Identifying and Accessing Exchange Store Components

Storage group

A grouping of mailbox stores and public folder stores. Stores in a storage group share a single backup schedule and a single set of transaction logs.

There can be as many as four storage groups per server.

Configure a storage group on a particular server in Exchange System Manager.

Mailbox store

A storage device for mailboxes.

There can be as many as five stores per storage group, and any number of the five may be mailbox stores.

Configure a mailbox store on a particular server, or by setting system policies.

Mailbox

Associated with a user in the Microsoft Active Directory directory service.

There can be many mailboxes per mailbox store.

Create a mailbox using Active Directory Users and Computers.

Use Active Directory Users and Computers for most tasks. Use either Exchange System Manager or Active Directory Users and Computers to move or delete mailboxes.

Public folder store

A storage device for public folders and public folder tree information. A public folder store must be associated with one public folder tree.

There can be as many as five stores per storage group, and any number of the five may be public folder stores.

Each server has one default public folder store (called Public Folder Store) that supports the Public Folders tree.

Configure a public folder store on a particular server, or by setting system policies.

Public folder tree

A group of public folders in a hierarchical structure. Also called a public folder hierarchy.

One tree can have multiple public folder stores, if each public folder store is located on a separate server. These stores replicate tree information among themselves.

Each organization has one default tree called Public Folders (also called the MAPI public folder tree) that is compatible with the Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 public folder tree and is accessible using Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Web Access.

You can create new public folder trees (called general-purpose public folder trees) that users can access using Outlook Web Access.

Configure a public folder tree in the Folders container of the administrative group where the tree was created.

Public folder

Stored in public folder stores.

Each public folder belongs to a public folder tree. A tree can have many folders.

If the tree has many stores, you can configure which stores hold a copy of a particular folder's content.

Configure a public folder in the Folders container of the administrative group where the tree was created.

You can also access properties from the public folder store.