The 2GB pst size limit hasn't been an issue for years if you're running Outlook in Unicode mode. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ork2003/HA011402611033.aspx
Apparently you can even run your pst files all the way up to 33TB! -----Original Message----- From: John Aldrich [mailto:jaldr...@blueridgecarpet.com] Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 2:43 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Mail server software Exactly! That's one of my concerns... Antivirus has to be told to overlook certain directories and you have to have an "exchange-aware" antivirus or buy a special "plugin" for the antivirus to allow it to scan the Exchange DB. AFAIK, most of the "alternatives" (at least Kerio) doesn't have this restriction. Not to mention having to buy special add-ons for your archiving solution just to back up the email store. Oh, and while it's not a problem now, up until the most recent version of Exchange, you couldn't have more than one message store and if it got too big, it would virtually implode from being so big. On the reasons why I don't like Outlook, the 2 GB PST file size is a biggie. :-) Although the main reason they get that big is that idiots like to send large files via email...and email is NOT a file transfer application. :-) -----Original Message----- From: Ben Scott [mailto:mailvor...@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 1:44 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Mail server software On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 1:21 PM, Brian Desmond<br...@briandesmond.com> wrote: > What's the problem with the database engine? There's been a massive amount > of engineering work in that space - I don't expect it's going anywhere. I can't speak for the OP... but the fact that the Exchange IS is a giant binary blob, completely opaque for the most part, requiring special tools to work with it, has always made me somewhat uncomfortable. I worked with a Cyrus mail system once that was really sweet. It could handle many more users on much smaller hardware vs Exchange at the time, and all the mail was still stored in plain text files (one per message). You could analyze the message store with the "more" command if you had to. I don't think we ever had to, but it was nice to know you had the option. I like simple systems; they tend to be more robust. Exchange has always struck me as being more complex than it needed to be. In particular, Exchange is pretty fragile when you mistreat it. There's not much you can do to a Cryus mail server that will result in major data loss; you can reconstruct from basics if you have to. Exchange, sheesh, in 2000, all you had to do was run a file search against the "M: drive" and the server would implode. On my list of things to worry about, all this is pretty low down on my list, but it's not my ideal situation. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.409 / Virus Database: 270.13.58/2309 - Release Date: 08/17/09 06:08:00 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~