General IMAP functionality

[Tarjei Huse]

tir, 02,.11.2004 kl. 11.39 -0500, skrev Warrick FitzGerald:
> Earl R Shannon wrote:
> 
> > Hello,
> >
> > Comments are imbedded below.
> >
> > Warrick FitzGerald wrote:
> >
> >> Posted this last night, but did not see it come through ... sorry 
> >> about the re-post if you have this already.
> >>
> >>
> >> ============
> >>
> >> I’m in the process of moving an office of POP3 users to IMAP, and 
> >> realized that that I don’t fully understand how things normally work.
> >>
> >> Our mail is currently hosted on an ASP basis and when a user is 
> >> running out of disk space they receive an email saying you’re running 
> >> out of space. I tested what happens on the IMAP side, and using 
> >> Mozilla Thunderbird I get a message popup saying pretty much the same 
> >> thing, but I only get this once I’ve run out of space.
> >>
> >>   1. Can I set Cyrus to prompt when the users’ mailbox reaches 90% 
> >> usage?
> >
> >     Yes. The server sends what the IMAP protocol calls an ALERT. The 
> > client is responsible for handling it accordingly. This usually means 
> > a POPUP. You'll need to look through the imapd.conf man page to see 
> > how its set.
> >
> >>   2. Is it possible to email an admin account when this happens? Many
> >>      users don’t understand how to free space on the server and need
> >>      assistance (save the comments please J ).
> >
> >      No, Not with the native software. We've written a script that
> > will go through and send a message to the user letting them know that 
> > they are filling up and generate a list of those people which then gets
> > sent to the admins.
> >
> >>
> >> Now here’s the part I don’t fully understand. As far as I can gather 
> >> you’re responsible for moving mail off the server onto you local 
> >> machine on some regular interval. Outlook seems to have this 
> >> “Archiving feature” that’s responsible for this, but I’m not sure if 
> >> this is the Microsoft way of doing things, or the right way of doing 
> >> things.
> >
> >     Yes, the user is responsible. The IMAP protocol makes not effort
> > to make this happen. Any ARCHIVE feature such as you mention is a 
> > function of the client software.
> >     
> >
> >> I don’t seem to find an “Archive” feature in Thunderbird. What am I 
> >> missing here?
> >
> >     See above. The whole point of IMAP is to store the messages
> > on the server. Keeping below an adminstratively imposed quota is the
> > users responsibility. Sadly, not all users are responsible. :)
> >
> >>
> >> Thanks
> >> Warrick
> >>
> >> ---
> >> Cyrus Home Page: http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus
> >> Cyrus Wiki/FAQ: http://cyruswiki.andrew.cmu.edu
> >> List Archives/Info: http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus/mailing-list.html
> >
> >
> > Another space issue that new IMAP users sometimes have difficulty with 
> > is the Trash model of deleting stuff. This is a client configurable 
> > thing so some people see it, others may not. But they move a message
> > to Trash when they delete and don't empty the Trash. It will still use
> > their quota.  And if they keep copies of sent messages on the Server,
> > same deal. They use quota.
> >
> > Have fun.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Earl Shannon
> 
> Thanks Earl,
> 
> That's what I was afraid of. Sounds to me like the people who aren't 
> going to "get" this concept should keep using POP3 :)

Or embrace the concept of IMAP =) 

The fact that you do not loose your mail when your disk gets lost is a
very good reason to use IMAP - that is if you backup your server. Also,
you can provide offsite access to mails via webmail and / or imap as
well as provide your users with shared folders (something mine loved). 

> 1. Does anyone have "best practices" that I can share with users on how 
> they should move mail off the server when their quota is exceeded?
I'd rather buy a bigger harddrive! How many users do you have? 50, 100, 10 000?

> 2. What is considered a reasonable quota (I know this is a very broad 
> question)? When working with POP3 I would allocate users a max of 50 MB, 
> when does a mailbox have so many messages that it puts a burden on the 
> server?
My users have a quota of 2 gb (2x gmail) on one site and 100 mb on another (with a select few having a quota of 500 mb). 

Cyrus does not have a problem with this. Reasonable quotas is something
that IMHO is a function of your budget. It is better to keep users mail
on the server that have them keep the mail localy.


Tarjei

> Thanks
> Warrick
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ---
> Cyrus Home Page: http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus
> Cyrus Wiki/FAQ: http://cyruswiki.andrew.cmu.edu
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-- 
Tarjei Huse <tarjei at nu.no>

---
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