Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2
Topic Last Modified: 2011-03-19
Public folders are designed for shared access and provide an easy and effective way to collect, organize, and share information with other people in your workgroup or organization. A public folder database is a database that stores public folders, indexes their contents, and assists in the replication of the folders with other servers. A public folder database is stored as an Exchange database (.edb) file.
Looking for other management tasks related to public folder databases? Check out Managing Public Folder Databases.
What Do You Want to Do?
Use the EMC to view or configure public folder database properties
You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Public folder databases" entry in the Mailbox Permissions topic.
- In the console tree, navigate to Organization
Configuration > Mailbox.
- In the result pane, click the Database Management tab,
and then select the public folder database you want to
configure.
- In the action pane, click Properties.
- Use the General tab
to view or configure the properties of a public folder database, to
change its name, and to customize its maintenance schedule.
- Name This unlabeled box at the top of
the tab displays the name of the public folder database. You can
modify this name.
- Database path This read-only field
displays the full path to the Exchange database (.edb) file for the
selected public folder database. To view the entire path, you may
have to click the path and use the RIGHT ARROW key.
You cannot use this field to change the path. To change the location of the database files, close Properties, right-click the public folder database, and then click Move Database Files. You can also change the location by using the Move-DatabasePath cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell.
- Last full backup This read-only field
displays the date and time of the last complete backup of the
public folder database.
- Last incremental backup This
read-only field displays the date and time of the last incremental
backup of the public folder database.
- Status This read-only field displays
whether the public folder database is mounted or dismounted.
For information about how to mount or dismount a database, see the following topics:
Mount a Database
Dismount a Database
- Modified This read-only field displays
the last date and time that the public folder database was
modified.
- Maintenance schedule Use this list to
select one of the preset maintenance schedules.
You can also configure a custom schedule. To configure a custom schedule, in the Maintenance schedule list, select Use Custom Schedule, and then click Customize.
- Enable background database maintenance (24 x7 ESE
scanning) Select this check box to enable
background database maintenance. If you select this check box, the
Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) performs the database maintenance,
and the public folder database reads the object during database
mount and initializes the database to perform the background
database maintenance. If you don't select this check box, the
public folder database reads the object during database mount and
initializes the database without the option to perform the
background database maintenance.
- Don't mount this database at
startup Select this check box to prevent
Exchange from mounting this public folder database when it
starts.
- This database can be overwritten by a
restore Select this check box to allow the
public folder database to be overwritten during a restore
process.
- Enable circular logging Click this
check box to enable circular logging. Circular logging overwrites
and reuses a single log file after the data it contains has been
written to the database. Circular logging is disabled by default.
By enabling circular logging, you reduce drive storage space
requirements. However, you can't recover anything more recent than
the last full (normal) backup because the transaction logs no
longer contain all the transactions that were completed since the
last backup. Therefore, in a normal production environment,
circular logging isn't recommended.
- Name This unlabeled box at the top of
the tab displays the name of the public folder database. You can
modify this name.
- Use the
Replication tab to specify the public folder database
replication interval and the replication message size limit.
- Replication interval Use this list to
set the interval at which replication of public folders or content
updates may occur.
To schedule a custom replication interval, select Use Custom Schedule from the list, and then click Customize. Use the Schedule dialog box to customize the replication schedule, and then click OK to return to the Replication tab.
- Replication interval for "Always Run"
(minutes) If you set the replication interval
to Always Run, this box displays the time interval (in
minutes) during which replication of public folders or contents may
occur. You can modify this interval. The value range is from 1
through 2,147,483,647 minutes.
- Replication message size limit
(KB) This box displays the size limit in
kilobytes (KB) of a replication message. Small items may be
aggregated into a single replication message that can be as large
as this setting, but items larger than this setting are replicated
with messages larger than this size. You can modify this size
limit. The value range is from 1 through 2,097,151 KB.
- Replication interval Use this list to
set the interval at which replication of public folders or content
updates may occur.
- Use the Limits tab
to specify the storage limits, warning message interval, deletion
settings, and age limits for all public folders in the selected
public folder database.
- Issue warning at (MB) Select this check
box to automatically warn public folder owners that the public
folder is approaching its storage limit.
To specify the storage limit, select the check box, and then specify in megabytes (MB) how much content can be stored in the public folder before a warning e-mail message is sent to the folder's owner. You can enter a value from 0 through 2,097,151 MB (2.0 terabytes)
- Prohibit post at (MB) Select this check
box to prevent posting to the public folders in the database after
the size of folder reaches the specified limit.
