Managing Public folders in Exchange Server 2003.

Managing Public folders in Exchange Server 2003.

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Public folders in an Exchange Server 2003 organization enable a member to access the e-mails sent by any other user of the organization. They are used to permanently store information, such as e-mail messages, graphics, and sound bites. The information stored in public folders is available to all the users of the organization. On an Exchange 2003 server, public folders are stored in the public information store (ExchsrvrMdbdataPub.edb). In an Exchange organization with multiple servers, public folders can be replicated to other servers for the purpose of load balancing and easy manageability of messages in the folders. The replication can occur among servers that reside either within a site or across multiple sites. With public folders, users can manage their messages very easily. They can be created from either Outlook or Exchange System Manager. Exchange administrators can use Exchange System Manager to create public folders.

Creating a Public folder from Exchange System Manager:

1. Open Exchange System Manager, navigate to an administrative group, expand Folders, right-click Public Folders, and click New > Public Folder.





2. In the Properties dialog box, provide the necessary entries in the text boxes, and click the OK button.

Exchange Server 2003 supports two types of public folder trees, which are displayed when a user browses the All Public Folders container. These are: default public folder tree and general purpose public folder trees.

Default public folder tree: It is automatically created when the first Exchange Server 2003 server is installed. It is listed as Public Folders in Exchange System Manager and is displayed in Outlook as All Public Folders. The tree contains a list of all public folders. In an Exchange organization with multiple servers, the default public folder tree is replicated to each server that contains a public folder store associated with the tree.

General purpose public folder trees: Similar to the default public folder tree, it is an additional public folder tree that is replicated on servers running at least Exchange 2000 Server that contains the public folder store associated with that tree. Since general purpose public folder trees do not support Message Application Programming Interface (MAPI) clients, they are invisible or inaccessible to Outlook users. Only NNTP or HTTP clients can access them. If a user wants to access this folder from a Web browser, the organization must have an HTTP virtual server put into service. General Purpose public folder trees are normally used to store custom applications. Another use of such trees is to make the public folder data available to users outside the organization. Although users can create any number of General Purpose Public Folder trees depending on the need, they must be associated with public folder stores before they can be used. Users should first create a public folder tree, then a public store, and finally associate the store with the tree.

Creating a Public folder tree from Exchange System Manager: A Public Folder Tree can be created in the following way:

1. In Exchange System Manager, navigate to an administrative group, right-click the Folders container, and select New > Public Folder Tree.





2. In the Properties dialog box, provide a name of the tree in the Name section, and click the OK button.

Since Public folders created in Exchange System Manager are not mail-enabled by default, they must be manually mail-enabled from the console after their creation. If a newly created public folder is not mail-enabled, it cannot be used to receive e-mails. A user can mail-enable a public folder by right-clicking a public folder in Exchange System Manager, and clicking All Tasks > Mail Enable. Mail-enabling a public folder creates e-mail addresses for X.400 and SMTP.

Configuring storage limits on public folders: Since public folders are open to users outside the Exchange organization, they are highly vulnerable to quick growth in their sizes. Therefore, it is necessary for administrators to set storage limits on the folders so that their unlimited growth can be restricted. They can configure storage limits in three ways: by setting limits on an entire public store or individual public store, or by creating a public store policy and applying it to multiple public stores. When administrators set limits on a public store, all the folders in that store inherit those settings. When administrators want to apply common storage limit settings to multiple public stores, they can create a public store policy and apply it to as many public stores as required. When a policy is applied to a public store, the storage limits cannot be overridden at either the store level or the individual public folder level. However, if the limits are configured on a public store, they can be overridden on an individual public folder basis. Setting age limits for public folders is a very important task that an administrator must perform specially when users outside the Exchange organization access public folders. Setting age limits on public folders automatically deletes specified items of the folders when the specified time or duration is over.

Exchange Server 2003 also allows administrators to move public folders within a tree, thereby enabling them to modify the public folder structure as per the requirement of the organization. However, a public folder cannot be copied or moved between trees. In an organization containing multiple sites, it is generally inefficient, and sometimes proves to be costly for users at remote sites to access public folders in other sites, which are usually connected via a slow WAN link. Replication proves to be a remedy in such situations. Public folders in a public store can be replicated to other public stores on a server in another site. Administrators can also schedule the replication process as per their requirements. Since Exchange Server 2003 uses a multimaster replication model, all the replicas of a public folder are equal, and modifications performed to any replica are automatically reflected to other replicas exactly. However, administrators can restrict the replication process if they do not want it to be done as per schedule. They can manually adjust the replication process.

When a user connects to a public folder store and does not find the required information there, Exchange Server 2003 automatically redirects the user to the server that contains the requested information. This process occurs in the background and is referred to as referral.

Configuring security on public folders: Since public folders are most likely vulnerable to security threats due to the fact that users outside an organization can access them, proper security mechanism must be adopted to control the level and type of public folder access. This can be implemented by applying the public folder-permissions in an appropriate way. There are three categories of public folder permissions used to control the accessibility of public folders. The following table displays the categories of permissions and their roles:

Permission	Roles
Client permissions	Controls the permissions of the users accessing the public folder.
Directory rights	Controls which user can manipulate a mail-enabled public folder object stored in Active Directory
Administrative rights	Controls the assignment of specific administrative permissions to specific administrators.

Administrators frequently work with client permission that can be configured from Exchange System Manager by opening the Client Permissions for Public folder dialog box. This dialog box is opened by right-clicking a public folder, clicking Properties, clicking on the Permissions tab, and then clicking the Client Permissions button.

Directory rights can also by configured from Exchange System Manager. Only the Administrator account and members of the Administrators, Enterprise Admins, Exchange Domain Servers, and Exchange Enterprise Servers groups have these rights (permissions).

Administrative rights control the users and groups that can use Exchange System Manager, or any other administrative utility to configure the replication, storage limits, and other public folder-related settings. By default, only administrators in the Active Directory domain and enterprise have administrative rights to a public folder.

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