[OT] Outlook email archiving OLM / PST

[ImAMacGuy]

Got a bit of an off topic question.

Does outlook 2011 have a PST equivalent? I see OLM file, but I'm not overly familiar with that file format.

Our email department is putting hard limits on mailbox sizes. The Outlook 2007/2010 users setup a PST file to dump emails they wish to keep. Is that how an OLM file works on a mac? Can I just create one and then drag/drop emails into it?

[asegura]

Check this URL out it should help you out.

http://www.officeformachelp.com/2011/02/basics-folders-on-my-computer/

[jarednichols]

So, question outside of this solution: how is this locally stored mail getting backed up? People know that PSTs have a habit of imploding, right? You'd think a 2GB PST would blow up but I've seen 600MB PSTs rip themselves apart.

In the age of cheap storage, email quotas are stone-age thinking. They're a result of people who don't know what they're doing and can't think outside of their little boxes to look at industry best practice and see how to provide lots of storage to lots of users. Relying on local endpoints as a part of your email solution is a recipe for disaster. I'm sure this plan was never passed by lawyers, as a public company would likely want some sort of email retention policy - especially for executive-level people. If you get sued and are going through document discovery, email is the first thing they go after. Relying upon a user to adequately backup their data when a legal case may hinge upon a particular email is frightening.

You work for Sears, not a tiny art school. (Even the tiny music school I worked for had a solution for this in the early 2000's.) There's no reason they shouldn't have an email vault-type solution that transparently to users archives old mail. For example, Symantec Enterprise Vault. Go smack someone in the back of the head. Hard. Then tell them to start thinking like an Enterprise.

[ImAMacGuy]

The problem is storage is one of our most expensive infrastructure costs (not just actual storage, but the backup, replication, bandwidth, disaster recovery, etc all gets factored in).

They put in an archive solution, but 1) it was a crappy user experience on the PC's and 2) just plum didn't work on the macs.

What they do on the PC's is do the PSTs then the users store them on their personal network share, which is then backed up, but not really sure the best way to do so on a mac.

Sears is a 120+ year old company, the sheer massive size of it causes it to be very expensive when it comes to replacing anything and turning the ship is a very difficult process.

[jarednichols]

So, from what I'm hearing, they tried one archive solution and didn't like it so they decided all archive solutions suck. (Some do, some don't) Also, the PSTs get backed up on a network share.... which is apparently expensive. They're simply shifting the place that the data is stored. I don't see how there's any cost savings there. If anything it's more expensive as it's simply adding complexity and support hours.

Age or size of a company I don't think is a good indication of how hard things are to change. Who's in charge is a good indication of how hard it is to change. If management at the top is not willing to go down a tough road to get to a much better one, I don't know what to tell you. I feel you as I've been in a similar position in the past.

Best of luck.

[asegura]

Also I wanted to let you know that Symantec Enterprise Vault doesnt work with Mountain Lion which is the challenge I ran into at work. For our PC users we have their PST mapped to their network drive and then that gets backup nightly.

[John_Wetter]

JaredNichols response = #winning

We just implemented an archiving solution to take care of this very question. It's web based so there isn't a platform issue. There's a handy plug-in for Outlook for Windows, but on the mac side it's a nice experience still. I agree that mailbox limits are kind of an old way of dealing with things but Exchange has had issues with large boxes up to version 2007 and newer where it's better. We never liked the PST file on server volume solution because then people wouldn't understand why their personal folders went away when they were on their laptop at home and not connected to VPN...

On Outlook 2011 on Mac, I don't know of a nice clean way to do what you're talking about, I think that's another *bonus* of Apple in the Enterprise.

[jhbush]

Jared, can't say as I agree with you on some your points. Outlook for Mac 2011 is awful at handling large mailboxes and large amounts of messages. It also has bad default of adding new folders to the inbox causing lots of issues down the road. In regards to Symantec Enterprise Vault it's great on the Windows side, but is still not available for 10.8 and later versions of Exchange. I would hold off calling quotas stone age.