To specify this limit, select the check box, and then specify the size of the public folder in megabytes (MB) at which you want to prohibit posting. You can enter a value from 0 through 2,097,151 MB (2.0 terabytes)
- Maximum item size (MB) Select this
check box to limit the maximum size of items that users can post to
the public folders in the database.
To specify the size, select the check box, and then specify the maximum size of items in megabytes (MB) that users can post to the public folders. You can enter a value from 0 through 2,097,151 MB (2.0 terabytes)
Warning message interval Use this list to display the interval at which you want warning messages to be generated. To select one of the default intervals, click the list, and then select one of the following:
Run daily at midnight
Run daily at 1:00 AM
Run daily at 2:00 AM
Use Custom Schedule
If you select Use Custom Schedule, you must click Customize to set the schedule.
- Keep deleted items for (days) Use this
box to set the numbers of days that deleted items are retained in a
public folder. You can enter a value between 0 and 24,855 days.
- Don't permanently delete items until the database has been
backed up Select this check box to prevent
items from being permanently deleted until after the public folder
database is backed up.
- Age limit for all folders in this public folder database
(days) Select this check box to limit the age
of all folders in this public folder database. Use the text box to
specify the age limit in days. You can enter a value between 0 and
24,855 days.
- Issue warning at (MB) Select this check
box to automatically warn public folder owners that the public
folder is approaching its storage limit.
- Use the Public
Folder Referral tab to configure the folder replica that will
be accessed by the client application. To learn more, see Understanding Public
Folder Referrals.
- Use Active Directory site costs Click
this button to specify that Exchange uses the cost data from the
Active Directory site to compute the connection cost for public
folder referrals. This is the default option.
Note: If the custom list contains public folder referrals, and you click Use Active Directory site costs, the list is unavailable and is cleared when this tab is refreshed. - Use custom list Click this button to
create a custom list of public folder referrals and the associated
costs.
When you click Use custom list, the following features are made available:
Note: If you click Use Active Directory site costs, these features are unavailable.
Click Browse to open the Select Referral Server dialog box. Use this dialog box to select the referral server from the list of available servers that contain a public folder database and click OK.
In the Cost box, assign a cost number between 1 and 100. The number 1 represents the lowest cost, which means that Exchange routing is more likely to use this as the replica server. The number 100 represents the highest cost, which means that Exchange routing is less likely to use this as the replica server.
Edit Select a server from the list, and then click this button to edit a public folder referral. This button is disabled if no servers are listed in the custom list.
Click this button to remove a public folder referral from the custom list. This button is disabled if no servers are listed in the custom list.
- Use Active Directory site costs Click
this button to specify that Exchange uses the cost data from the
Active Directory site to compute the connection cost for public
folder referrals. This is the default option.
Use the Shell to configure public folder database properties
You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Public folder databases" entry in the Mailbox Permissions topic.
This example changes the size of the maximum post that can be stored in the Sales public folder database to 1 GB and issues a warning when the post size reaches 900 MB.
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Set-PublicFolderDatabase Sales -IssueWarningQuota 900MB -ProhibitPostQuota 1GB |
This example sets the database maintenance schedule on PFDB01 to run daily from 02:00 (2:00 A.M.) until 06:00 (6:00 A.M.).
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Set-PublicFolderDatabase -Identity 'PFDB01'-MaintenanceSchedule 'Sun.2:00 AM-Sun.6:00 AM, Mon.2:00 AM-Mon.6:00 AM, Tue.2:00 AM-Tue.6:00 AM, Wed.2:00 AM-Wed.6:00 AM, Thu.2:00 AM-Thu.6:00 AM, Fri.2:00 AM-Fri.6:00 AM, Sat.2:00 AM-Sat.6:00 AM' |
This example sets the deleted items retention on the public folder database PFDB01 to 10 days.
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Set-PublicFolderDatabase -Identity 'PFDB01' -DeletedItemRetention '10.00:00:00' |
This example prevents the deleted items in the public folder database PFDB01 from being permanently deleted until after the database has been backed up.
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Set-PublicFolderDatabase -RetainDeletedItemsUntilBackup $true -Identity 'PFDB01' |
For syntax and parameter information, see Set-PublicFolderDatabase.
Use the Shell to view public folder database properties
You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Public folder databases" entry in the Mailbox Permissions topic.
Use the Get-PublicFolderDatabase cmdlet to view the properties of a public folder database. This command returns all the public folder databases in your organization.
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Get-PublicFolderDatabase |
To view all of the properties of a single public folder database, you can pipe the results of the Get-PublicFolderDatabase cmdlet to the Format-List cmdlet. This example gets the properties of the public folder database Support.
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Get-PublicFolderDatabase Support | Format-List |
For syntax and parameter information, see Get-PublicFolderDatabase.