Types of Mailboxes in Exchange 2022, 2019, 2016, 2013 & How to Use Them
Microsoft Exchange Server is one of the most popular email servers that was first released in 1996 and has made email communication easier for a lot of businesses. It comes loaded with various advanced features and Microsoft keeps updating it with better security parameters. To make the overall user experience even better, there are different types of Exchange mailboxes that are designed to cater to different user requirements.
Therefore, in this article, we will discuss the types of mailboxes in Exchange Server. Additionally, we will also discuss the retention policy of these mailboxes along with the mailbox quota size.
In the last section of this article, we have also listed a professional solution that you can use if you have a damaged Exchange database file and want to repair an EDB file.
Types of Mailboxes in Exchange Server
Different Types of Mailboxes in Exchange Server
1. User Mailbox: User mailboxes are the mailboxes that get assigned to every individual Exchange user, therefore, it is the most common type of mailbox. User mailbox provides facilities like exchanging messages, contact management, meeting scheduling, and making a task list. Voice Mail delivery is also feasible with its help.
2. Linked Mailbox: Second Exchange Server mailbox type is the linked mailbox that is usually needed by the organizations that deploy Exchange Server in a separate but trusted resource forest. Since every mailbox should be associated with a user account, linked mailboxes are usually linked with a disabled user account located in the Exchange forest where that linked mailbox exists. The reason is that the user accounts that access those linked mailboxes do not exist in the resource forest.
3. Office 365 Mailbox: Whenever you create an Office 365 mailbox in hybrid deployment, it creates a mail user in on-premises Active Directory. If the directory synchronization is configured, it will automatically synchronize the new user object to Office 365. When synchronized, that account is converted into cloud mailbox in Exchange Online.
You can create Office 365 mailbox as a normal user mailbox, a shared mailbox, or a resource mailbox for meeting rooms and equipment.
5. Resource Mailbox: Resource mailboxes are special mailboxes designed to be used for scheduling resources. A resource mailbox has to be associated with a disabled Active Directory user account.
Resource mailboxes in Exchange Server can be further divided into two types:
- Room Mailbox: This kind of mailbox gets assigned to different meeting locations, for example, auditoriums, and conference and training rooms.
- Equipment Mailbox: These mailboxes are used for resources that are not location-specific like portable systems, microphones, projectors, or company cars.
Deleted Mailbox Data Retention Policy in Exchange Server
When an admin creates different types of mailboxes in Exchange 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2022, there are some additional settings as well to look after. One such setting is applying Data Retention Policy and assigning mailbox quota.
Any deleted item, like email, contact, calendar event, or task, is moved into Deleted Items folder. When a user permanently deletes an item from the Exchange mailbox, it is stored in the Deletions sub-folder within the Recoverable Items folder. This happens when the item is deleted from the Deleted Items folder or directly hard deleted by pressing Shift + Delete keys.
However, Recoverable Folder will not keep an item forever. The duration of an item being kept in this folder depends on the deleted item Retention policy set for that mailbox. By default, hard-deleted items stay in Recoverable Folder for 14 days. But it can be changed up to a maximum of 30 days by using Exchange Management Shell.
Exchange Server Mailbox Quota
By default, the maximum storage quota limit of each Exchange Server mailbox is 2 GB. However, you can extend this limit up to 2 TB depending on the Exchange Server you are using and the available storage capacity.
You can update the storage quotas for each mailbox by performing the following steps:
- Open Exchange Admin Center and go to Recipients > Mailboxes.
- Now go to the user mailbox for which you want to change the storage quota. Click on that particular mailbox and then hit the Edit button.
- Click on the Mailbox Usage option under the Mailbox Properties page and click on More options.
- Now, click on Customize the settings for this mailbox and then set the values for the following boxes. The value range that you can choose from is 0 to 2047 GB.
o Issue a warning at (GB)
o Prohibit send at (GB)
o Prohibit send and receive at (GB)
As we have discussed all types of mailboxes in Exchange Server, there are some mailboxes that store their data in an EDB file. These EDB files are prone to corruption and become inaccessible if they are not in a healthy state. Thus, a need for a tried and tested solution arises. The following segment explains one such application to help you fix corruption issues.
What to do in Case of a Damaged Exchange Server Database
In case of a corrupted Exchange database, you must opt for the most-rated Exchange Mailbox Recovery Tool. This application can rectify both minor and major corruption levels and export the mailbox data in a healthy file format. Additionally, if there are any deleted data in the EDB file, then this application will also recover those data items as well. The software works on all kinds of Exchange mailbox EDB files.
This recovery manager for Exchange database comes with two scan modes i.e. Quick and Advance scan. If you are also facing any sort of corruption issues in the Exchange EDB file, then you can trust this application with your eyes closed.
Conclusion
In this article, we have described the different types of mailboxes available in Exchange Server 2022, 2019, 2016, 2013, and 2010. All these mailboxes have different purposes and audiences, thus they are assigned to the users accordingly. Along with the types, we have also discussed the data retention policy and Exchange Server mailbox quota.
