Public Folder Server

By default, every server in your site can maintain public folders. You can, however, dedicate a server in the site to maintain all public folders. You can use the Administrator program to delete either the public or the private information store if you want to dedicate the server to a particular role. A site can have one or more public folder servers.

One or more servers can use the same public folder server. Dedicating a server to public folders provides the following advantages:

• Reduction in memory, CPU, and disk requirements on the mailbox server.
• Simpler planning and administration of servers.
• Improved performance in mail delivery.
• Easier back up of public folders.

When choosing a public folder server, consider disk type, disk space, and future expandability. The public information store should be on a fast, striped drive for best performance. Also consider increasing the RAM and CPU power of this server, especially if the public folders are large, searched and sorted, and replicated to other servers.