Hello, That kind of depends on what you are after: Do you want frequent backups and fast recoveries? If so then you should consider limiting the size of the stores to accomplish this. Another consideration is your actual hardware configuration. How many disks (by which I mean windows disk volumes not the number of spindles you have). It is best to have only one store per disk otherwise if you have a hardware failure you loose multiple stores. The number of users in a store depends on who those users are and weather or not you limit their mailbox size. You should also consider database maintenance when setting up your stores. If you can't complete online maintenance because your backup times run to long the you need to consider smaller information stores. Do you have a service level agreement with your users? If so then you should configure your store so that you can meet the promised level of service. Our account creation process includes the SLA for the user and places their mailbox as appropriate. Bill ________________________________ From: exchangelist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:exchangelist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Taylor, George Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 12:12 PM To: exchangelist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [ExchangeList] How do you split up datastores OK, we're finally at a point of designing our Exchange 2007 deployment. We're currently 2000 running on 3 servers and using 4 datastores. There are 2 of the datastores that are larger than we want and will obviously continue to grow. I'm thinking of going to 6 or more datastores, but can't decide on exactly how to split things up. Currently we have the following stores: Server 1 Main Users Main Users (VIP) Server 2 Remote Users Remote Users (VIP) OWA Server They are basically just like they sound, Main Users are those in this city, Remote are those outside of this city, total of about 5500 mailboxes. I just want to hear how others are managing this. I'm hoping this can turn into a dialog that can help a lot of us. 1. Do you bother naming the stores to match who is in it? 2. Do you limit the number of users in a store? 3. Do you limit the size of a store? 4. Do you limit the number of stores or storage groups on a single server? 5. How do you tell your Operations Team what store to put new users in? 6. Anything else you want to include. Thanks, George Taylor Systems Programmer Regional Health Inc. ***Note: The information contained in this message, including any attachments, may be privileged, confidential, and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the Sender immediately by a "reply to sender only" message and destroy all electronic or paper copies of the communication, including any attachments.