IT Services
Email storage
The information on this page relates to the email system for undergraduates and taught postgraduates. Staff and researchers should refer to information about the staff email and calendaring system.
The mailstore is a cluster of servers on which almost all Sussex email is delivered and stored. The mailstore is an implementation of the Cyrus IMAP model which is in increasing use around the world. It replaced the old 'Washington' mailstore system in the Spring of 2007. The new mailstore is fast and efficient, and has an independent storage allocation control system.
Your Inbox and mail folders are stored together on the mailstore, but all your other files are stored either on the N: drive or on the central Unix file server, both of which are completely separate and independent of the mailstore.
The mailstore currently comprises four servers in order to spread the operational load. They are known simply as mailstore1 through mailstore4. Two more mailstores will be installed later, totalling six. You can find out which mailstore your account is using, by logging in to the My Accounts facility.
Each user of the Sussex system has an area of reserved, protected space on the mailstore. For clarity, we will refer to your share of the mailstore as "your mailstore" in the paragraphs below.
Features of the Sussex mailstore
Mailstore structure
Your Inbox and other mail folders are directories and each email message is stored as a separate file within its folder, with a dedicated index maintained for each folder. This makes access to the mailstore fast and efficient.
INBOX size limit
Your mailstore has its own independent space allocation, or quota. The amount of email you can store, in your Inbox and your mail folders, is governed by your quota. It is very important that you manage your email effectively, and regularly delete old and unwanted mail to conserve storage space. Remember also that if you routinely keep copies of sent mail - including attachments - in a Sent mailbox, this will grow very large very quickly. Please remove unwanted copies of mail regularly from this mailbox, to avoid unnecessary wastage of storage space.
Backups
Backups of the mailstore are taken four times per day. This will improve the likelihood of recovering emails that are received and lost on the same day.
Email quota warnings
The quota system on the mailstore works by warning you whenever you have exceeded 90% of your allocated quota. This is done by your email application displaying a warning on your screen. The timing and circumstances of this warning will differ across different email applications. For example, Mulberry will show the warning whenever a folder is opened. This may prove irritating but will be an incentive for you to do something about it!
Access to your mailboxes and folders
Your INBOX, mailboxes and folders are stored on a separate, dedicated IMAP server, and the only means of accessing them is through an email application such as Mulberry, Thunderbird, Outlook etc. It is possible with these applications to download your mail folders so that you can archive them or take them with you if and when you leave the University of Sussex. FAQ 753 describes how to do this.
Sharing mailboxes
On the Cyrus mailstore, it is possible for users to share access to mailboxes. If you wish to take advantage of this facility, please contact IT Services, giving full details of why you want to share mailboxes and with whom.
Multiple mail sessions
On the Cyrus mailstore, you can have multiple simultaneous mail sessions using the same account with no ill-effects, though care has to be taken if you are using s shared mailstore, such as with a role-based account that could be used by more than one person at any time.
Possible conflicts and quirks
IT services has prepared some short Online Help Desk items to help you set your preferred email application's preferences correctly. Please click one of the links below according to which mail client you use:
'Illegal' characters in mailbox names
You may find when naming a new mailbox, that your email application warns you that one or more of the characters in the name cannot be used and you'll need to change it. Similarly, you may find that a mailbox that had contained a nonstandard character in its name, may have been changed such that the nonstandard character is replaced by an underscore character, _ , which may make the name look strange. All you need to do is rename the mailbox as you prefer.
If you have any questions about this Guide, or any aspect of the use of the mailstore, please contact us at Online Support.
Updated on 29 November 2011