Dan Shearer wrote:
Mighty useful. See exmerge, which is a commonly used tool for such things in exchangeland: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174197For example, a utility that can read mapidump data and generate MSG or PST. In the realm of all-the-pieces-are-functional-today consider libpst (http://alioth.debian.org/docman/view.php/30390/47/readpst.1.html ) which could be used to read a pst file and then upload it to a mailbox on an Exchange server.I don't yet understand why exmerge would come up in the context of PST files:
exmerge specifically dumps / restores mailboxes to / from PST files. It can also do various other things including filtering what it dumps[1]. That link was perhaps poorly demonstrative of this; try [2] instead.
* the reason (I suppose) PST file merging with Exchange inboxes is
for migrating on and off an Exchange server. However exmerge
doesn't seem to be able to do this.
Yes, it can be (and is frequently) used for this, where mailboxes can't be moved between exchange servers in the normal way (Move mailbox wizard or move-mailbox in ECS), and the ADMT / Migration Wizard[3] isn't being used.. this can come in handy when, eg. migrating[4] from Exchange 5.5 to subsequent versions (the other migration path involving the exchange Active Directory Connector, which isn't much fun, but does more than just let you move mailbox contents).
So, if we can make sure that openchangemapidump/restore together are a functional superset of exmerge, which they certainly should be, do you see any extra value in exmerge with respect to PST files?
There's a significant benefit to being able to talk to/from PST files. Users who have mail data stored outwith the mailbox in ad/exchange environments almost invariably use PST files, and it's quite common for exchange environments to have clients configured to archive mail to PST files or to use PST files due to exchange mailbox size limits (I frequently see size limits in the low dozens of megabytes, and PST files >1gb in size).
Locally stored PST files on outlook clients are *the* workaround for mailbox limits, even in environments where corporate policy is not-to-use-PST-files. I have yet to see a large exchange-using corporation many of whose users didn't use PST files. (On a sidenote, it's a totally evil thing to do, especially with PST files on network drives, which has a huge impact on outlook performance)
Being able to take PST files and put them into openchange/exchange and vica-versa is nice then, because it makes life easier when working with outlook clients configured in this way (from an old, low-on-storage exchange server to a new exchange/openchange server where the mailbox limit can be increased, for instance). You can, of course, open the PST file in Outlook and drag-and-drop items into the inbox, but exmerge is a far nicer option when dealing with multiple mailboxes.
At 40,000 ft, some sample uses might be: + Turning pop3 outlook clients into exchange clients + Mass migration of mailbox data between unconnected exchange orgs+ pulling PSTs stored on network drives or local machines into exchange mailboxes
+ Backups (to be avoided.. this is another discussion..)
Have I missed something here?
Dunno.. did what I just said make sense? ;) - James. [1] http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2004/07/01/171051.aspx [2] http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;328871[3] http://www.petri.co.il/brick_level_backup_of_mailboxes_by_using_exmerge.htm
[4] http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327304 -- James (njan) Eaton-Lee | UIN: 10807960 | http://www.jeremiad.org "All at sea again / And now my hurricanes Have brought down this ocean rain / To bathe me again" https://www.bsrf.org.uk | ca: https://www.cacert.org/index.php?id=3 --
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