samba - Jun 2003 - Outlook .pst on a samba share; do or don't?

Hi listers.

 People here are trying to push me into moving the Outlook .psts on a samba
share for back-up reasons. I'd like to hear your experience about this: is
it feasible in the size of 20 users with 400...800MB each .pst? Any special
settings on samba side? Something special that I should pay attention to? Or
is just "NO"?

On Tue, 10 Jun 2003, Vizitiu, Ciprian wrote:
>
>  Hi listers.
>
>  People here are trying to push me into moving the Outlook .psts on a samba
> share for back-up reasons. I'd like to hear your experience about this:
is
> it feasible in the size of 20 users with 400...800MB each .pst? Any special
> settings on samba side? Something special that I should pay attention to?
Or
> is just "NO"?
It's OK to put the .pst files in a user share, just remember that
performance across the network is slower than to local hard disk.

If you leave the .pst file in the desktop profile then the whole profile
has to be copied across the network into a local profile cache, that can
be VERY slow also. Here the greater slowdown is the time taken to log onto
and off the network.

I prefer to put the .pst files in a user share (the user's home directory
is a good place). Check out the new Samba-3 HOWTO chapter on policies and
the one on profiles to find how to redirect your .pst file to a share.

Cheers,
John T.
-- 
John H Terpstra
Email: jht@samba.org

Maintenance shouldve only been performed when everyone was out of the files.
There is an easy way to see who is in what files.  I dont care if its linux
or windows, if you pull thge server while the file is open, the file will be
corrupt.

-----Original Message-----
From: Florian Stahl [mailto:fstahl@checkerei.de]
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 8:30 AM
To: samba@lists.samba.org
Subject: RE: [Samba] Outlook .pst on a samba share; do or don't?


I only would like to put into consideration that I corrupted my outlook.pst
file
and lost a lot of messages while I had outlook open and the client lost
connection
due to service maintenance on the linux server.

And the Inbox-Repair-Tool from Microsoft didnt do a good job at all to
resume the information.

kind regardez

Florian Stahl (fstahl@xantury.com)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: samba-bounces+fstahl=xantury.com@lists.samba.org
> [mailto:samba-bounces+fstahl=xantury.com@lists.samba.org]On Behalf Of
> Brandon Mercer
> Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 2:58 PM
> To: John H Terpstra
> Cc: samba@lists.samba.org; Vizitiu, Ciprian
> Subject: Re: [Samba] Outlook .pst on a samba share; do or don't?
>
>
>
> > It's OK to put the .pst files in a user share, just remember that
> > performance across the network is slower than to local hard disk.
>
> Are you serious?  Hard disks are the slowest operating part of any
> computer.  Unless your workstations have the Ultra320 Raid setups that
> your servers do I find that the performance is better when using the
> samba share.  Just my experience.
>
> > If you leave the .pst file in the desktop profile then the
> whole profile
> > has to be copied across the network into a local profile
> cache, that can
> > be VERY slow also. Here the greater slowdown is the time
> taken to log onto
> > and off the network.
>
> Brandon Mercer
>
>
> --
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> I only would like to put into consideration that
> I corrupted my outlook.pst file and lost a lot of
> messages while I had outlook open and the client lost
> connection due to service maintenance on the linux server.
Are oplocks turned off?  See chapter 14 of the Samba-3 HOWTO collection,
"File and Record Locking".  Very good reading.

          -Mike MacIsaac, IBM  mikemac at us.ibm.com   (845) 433-7061

> 
> > I only would like to put into consideration that
> > I corrupted my outlook.pst file and lost a lot of
> > messages while I had outlook open and the client lost 
> connection due 
> > to service maintenance on the linux server.
> 
> Are oplocks turned off?  See chapter 14 of the Samba-3 HOWTO 
> collection, "File and Record Locking".  Very good reading.
> 
So to sum it up: Outlook .psts on a samba share are ok as long as you don't
pull the plug (but the electricity company can do that... Not all my WS have
UPSs) so to be on the safe side disable oplocks. From smb.conf man it looks
like it can't be done on a per file basis so I'll have to create a
separate
share. Given the sizes (300 to 800MB each, 20 users) will ext3 do or I'll
have to resort to smth more "exotic" like JVS/RieserFS?