Forum Discussion
Shared Mailbox Online Archiving Licensing in Office 365
No, the quota for E1 is 50GB, shared between the main mailbox and the archive. It does not get expanded, and if you mean the auto-expanding archives feature, this is only available with EO Plan 2 licenses. So in your examples, you will need EO plan 2 licenses regardless.
Shared mailboxes using the Online Archive feature need a Exchange Online Plan 1 license, regardless of the size. It's clearly stated in the documentation: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/exchange-online-limits.aspx#StorageLimits
Now the real interesting question is whether auto-expanding archives are supported with Shared mailboxes. I've never tested it, but I cant see any technical reason why it will not work. Indeed, the documentation mentions that Shared mailboxes are supported: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/securitycompliance/unlimited-archiving?redirectSourcePath=%252farticle%252fOverview-of-unlimited-archiving-in-Office-365-37cdbb02-a24a-4093-8bdb-2a7f0b3a19ee
In any case, you still need a license, regardless of the size of the Archive.
Vasil, thanks for your response.
Lets take a completely different scenario when we have 50 GB user Mailbox. (licensing with EO Plan 1 license as standalone or business essential/business premium subscription). If I enable archive on the same , it is initially 50 , then expands upto 100 automatically, but then to go further beyond upto is where i have 2 options -
1. to open a case with MS and ask them to increase it from there end manually.
2. or i enable auto expanding which in turn increases my archive if it hits the threshold of 90% of total available usage and takes it upto 130 then 150 and finally 170.
My conflict of interest is Shared Mailboxes in my environment are alreay way below the limit of 50 (without license) as reinstated by Microsoft in may/june this year as part of provisioning correction and no where in that article it states about Online Archive limit revision, it only talks about Primary Mailbox usage and how to correct it if not already below 50 Gb if unlicensed).
back to my point where in I stated i have shared mailboxes (where primary Mailbox ) is running below 50 gb , however the Online archive for them (some of them) is touching close to 90 gb's. now my questions are -
1. Should i be already worried and apply Archive or Plan 2 License before it hits 100 GB.
2. Should i leave it as it is and have it be increased by Microsoft to further 130 and so on.
The reason i want to do so is not purchasing additional licenses is i already have my users with E3 licenses who are accessing these Shared Mailboxes (i dont have any user with Plan 1 , all are on E3 100 GB mailbox + unlimited archive)
There are few more questions regarding autoexpanding archive which are quite clear though my main concern still lies with Licensing for Unlicensed Shared Mailboxes who archive are above 50GB . Additionally, what if i turn on Auto Expanding, can i still control or set archivequotalimits / archivearninglimit to 50 GB so as to ensure my archives arent hitting threshold without license (if the license assignment is a mandate to use online archive in Shared Mailboxes)
Thanks
Ankit Shukla
No, the quota for E1 is 50GB, shared between the main mailbox and the archive. It does not get expanded, and if you mean the auto-expanding archives feature, this is only available with EO Plan 2 licenses. So in your examples, you will need EO plan 2 licenses regardless.
Hi Vasil,
I have just tested this for close to 4 tenants, where -
1. I was able to provision online archive for a Shared Mailboxes without any license.
2. I was also able to increase Online archive (of course from help of Microsoft ) to 100 , then 130 and further 170 GB (even though the utilization wasn't that much for any of the archives.
So primary point over here is what microsoft commented in Provisioning of Shared Mailboxes to 50 GB only isnt valid for its archives.
1. Archives can be provisioned without a license.
2. With Default size of 50 GB, and if you request Microsoft to increase it does go through , which means the threshold/quota at the Backend is only valid for Primary Mailbox and not archives.
3. Without license goes upto 170 GB.
4. to go beyond 170 , you need Plan 2 or Archive license , Plan 2 gives you Primary 100 + Unlimited archive. Archive only license gives you unlimited archive with no change in Primary Mailbox (50GB).
Please review above and test from your end, cause i have tested all these above and come up with the statements mentioned.
Thanks
Ankit Shukla
