Sean Wallbridge
Problem:
When setting mailbox size limits such as “Issue Warning”, “Prohibit Send”, or “Prohibit Send & Receive”, using Exchange 2003 System Polices or by setting a limit directly on a users account in Active Directory it is not possible to set a size limit greater than 2097151KB due to a restriction in the GUI. If you try to enter a number larger than 2097151 you receive the message
“The value for ‘Issue warning at (KB)’ is not valid. Specify a value from 0 through 2097151.”
One may argue that it would never be necessary to set a limit great that 2GB for a mailbox, however, the reality is that in today’s email enabled world mailboxes are getting larger and larger, plus it is hard to argue when Google is giving away mailboxes with 2.5GB of space!
As a consultant one of the my problems with not being able to set a limit great than 2097151 has been in situations where I have came into a company to re-architect their Exchange system and half the company has reasonably sized mailboxes and the other half have mailboxes as large as 15GB, yes, you heard me right, 15GB!!!! Sometimes management is unwilling to force these people to cleanup their mailboxes overnight so it is a long process. In these situations I certainly do not want those users mailboxes getting any larger then they are already so I set a limit just above the current size of the mailbox to make it painful for them to keep so much mail and eventually they give in and cleanup their mailbox.
Solution:
Mailbox storage limits cannot be set above 2097151 using the GUI, however, using the tool ADSIEdit a mailbox storage limit larger than 2097151 can be set. ADSIEdit is a very powerful tool and should be used with extreme caution!
Using ADSIEdit to Modify System Policies Mailbox Storage Limits
Add ADSIEdit to the MMC and bind to the domain using the Configuration well known naming context.
Navigate to the Services Container, MicrosoftExchange, ExchangeOrgName, AdministrativeGroups, AdministrativeGroupName, & click on the Policies folder.
In the right hand side of the ADSIEdit window find the name of the policy you want to modify and double click on it.
Scroll through the list of attributes until you see the attribute you want to modify, the attributes in question are:
mDBStorageQuota: Issue warning at (KB)
mDBOverQuotaLimit: Prohibit Send at (KB)
mDBOverHardQuotaLimit: Prohibit Send and Receive at (KB)
Double click the attribute you are going to modify and enter a size limit of your choice, keep in mind that limits are in KB, once you are finished simply close ADSIEdit and you are done.
Using ADSIEdit to Modify Mailbox Storage Limits on a Single User
Add ADSIEdit to the MMC and bind to the domain using the Domain well known naming context.
Navigate to the location of the user account that you want to modify.
In the right hand side of the ADSIEdit window find the name of the policy you want to modify and double click on it.
Scroll through the list of attributes until you see the attribute you want to modify, the attributes in question are:
mDBStorageQuota: Issue warning at (KB)
mDBOverQuotaLimit: Prohibit Send at (KB)
mDBOverHardQuotaLimit: Prohibit Send and Receive at (KB)
Double click the attribute you are going to modify and enter a size limit of your choice, keep in mind that limits are in KB, once you are finished simply close ADSIEdit and you are done.
GB to KB converter you’ll need 🙂
http://www.ibeast.com/content/tools/band-calc.asp