Many users are prone to save every message and attachment they ever receive. You can moderate this behavior by implementing disk space management:
The concept of mailbox size is different for GroupWise client users than it is for you as an administrator. Users are most interested in the functional size of their mailboxes; that is, the number of items that they can store in their mailboxes. Administrators are usually more concerned about the physical disk space that mailboxes occupy.
Functional mailbox size is computed by adding the bytes occupied by individual messages. Users are notified when they exceed the functional mailbox size limit that you have set for them. Users can then identify items to delete or archive.
GroupWise client users can use Tools > Check Mailbox Size to list items in the Trash folder, the Sent Items folder, the Mailbox folder, the Work in Progress folder, and any personal items. Item size is displayed in bytes and the list is sorted from largest to smallest, to easily identify candidates for deletion or archiving.
WebAccess users always have the Size column visible.
When users have deleted or archived sufficient items, their functional mailbox size limit problem is resolved.
As an administrator, you want to set functional mailbox size limits that are reasonable for users and that make efficient use of the physical disk space that you have available. You are more concerned about physical disk space usage in the post office. Physical disk space usage is much more complex than counting the bytes occupied by individual messages.
The following factors influence physical disk space usage:
In a typical post office, 85% of disk space is occupied by attachments in the offiles folder structure. Attachments are compressed by 40% to allow more data to be stored in less space.
A large message sent to multiple users in the same post office is only stored on the disk once, but counts against mailbox size for all recipients. If it is sent to multiple post offices, a copy is stored in each post office
A large group can cause even a small message to take up substantial disk space. If all recipients are in the same post office, only one copy is stored, but if there are recipients in multiple post offices, a copy is stored in each post office
User databases (userxxx.db files) might contain large numbers of contacts and folders. Contacts and folders affect the size of the user databases, which have a maximum size of 4 GB, but do not count against the mailbox size for users.
Shared folders count only against the owner’s mailbox size, even though sharing with users in other post offices uses disk space in those post offices as well.
A message is stored until the last recipient deletes and empties it. As a result, you might attempt to reduce post office disk space usage by reducing certain users’ mailboxes, but disk space usage does not change. This can occur because large messages eliminated from the reduced mailboxes still exist in other mailboxes.
Because of the complexity of these factors, you might consider a progressive strategy to determine the appropriate functional mailbox limits for your users.
For a new post office, you could check the physical disk space occupied by the post office before users start accumulating email and initially set no functional mailbox limits. After a period of time (for example, a month), see how much the post office has grown. Run a report o assess the rate of mailbox growth. For instructions, see Gathering Mailbox Statistics. Then start setting functional mailbox limits based on user needs and available physical disk space.
To set mailbox limits in a new post office, skip to Setting Mailbox Size Limits.
For an existing post office, where users have never had functional mailbox limits set in the past, continue with Preparing to Implement Disk Space Management.
If you are implementing disk space management in an existing GroupWise system, you must begin by setting the initial size information on all users’ mailboxes.
To establish current mailbox size:
In the GroupWise Administration Console, browse to and click the name of the post office.
Click Maintenance > Mailbox/Library Maintenance.
In the Action field, select Analyze/Fix Databases.
As options to the action, select Content, Fix Problems, and Update User Disk Space Totals.
Ensure that all other options are deselected.
On the Databases tab, select User.
Ensure that all other types of databases are deselected.
Click OK.
After the POA has performed the task, current mailbox size information becomes available on each user’s mailbox. The information is updated regularly as the user receives and deletes messages.
To generate a report of current mailbox information, follow the instructions in Gathering Mailbox Statistics.
Repeat Step 1 through Step 7 for each post office where you want to implement disk space management.
Continue with Setting Mailbox Size Limits.
After initial size information is recorded on each user’s mailbox, you can establish a limit on the amount of disk space each user’s mailbox is allowed to occupy. You can set a single limit for an entire domain. You can set different limits for each post office. You can even set individual user limits if necessary.
If you are implementing disk space management in an existing GroupWise system where users are accustomed to unlimited disk space, you should warn them about the coming change. After you establish the mailbox size limits as described in this section, users whose mailboxes exceed the established limit cannot send messages until the size of their mailboxes is reduced. Users might want to manually delete and archive items in advance in order to avoid this interruption in their use of GroupWise.
To establish mailbox size limits:
In the GroupWise Administration Console, browse to and click the name of a domain, post office, or user.
Click Client Options.
Click the Send tab, and then click Disk Space Management.
Select User Limits.
Specify the maximum number of megabytes allowed for each user’s mailbox.
The maximum size limit that you can set for mailboxes is 4 TB.
Specify as a percentage the point where you want to warn users that their mailboxes are getting full.
After users receive a warning message, they can continue to send messages until the size limit is reached. After the size limit is reached, users must reduce the size of their mailboxes in order to send additional messages.
(Optional) Specify in kilobytes the largest message that users can send.
