Archive a 55GB Mailbox

[TravisLaira]

Dear Team,

A user within my company has a mailbox of 55GB size. We wish to archive all the emails as pst file.

However using the export as pst option created a file of 191GB (and counting) as a result we had to cancel the process. Is there any other way i could get this done?

Many thanks.

[#2]

Exporting to PST is generally larger compared to the Mailbox size, this could be due to the dumpster.

Run the below command and check the size of the Recoverable Items

Get-MailboxFolderStatistics <Identity> -FolderScope RecoverableItems | Format-List Name,FolderAndSubfolderSize

You would need to purge all the items in the Deleted items or move them to the archive mailbox before you export a .PST

[#3]

One thing we miss in reducing the size of Shared exchange mailboxes, is the option to "Clean Up". This function is available for user mailboxes, but grayed out for Shared ones.

Is there any expected improvements on this?

[#4]

@Erik LantersI haven't come across any updates from Microsoft about them releasing that option for Shared Mailboxes.  

[#5]

Tried that but doesnt work, think its because the mailbox is too big (55GB) 

@ApoorvaKasbekar 

[#6]

---

@ApoorvaKasbekar wrote:

Exporting to PST is generally larger compared to the Mailbox size, this could be due to the dumpster.

Run the below command and check the size of the Recoverable Items

Get-MailboxFolderStatistics <Identity> -FolderScope RecoverableItems | Format-List Name,FolderAndSubfolderSize

You would need to purge all the items in the Deleted items or move them to the archive mailbox before you export a .PST

---

I am now attempting a solution that looks promissing however theres a downside.

I am using the search-mailbox command to query emails by years and transfer the emails to another mailbox, then export it after each transfer. This is the best solution so far however, th search-mailbox command supports only 10000 file at a time and that is troublesome. The command advises to use the New-mailboxsearch to obtain more option but the switches are not the same and i have no idea where to begin. 

I manage to obtain a command online, tried it but it requires in-placehold enabled. I dont require all that i just wana transfer emails that i can specified by years, an unlimited quantity to another mailbox where i can export it - simple

Anyone familiar with the New-searchmailbox command?

@ApoorvaKasbekar 

[#7]

@TravisLaira 

Run ediscovery search for mailbox and export into pst. You can also use content search instead.

Regards,

Akshay

Exchange Admin - Apps4Rent

[#8]

Empty the dumpster and then export.

[#9]

@TravisLaira 191Gb include temp and draff ect. anyway you should use archive online, because if you archive pst meaning you have cut data from server to local, if lost pst you can't search data on server.

Cheers

[#10]

Tried that, no luck @DeepakRandhawa 

[#11]

I aware of this, but for the purpose of the company and legalities involved. A copy is required to be stored externally on an encrypted device. hence finding a solution for this @Thao Dao Phuong 

[#12]

so you can try thirtd party for this ( Bittitan and Code magrate).
Rgds,

[#13 · Accepted solution]

@TravisLaira 

Hello Travis. One method that I have used in the past to break up a large PST is to use a contentFilter to export only a few weeks or months at a time. For example look at the creation date on the mailbox 

get-mailbox myArchiveMailbox | fl *creat*

or use best guess for how far back the mail data goes. then create mailboxexportRequests for each 

New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox myArchiveMailbox -ContentFilter {(Sent -gt "05/01/2019") -AND (Sent -lt "05/10/2019")} -filepath "\\myFileServer01\d$\breakout01.pst" -batchname "myArchiveBreakout" -baditemlimit 500 -acceptLargeDataLoss

this would create a mailboxexport to breakout01.pst on fileserver myFileServer01, d: drive. for all mail sent from may 1st to may 10 (at 12:00am). without a time specified, it will equal 12:00am. 

I have used this method in the past to do exactly what you are asking, without 3rd party tools. You hopefully do not need to create too many of these but if you do, let me know and I can help you script out the creation of several hundreds of these (i.e. every 2 weeks for a 2 year process). 

Finally, with several dozen exports queued up, you can check the status with:

get-mailboxexportRequest -batchname "myArchiveBreakout"

and

get-mailboxexportRequest -batchname "myArchiveBreakout" | get-mailboxexportRequestStatistics

Best of Luck!

[#14]

Sorry for the late feedback, I tried a modified version of that and managed to split it. Perfectly, I'll share the exact script later but managed to export the pst into multiple psts sorted by years.

Many thanks for support

[#15]

Sorry for the late feedback, I tried a modified version of that and managed to split it. Perfectly, I'll share the exact script later but managed to export the pst into multiple pst's sorted by years.
Many thanks for support

[#16]

Glad to hear it worked for you. If you are doing one year at a time, keep in mind the 12:00am default time on a date.

So your content filter should be something like
Sent -GT "01/01/2015" and Sent -LT "01/01/2016"

If you set it to 12/31/2015, it will miss emails sent on 12/31. Good luck with your breakout!

[#17]

@TravisLaira 

You can use Content Search under Security and Compliance and export the result into a PST file.

Before performing the content search make sure you or the administrator who is going to perform the exporting are a member of the permissions Compliance Administrator, eDiscovery Manager, Organization Management. This can be done through Admins > Security & Compliance > Permissions. Configuration replication may take a while so please expect that these setting may no propagate immediately.

To perform the Content Search

1. Admins > Security & Compliance > Search & Investigation
2. Click the "+" Button
3. Provide it with a name for you to remember.
4. Put the name of the person you want to search
5. Click Search

This should take a while. After the search you can preview the search results and/or export on the right panel. Export them to PST and you can open this PST on Outlook which can then be sent to your attorney.