University storage resources are not unlimited and must be managed to ensure adequate space is available for new resources. Therefore user mailboxes on the University email servers should not exceed the following quota limits:
1.5 GB for faculty and staff accounts on faculty/staff mail server
This limitation applies to all mail in a user’s account, including messages in all folders and subfolders, not just the primary mailbox folder. Moving mail into subfolders within the mailbox will not protect them from removal.
Faculty/Staff Mailboxes
Faculty and staff will receive notification messages from the mail administrator alerting them when they are approaching the allocated quota. Messages will be received in the email box when the mailbox reaches the following size:
1st Notification – 90% of Quota Allocation (1.35 GB), you will receive a message that your mailbox is almost full please reduce your mailbox size.
2nd Notification – 100% of Quota Allocation (1.5 GB), you will no longer be able to send email messages until you reduce the size of your email storage.
3rd Notification – 110% of Quota Allocation (1.65 GB), you will no longer be able to send or receive email messages.
Faculty and staff may archive mail in excess of the allocated quota to their local machine or to an external storage device. Assistance with archiving of mailboxes will be provided by OIT on request and is available on the OIT website.
Faculty/Staff Archiving Process
Archiving Items
The Microsoft Exchange archive feature saves mail or phone messages, appointments, reminder notes, and tasks to a designated database on a local drive. Archiving items saves network space and keeps your mailbox uncluttered. It also protects items from being automatically deleted. You can view archived items whenever you need by selecting the Archive Folder from your mailbox.
Archive Settings
Archiving is enabled by default for faculty and staff email accounts. E-mail items 45 days or older are automatically archived to the C: drive. Faculty and staff can change the default archive settings; however the University does not recommend changing the default archive limit to more than 180 days. Faculty and staff may also manually archive an item or unarchive an item at any time.
Junk Mail and Trash Folders
Items in the Junk Mail folder are automatically moved to the Trash folder after 30 days. Many items are automatically moved to the Junk Mail folder by Exchange after being marked [SPAM] by the Cisco Ironport Spam appliance. While the Ironport is mostly accurate in its assessment of spam mail, some messages that are not spam may get sent to your Junk Mail folder. You should review the items in that folder periodically to find messages you might want to keep. Move those messages to another mailbox folder to avoid losing them.
Policy on Critical E-mail and E-mail Recovery
Backup of individual email accounts is the responsibility of the mailbox owner. While critical system backups are maintained, accounts cannot be fully restored if it is deleted or mail messages within the mailbox are permanently deleted. Maintaining archive folders of individual mailboxes is the responsibility of the mailbox owner. If you work with e-mail critical to the Institution’s function (e.g., financial records, legal documents), we recommend that you save that e-mail as a file or print that e-mail to hard copy.
Microsoft Exchange Backups
All Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers are backed up on a daily basis and saved for three days. The backups are for disaster recovery purposes only, i.e., total loss of the server. The backups will not be used for the recovery of lost e-mail. Retaining e-mail is left to the individual user, who may archive, print, or save e-mail items.
Non-Compliance
In the event systems resources are in jeopardy and the mailbox owner has disregarded quota notifications as distributed by OIT, the University reserves the right to purge electronic mail accordingly:
Inbox: purge messages > 6 months old
Trash/Deleted Mail: purge messages > 14 days old
Junk Mail: purge all messages
If individual mailbox owners choose not to manage their mailboxes within the quota system and either dispose of messages or archive those messages, the messages may be automatically purged to protect the integrity and availability of University mail systems.
