Migrating Outlook PST archives to Zimbra Desktop (best practice)

[rap3r]

Hi,
We are planning to migrate to ZCS from Exchange 2003. A lot of users have in their Outlook locally on PC also Archives (PST files). I know migration tool can import PST files into mailbox on Zimbra, but I don't want all this mails to be imported into Zimbra server.
So my questions are:

- is it possible to open PST file with Zimbra Desktop?

- what is best to do with this PST files that are located on user's PC?

- what are possibilities in Zimbra Desktop when mailbox is over size limit? Archiving like Outlook?

- can PST be converted into something Zimbra Desktop can read?
Thanks!

[phoenix]

[quote user="rap3r"]- is it possible to open PST file with Zimbra Desktop?[/QUOTE]This has been answered many times in the forums, there is no direct import of pst data into Zimbra Desktop. The most appropriate thing to do would be to import the data into ZCS then connect to those accounts and get the mail into ZD - that will save you a lot of time trying other solutions.

[rap3r]

Read forum and google and found the same you said. But I wanted to see if there is any other solution I didn't find.
Also am aware of your solution and the thing it worries me about it is to import 10Gbs of mails per user into Zimbra database and then open mailbox with ZD? But mails still remain in mailbox on server. And having mailboxes big as 15-20Gb of emails that are needed once per 5 years (if ever)? It's not the best practice (or is it)?
What solution ZD offers to archive mails and move them from mailbox?

[phoenix]

[quote user="rap3r"]It's not the best practice (or is it)?[/QUOTE]Why not? Storage space is inexpensive and there doesn't seem any reason to me that you can't keep the mail on the server. If the user removes mail from the server then (perhaps) accidentally removes important mail from their local machine then how do they recover it? Best practice would surely be to keep the mail on the server with an adequate backup solution in case any mail is lost by users - you should have an adequate backup and restore solution in place (and you've documented it and tested that it works) to recover mail that's required for any (legal?) reason.

[rap3r]

[quote user="10330phoenix"]Why not? Storage space is inexpensive and there doesn't seem any reason to me that you can't keep the mail on the server. If the user removes mail from the server then (perhaps) accidentally removes important mail from their local machine then how do they recover it? Best practice would surely be to keep the mail on the server with an adequate backup solution in case any mail is lost by users - you should have an adequate backup and restore solution in place (and you've documented it and tested that it works) to recover mail that's required for any (legal?) reason.[/QUOTE]
I totally agree with you but you know customers. Trying to spare every Euro when they should spend it. Anyway server has SAS HDDs and customer doesn't want to add any more drives to it (to big cost). SAS drives are expensive. This is why I am trying to find out secondary solution in case customer won't want to buy additional drives but rather store old emails on user's PCs and I would be able to tell them how to do it.
So is there a solution like that inside ZD?

[7531prashant]

If you dont want to migrate all the folders to Zimbra then PST Import wizard have option to "Skip these folders(Separate with Comma)" and even you can put the date filters which will migrate items on or after specified date.

[rap3r]

[quote user="7531prashant"]If you dont want to migrate all the folders to Zimbra then PST Import wizard have option to "Skip these folders(Separate with Comma)" and even you can put the date filters which will migrate items on or after specified date.[/QUOTE]
I don't want to have all mails in Zimbra store but still would like to offer a user to see old emails when they need them. (doesn't matter where they are stored except not on server)

[phoenix]

[quote user="rap3r"]I don't want to have all mails in Zimbra store but still would like to offer a user to see old emails when they need them. (doesn't matter where they are stored except not on server)[/QUOTE]How can you offer the user the ability to view old email without keeping it on the server? If you really want to do it manually there's various threads in the ZD forums that tell you how to get the pst data into ZD (do a search for it) and believe me you'll find it much easier to store the mail on the server or at the very least migrate it via the server. Perhaps you need to educate your customer on the best practice for storing and retrieving email, isn't there any legal requirement to keep older email in their jurisdiction?

[rap3r]

[quote user="10330phoenix"]How can you offer the user the ability to view old email without keeping it on the server? If you really want to do it manually there's various threads in the ZD forums that tell you how to get the pst data into ZD (do a search for it) and believe me you'll find it much easier to store the mail on the server or at the very least migrate it via the server. Perhaps you need to educate your customer on the best practice for storing and retrieving email, isn't there any legal requirement to keep older email in their jurisdiction?[/QUOTE]
Ok, great. Please correct me if I am wrong. I can import PST into mailbox, then user will see it via ZD or webmail. But how can user then tell mail to stay in ZD and is removed on server? Thanks

[rap3r]

Now I see there is local folders in ZD. One more thing. Can I import PST in specific folder inside mailbox?