[OpenAFS] issue with outlook pst file

[Jonathan Halter]

David,

We've had fairly good success with storing our pst files in AFS here at UNC
Charlotte.

I am using Outlook 2003, and every day I load up 2 pst files that live in
AFS: one is 111 MB, and the other is 7 MB. I can't remember when the last
time I had to repair either of them.

The first thing we did that reduced the frequency of repairing the pst's is
import this registry setting:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<ver>\Outlook\PST]
"PSTNullFreeOnClose"=dword:00000001

Where the <ver> is the version of Office you are running (typically "10.0"
or "11.0").

This was mentioned on the list by my buddy Rodney Dyer back in 2003:
https://lists.openafs.org/pipermail/openafs-info/2003-February/008022.html

MSKB article on PSTNullFreeOnClose:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=245776

Another thing we noticed is that when we exit Outlook, it takes a long time
to completely terminate, even after its GUI unloads. Our users who had to
frequently repair their pst files would exit Outlook, and then immediately
log out, not realizing that Outlook was still running. The Outlook 2003 tray
icon typically remains in the apptray even after the Outlook GUI unloads,
and will disappear when OUTLOOK.EXE is completely terminated.

I tell my users NOT to assume Outlook is completely shut down when the GUI
goes away, rather to watch the tray icon, and wait for it to go away before
they log out. This has drastically reduced the amount of pst repairing that
has to be done here.

The only times I have to repair my pst files now are 1) when Outlook is open
and there is a power outage, or 2) when Outlook locks up (its been known to
happen), and I have to forcefully kill it.

I hope this information helps you.


-jonathan Halter


| -----Original Message-----
| From: openafs-info-admin@openafs.org 
| [mailto:openafs-info-admin@openafs.org] On Behalf Of David Bear
| Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 9:33 PM
| To: openafs
| Subject: [OpenAFS] issue with outlook pst file
| 
| A few years ago I attempted to store ms outlook pst files in afs. this
| was a big failure. That was when we wer using transarc afs (i think)
| 
| I had gleaned from this list that there were no longer issues with
| storing outlook.pst files in afs. So I began storing file their a
| couple weeks ago. My pst file is about 104 mgs. There are a lot of
| messages there. Today, when I attempted to open it I got an outlook
| error about the pst file being unuseable.
| 
| So I ran the pstscan program on it and it identified a number of
| problems with it.
| 
| So, my question is twofold.  First, is it really safe to store
| outlook.pst files -- and related ms office files -- in afs using
| current openafs releases?  (I just noticed that I have 1.3.73 on my
| workstation but I have moved most everyone else to 1.3.82)
| 
| Second, are there any other known issues with file corruption on
| the current release of openafs for windows?
| 
| -- 
| David Bear
| phone: 	480-965-8257
| fax: 	480-965-9189
| College of Public Programs/ASU
| Wilson Hall 232
| Tempe, AZ 85287-0803
|  "Beware the IP portfolio, everyone will be suspect of trespassing"
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