[jarednichols]

The non-availability of plugins for Outlook for Mac is a Microsoft issue (as stated previously). In fact there are *no* plugins (officially sanctioned anyway) for Outlook for Mac. Microsoft hasn't opened any API access for it. So, yes, you're down to web access for your vault solution. If it's implemented in a thoughtful manner, users won't need to use it terribly often. If the vault solution is implemented correctly, local mailbox databases shouldn't get so big as to go all TANGO UNIFORM. At my last job we had horrendous problems with Entourage database sizes. (Outlook made this MUCH better and we went to Office 2011 toot sweet.) Part of the solution was to get the user onto the archiving solution to reduce the size of their mailbox. Users with 30GB mailboxes (we didn't believe in quotas) were reduced to a 3GB mailbox as we archived everything over a year old. Yes, some folks were more heavy email users but a 10-fold decrease in mailbox size wasn't uncommon.

I'm not saying Outlook for Mac is a great solution. It's our "official" Mac messaging client and I don't use it. I'll stick with Apple Mail (which yes, has its own raft of issues). And yes, I'll agree that children folders (vs sibling folders) of Inbox is a bad idea when it comes to the speed of your Exchange account. No denying that.

And yes, quotas are stone age. In the age where I can create a 200MB Pages document as a whitepaper espousing the benefits of Jamf Casper in our environment without a thought about whether I have enough storage space for it, I shouldn't have to go worrying about if I have enough space in my email account to send or receive a 4k email. If the size of my mailbox is keeping an email admin up at night, we've got bigger problems. Quotas are downright Triassic. Period.

[nkalister]

so, anyone have suggestions for good server archiving solutions? It sounds like Symantec is not a good choice right now.
john_wetter, which solution did you guys just deploy?

[bentoms]

We've started to use Exchange 2010's online Archive feature.

After x amount of days, emails are moved to the archive.

It works... BUT the online archive folders are not visible on Mac Outlook 2011 or iOS mail. Only OWA, oh & then it's not the iOS OWA.

[#12]

Creating a IMAP account and dragging all emails to this one by one is one method which is free but require a lot of time, If you have worth of emails you must use some application which can convert OLM file to PST format instantly. You can get one such application from here. You just try the free trial version for mail conversion. http://www.undeletepcfiles.com/olm-pst-converter.html

[mm2270]

Hey JAMF, can we get some of these span posters kicked off the site please? See the above posters full blown spamming here:
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=11350
I'm seeing more and more of these jokers popping up spamming the forum trying to sell their wares. I guess JAMFNation has hit prime time and is now a target for these fools.
You guys need to implement some kind of spam reporting mechanism to help us legit users ID these, lest the 'Nation get overrun in the future with spam posts. I'd seriously hate to see things go downhill like that.

Thanks for the consideration.

[signetmac]

Wrote a script once in my scripting infancy that did this with a ton of Universal Access GUI Scripting commands. It worked but required the end user to have their preferences set up just so (broke if they switched from grouping like folders or back.. I don't remember) I did a quick search and found this: https://github.com/smneedham/OutlookMac-Archive-ExchangeToLocal/blob/v2.2.0/download/OutlookMac-Arch...
But haven't tried it, so... can't recommend for or against it.

To tell you the truth, I abandoned my script and convinced the company to purchase a bulk license of Softhing's Outlook Exchange Accounts Optimizer. http://www.softhing.com/oeao.html and people seemed very happy with it.

[donmontalvo]

Can't get enough of it...yum!!!!

external image link

[donmontalvo]

Wait...if you act now you get...

external image link

[mm2270]

Aha! I see a new flag icon on all posts now just to the left of the bookmark icon. I assume this is the flag feature we've been asking for for JAMFNation.
I just clicked it against the above post from markmohan (obvious spammer, only post in the entire forum is the above one with a plug for a product) You get the option of flagging it as an advert or just as inappropriate. Cool!

Thanks @JAMF for getting that feature in.

[talkingmoose]

Glad to see the new flag! Received a message about 40 minutes ago this feature was implemented. Hoping it includes moderation of messages by newly created accounts too. That'll go a long way to thwarting spammers.

Adding my thanks to JAMF too!

[donmontalvo]

Nice feature, I'm sure it'll help weed out those pesky SPAMers. :)

[donmontalvo]

PLONK!

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(flagged as SPAM)