PST ingestion automatically discovers PST files on network shares and adds them to either a user mailbox or a journal mailbox so that the PST files are included in mailbox backups.
Problems with Backing Up PSTs on Network Shares
Backing up and restoring personal folders that are on network shares rather than on the email server can pose the various challenges. If PST files are not ingested, and are backed up on network shares instead of on the email server, the need for storage space increases rapidly, critical data in the files is unprotected and might be damaged or lost, and the organization might be out of compliance with data retention regulations.
Benefits of PST Ingestion
-
Ingested PSTs are stored in a shared folder. You can organize this folder by creating folders in it, and naming them with user names or with SMTP addresses.
-
Ingested PSTs are merged directly into Exchange Mailbox archive data so that users can search or browse all the data together.
-
Only new PSTs or PSTs that were modified since the last job are backed up.
-
Corrupted PST files are skipped without terminating the PST ingestion job.
-
If the PST ingestion process cannot identify the owner of a PST, then the process assigns an owner.
-
PSTs can be ingested from loose folders or a folder structure based on user names or SMTP addresses.
-
PSTs can be ingested from file servers or users laptop backups without manual intervention.
-
PSTs can be associated with mailboxes by folder name, file owner, laptop owner or to a default owner.
-
PST messages can be placed in the associated mailbox in a configurable folder structure.
-
Job restart ability is available at the PST level
-
PST messages can be restored to the associated mailbox, back to a PST file or MSG file.
-
PST messages can be accessed from the Web Console and Outlook Add-In with ContentStore.
-
PSTs can be associated with non-mailbox users.
-
PSTs can be ingested without an Exchange environment.