settings, we recommend you leave the defaults intact
Figure 4.13 The Replication Tab on the Properties Page of a
Public Folder Database
Trang 4Let’s take a look at what’s hiding under the Limits tab As you can see in Figure 4.14, this is
the place where we confi gure the storage limits for a Public Folder database As is the case with
the default storage limits for a mailbox database, the Public Folder database limits are set much
higher than was the case in previous Exchange versions When the database is approximately 2GB
in size, a warning will be generated, and when it’s over 2GB, end users will be prohibited from
posting messages to a Public Folder in the Public Folder database The maximum item size is
approximately 10MB
Note that the “Keep deleted items for (days)” option is confi gured to 14 days, just as is the case for a mailbox database—again, a much higher setting than in previous versions of Exchange
Note that you also have the option of setting an age limit for the Public Folders that exists in
the particular Public Folder database
Figure 4.14 The Public Folder Database Properties Page
These settings can also be set using either CMDlets or the Exchange 2003 System Manager
Trang 5Creating a Public Folder
You can create a Public Folder using the EMS, an Outlook MAPI client, or the System Manager on
an Exchange 2003 Server that still exists in the Exchange organization
Creating a public folder using the EMS is done using the New-PublicFolder CMDlet So, if for example we wanted to create a new Public Folder named Finance, we would need to type the
following command in the EMS:
New-PublicFolder –Name Finance
followed by pressing Enter (see Figure 4.15).
Figure 4.15 Creating a New Public Folder Via the Exchange Management Shell
If you still have an Exchange 2003 Server in your Exchange organization, you can also create new Public Folders using the System Manager by following these steps:
1 On the respective Exchange 2003 server, open the System Manager by clicking
Start | All Programs | Microsoft Exchange | Exchange System Manager.