IMPORTANT:By restricting message size, you can influence how fast users’ mailboxes fill up. However, if users have valid reasons for sending messages that exceed this limit, the limit can become a hindrance to users getting their work done.
Click OK > Close to save the disk space management settings.
If you are adding disk space management to an existing GroupWise system where users’ mailboxes are already over the desired size limit, continue with Enforcing Mailbox Size Limits.
or
If you are implementing disk space management in a new system where users have not yet begun to use their mailboxes, see Using Mailbox Storage Size Information
in the GroupWise 18 Client User Guide to see how setting a mailbox size limit affects users’ activities in the GroupWise client.
If existing GroupWise users are having difficulty fitting their mailboxes into the established mailbox size limits, you can assist them by reducing the size of their mailboxes for them.
When users archive and empty messages in their mailboxes, the messages are marked for removal from the database (“expired”), but the disk space that the expired messages occupied in the databases is retained and used again for new messages. As a result, archiving and deleting messages does not affect the overall size of the databases.
The Expire/Reduce Messages option of Mailbox/Library Maintenance enables you to expire additional messages and reduce the size of the databases by reclaiming the free space in the databases that is created when messages are expired. You should inform users before you run this process so they have a chance to archive or delete messages.
In the GroupWise Administration Console, browse to and click the name of the post office.
Click Maintenance > Mailbox/Library Maintenance.
In the Actions drop-down list, click Expire/Reduce Messages.
In the Action field, select Expire/Reduce.
Set the Expire and Reduce options as desired, making sure that Reduce Mailbox to Limited Size is selected.
Click OK.
After the POA has performed the task, users mailboxes fit within the mailbox size limit you have established.
Repeat Step 1 through Step 6 for each post office where you want to reduce user mailboxes to the established mailbox size limit.
To see how setting a mailbox size limit affects user activities in the GroupWise client, see Using Mailbox Storage Size Information
in the GroupWise 18 Client User Guide.
By restricting message size, you can influence how fast user mailboxes fill up. However, if users have valid reasons for sending messages that exceed this limit, the limit can become a hindrance to users getting their work done.
For HTML-formatted messages, the MIME portion of the message counts in the message size. MIME files can be large. If a user cannot send an HTML-formatted message, he or she could use plain text instead, in order to decrease the size of the message so that it falls within the message size restriction.
There are four levels at which you can restrict message size:
You can use Client Options to restrict the size of messages that users can send within their local post office.
In the GroupWise Administration Console, browse to and click the name of a domain, post office, or user.
Click Client Options.
Click the Send tab, and then click Disk Space Management.
Select User Limits.
Specify in kilobytes the largest message that users can send.
Click OK, and then click Close to save the maximum message size setting.
You can configure the POA to restrict the size of messages that it allows to pass outside the local post office. See Restricting Message Size between Post Offices for setup instructions.
You can configure the MTA to restrict the size of messages that it allows to pass outside the local domain. See Restricting Message Size between Domains for setup instructions.
You can configure the GWIA to restrict the size of messages that it allows to pass to and from your GroupWise system by setting the size limits in a customized class of service. See Controlling User Access to the Internet for setup instructions.
In spite of the best disk space management plans, it is still possible that some unforeseen situation could result in a post office running out of disk space. To prevent this occurrence, you can configure the POA to stop processing messages, so disk space usage in the post office cannot increase until the disk space problem is resolved.
In the GroupWise Administration Console, browse to and click the name of the post office.
Click the Maintenance tab, and then adjust the settings in the Disk Check Interval and Disk Check Delay fields.
For more information, see Scheduling Disk Space Management.
Click the Scheduled Events tab
The Default Disk Check Event triggers a Reduce on user and message databases at 2048 KB (2 GB) and stop mail processing at 200 MB. You can edit the Default Disk Check actions so that all post offices are affected, or you can create a new set of Disk Check Event actions to assign to specific post offices.
Click Create to create a new scheduled event to handle an unacceptably low disk space condition.
Type a unique name for the new scheduled event, and then select Disk Check as the event type.
In the Trigger Actions At field, specify the amount of free post office disk space at which to take preventive measures.
Click New to define your own disk check actions, and then give the new action a unique name.
Configure the actions for the POA to take in order to relieve the low disk space condition.
Use the Results or Notification tab if you want to receive notification about the POA’s response to the low disk space condition.
Click OK to return to the Create Scheduled Event dialog box.
In the Stop Mail Processing At field, specify the amount of free post office disk space at which you want the POA to stop processing messages.
Click OK to create the new disk space management event and return to the Scheduled Events tab.
Select the new disk space management event.
For additional instructions, see Scheduling Disk Space Management.
Click Save, and then click Close to return to the main Administration Console window.
If you want to place more responsibility for disk space management onto GroupWise client users, you can require that they run the client in Caching mode, where all messages can be stored on user workstations, or other personal locations, rather than in the post office. For instructions on enabling Caching mode, see Allowing Caching Mode.
For a detailed overview of Caching mode, see the following:
Using Caching Mode
in the GroupWise 18 Client User Guide.