What is Exchange Server Database?

There are many advanced facilities which are provided by Exchange Database Server for better management of emails, calendars, & Tasks. Which I am going to describe in below section:

• Mailbox Storage Quotas- It is the complete calculation of available storage space for hosting an Exchange Server. Suppose if there are 50 Mailboxes or User accounts in Exchange server and each mailbox is assigned minimum 250 MB of Storage space for emails, contacts and calendars then you should have at least 12.5 GB available Space in database. It is also called like for each user mailbox, the storage quota is 250 MB.
  
• Database White Space- The size of Exchange Database is not constantly managed according to the defined multiplied and calculated space for each mailbox. Because each user mailbox doesn’t reach at its storage quota. Some user mailboxes have lot of available space in their mailbox while some user mailboxes have reached at storage quota. So, in case of available spaces, the blank spaces are called Database White Space. It is managed by constantly ongoing online defragmentation process.
• Mailbox Database Recoverable Items- It is related to the retention policy of any deleted items of Exchange Mailbox like Emails, & Calendars. Retention policy is the time of restoring deleted items. The default retention policy for emails is 14 days and for calendars is 120 days in Exchange Server 2010. Each database is having a dumpster or we can say kind of recycle bin which store all soft deleted items for defined retention policy.
• Actual Mailbox Size- For determining actual mailbox size of a user mailbox is the time when Administrator have to plan for managing more spaces for storing the data. In this case Administrator have to create another database or the user have to ask for mailbox deletion regularly for saving space.
• Content Indexing- It is a technique for managing the contents by creating the index table. It provides facility for quick search in mails. Content Indexing takes 10% size of mailbox, therefore administrator have to plan for this space too. It is also stored in the same LUN (Logical Unit Number) database.
• Offline Database Maintenance- While compacting the database in offline, it is require equal and 10% more storage space than the target database.
• Recovery Database- It is created for prevention and cure before any accidental situation. The situation could be like database corruption, lost mailboxes, not accessible mailboxes etc.
• Database Size-

  It depends upon the total number of present mailboxes in a database and how many databases, which you are going to create. The database size depends upon several factors, which are given following:

  * Backup / Restore Service Level Agreement (SLAs)

  * High Availability Architecture

  * Storage Architecture

• Database Growth Overhead- It is not calculated within the all important factors for storing the data. But before deploying the database the 20% additional space should be added in complete database size. Because this 20% space is for managing the overhead situations like white space.

Exchange Server and Outlook is really connected to each other and it is really very important for each other. If a user wants to access emails in offline mode then that user have configure Microsoft Outlook with Exchange Server. Outlook provides different configuration and connection technique with exchange server. Other than Outlook there is not any other client which could be used to access emails from Exchange server.

1. What is Exchange Server Database and how it works?

Microsoft Exchange Database Server is a Email & Calendar Management Server which manages Email Processing, Email Storing, Calendar Sharing, Task Management etc. It does not have just a limited features. Exchange server have complete facility for management of complete office or organization.

2. What is OWA in Exchange Server?

OWA or Outlook Web Access is used through Web Browser for accessing emails for Exchange server. But all the configurations are managed by Exchange Management Console (EMC) or Exchange Admin Center (EAC).

3. What is the latest version of Exchange Server & why it is better than others?

The Latest Version is Exchange Server 2016. It is better than previous version because of its improved feature over Exchange Database Server 2013. Those features are: Combining Roles, Change in OWA User Interface, Office 365 Hybrid management facility, and the new archiving, retention, & discovery in Messaging Policy.

4. What is autodiscover in exchange server?

Exchange Autodiscover provides facility for user to configure Outlook from any devices like PC, Tablet, Smartphones with the minimum required credentials. For Example for configuration of Outlook with your Organization’s Exchange server, it only require Email ID and Password.

5. What is retention policy in exchange 2010, 2013, & 2016?

Retention Policy in Exchange Server plays very important role in Exchange server Management. An exchange administrator can add different policies for different mailboxes according to the value of the mailbox. It also play important role in overcoming the load from Exchange server. For each and every features there is a rule defined in retention policy.

6.What is Exchange Server Database File Extension?

The File Extension of Database is .edb or we also call it EDB file. There are two type of EDB files in Exchange server, private.edb and public.edb.

7. What is Mailbox in Exchange Server?

For each user account there is a mailbox, which is created when a user profile is created in Exchange Database Server. Mailbox contains each and every aspects related to the user like all emails, contacts, calendars etc.