Managing Storage Groups and Stores

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The Exchange store uses two types of databases:

  • Mailbox stores

  • Public folder stores

These databases (or stores) are organized into storage groups. All the databases in a storage group share a single set of transaction log files, a single backup schedule, and a single set of logging and backup-related settings.

Exchange System Manager lists the storage groups for each server, and the mailbox stores and public folder stores in those storage groups. To view stores and storage groups in Exchange System Manager, expand the server node in the Exchange System Manager console tree. The following figure shows the mailbox and public folder stores in the First Storage Group of a single server.

Store information in Exchange System Manager

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If you are using Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition, each Exchange server can have one storage group, which contains one mailbox store and one public folder store. If you are using Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, each server can have up to four storage groups, each of which up to five databases (either mailbox stores or public folder stores).

Using either Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition or Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, you can create a Recovery Storage Group in addition to your other storage groups. Use this special storage group to recover mailbox data when restoring data from a backup. For more information about how to configure and use a Recovery Storage Group, see "Setting Up a Recovery Storage Group" in Using Recovery Storage Groups in Exchange Server 2003.

You can use multiple mailbox stores to increase the reliability and recoverability of your Exchange organization. If the users are spread across multiple mailbox stores, the loss of a single store affects only a subset of the users instead of the whole organization. Additionally, reducing the number of users per store reduces the time that you need to recover a damaged store from a backup.

Note

Increasing the number of mailbox stores on a server can increase the server resources consumed relative to the resources consumed for the same number of users in a single store. However, the benefits of using multiple stores typically outweigh the resource costs.

You can use multiple public folder stores to spread public folders across multiple servers. You can put multiple replicas of the same folder on several servers, to increase the system's ability to handle user traffic. If you have multiple routing groups, you may want to distribute folders among the routing groups so that users have easy access to the folders that they use most frequently.

This section includes information about the following:

  • For each storage group, how to configure settings for the transaction logs.

  • For each storage group, how to overwrite deleted data during backups.

  • How to add new storage groups.

  • How to mount or dismount stores.

  • For each store, how to move the database files out of the system directory. This task is the same for mailbox stores and public folder stores.

  • For each store, how to configure maintenance and backup options. These tasks are the same for mailbox stores and public folder stores.

  • How to create and configure mailbox stores. These tasks are specific to the type of store that you are working with.

  • How to create and configure public folder stores. These tasks are specific to the type of store that you are working with.