Mailbox quotas in Office 365 Dedicated/ITAR

Summary

This article discusses the various mailbox plans and their corresponding quotas that are available in Office 365 Dedicated/ITAR.

More Information

Mailbox quotas are managed by values that are set through an Active Directory extension attribute on user account objects. The particular extension or custom attribute is specific to each customer. Microsoft Managed Services Service Provisioning Provider (MMSSPP) sets quotas and mailbox type properties during the initial provisioning, based on the values in this attribute.

For the ARUNA Exchange 2010 platform of Exchange Online Dedicated, this attribute is known as the SetMailboxType provisioning attribute. For the ANSI-D Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2013 platform, this attribute is known as the Mailbox Plans provisioning attribute. After the initial provisioning, the mailbox plan and associated quotas are set by the SetMailboxType script in ARUNA and the SetMailboxPlan script in ANSI-D.
 

Mailbox plans

The specific mailbox plans that are available to customers in Exchange Online Dedicated depend on the platform and the version of Exchange that hosts the mailbox.

There are three standard kinds of user mailboxes for the ANSI-D platforms of Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2013:

• Exchange Online Kiosk D—smaller mailbox quotas and only certain kinds of mailbox access available (some optional features)

• Exchange Online Plan 1D—maximum mailbox quotas, many mailbox access methods, and additional features (some optional features)

• Exchange Online Plan 2D—premium mailbox plan with all available options

For more information about each plan, see Exchange Online Dedicated Release Collateral.

There are three special purpose mailbox types:

• Resource—used for conference rooms or shared equipment together with a maximum size of 10 gigabytes (GB) in ARUNA or 50 GB in ANSI-D

• Shared—used for multiple user access, available for free up to 10 GB in ARUNA or 50 GB in ANSI-D

• Inactive—used to preserve mailboxes that are on litigation hold

The SetMailboxType and SetMailboxPlan scripts responsible for updating mailbox parameters require that both the MBX and TYPE values be provided in the extension or custom attribute that's specific to each customer.

Mailbox quotas

The following table lists the standard mailbox types, mailbox quotas, and online archive options for the ANSI-D platform of Exchange Online Dedicated:
 

Notes

• The Exchange Online Archiving (EOA) feature setting is provided at no additional charge for a Plan 2D mailbox. To obtain the EOA feature for a Kiosk D or a Plan 1D mailbox, the TYPE=EKDA or TYPE= EP1DA provisioning code is required, respectively. Use of the EKDA or EP1DA mailbox types triggers an EOA subscription charge. To create the actual archive mailbox, the PA=1 provisioning must be added to the provisioning string for EPKDA, EP1DA, or EP2D (for example, MBX=25GB;TYPE=EP1DA;PA=1).

• The standard size of the RecoverableItemsQuota (also known as the dumpster) is 30 GB. ANSI-D provides new mailbox plan options. This includes mailbox plans that have a larger dumpster/recoverable items size of 200 GB. These plans (EP1DA_Dumpster and EP2D_Dumpster) are intended to be used for mailboxes that are on litigation hold, in which material in the recoverable items folder can't be deleted.

• Most mailbox types have the following quota limits:
  
  Warning - 98% of set mailbox size
  Prohibit Send - 99% of set mailbox size
  Prohibit Send/Receive - 100% of set mailbox size
  
  This excludes mailboxes whose size is set to 1 GB or less and that have the following quota limits:
  
  Warning - 90% of set mailbox size
  Prohibit Send - 95% of set mailbox size
  Prohibit Send/Receive -100% of set mailbox size

• The maximum mailbox size that's supported by Office Outlook 2003, and Outlook 2007 is 20 GB. A maximum mailbox size of 50 GB is enabled in Outlook 2010 or Outlook 2013. However, a mailbox size of more than 20 GB may decrease the performance of the Outlook client and the replication of mailbox data between datacenters.

Resource configuration
 

Note See the applicable mailbox type description in the Mailbox plans section for guidance on value settings when the TYPE value is set to an EP1D or EP2D plan. Be aware that setting the TYPE= value to one of these options will result in a billable subscription change as described with the Exchange Online Dedicated Service Description.

Shared mailbox configuration
 

Note A mailbox of TYPE=SHARED cannot be directly logged in to. If a shared mailbox of a custom size is required, or if direct access to the shared mailbox is required, a user mailbox can be provisioned and used as a custom shared mailbox through an EP1D or EP2D plan. The optional SharedMbx; flag can be added to identify this mailbox as Mailbox - Shared (other) in reporting for Exchange Online Dedicated subscriptions.

See the applicable mailbox type description in the Mailbox plans section for guidance about value settings when the TYPE value is set to an EP1D or EP2D plan. Be aware that setting the TYPE= value to one of these options will result in a billable subscription charge, as described with the Exchange Online Dedicated Service Description.

For more information about each plan, see the Exchange Online Dedicated Release Collateral.

Regional configuration

In Exchange 2010, the mailbox provisioning attribute can be used to set the geographic region of the mailbox. This process and the method that are used to set the geographic region in 2013.

Updating the mailbox plan

The changes to a mailbox provisioning code value for any given user may start to process within 24 hours. The changes are expected to finish processing within 48 hours to reflect updates to mailbox sizes and protocols. At that time, administrators and users can both see the new sizes and quotas, based on the updated attribute.

The extension attribute should be configured to include the following:

• MBX= <value> flag to designate the appropriate mailbox size

• TYPE= <value> flag to designate the appropriate mailbox type (with associated allowances and restrictions)

For example, administrators can configure the extension attribute for a 1 GB Kiosk D mailbox by using the following values:

• MBX=1GB;TYPE=EKD;

To check mailbox extension attributes in the managed environment, administrators can run the following Windows Remote PowerShell cmdlet:Get-Mailbox <alias> | fl *custom* This cmdlet will display the values of all the extension attributes for a particular mailbox. The correct extension attributes should be set to make sure that the program sets the mailbox limits correctly. This extension attribute is specific to the customer environment.

To check the current mailbox limits, administrators can run the following Windows Remote PowerShell cmdlet:Get-Mailbox <alias> | fl *quota* If a mailbox extension attribute is configured correctly, and if the end-user’s ability to send or receive mails is affected, escalate the issue to Microsoft for an immediate temporary quota increase. It will take two hours for Exchange Server to recognize the increased quotas.

For more information about vNext, see 2490230: How to set Exchange Online mailbox sizes and limits in the Office 365 environment.