Outlook 2010 PST is supported over network share with VHD and Hosted Shared desktop

I have discussed in the past about deploying how to deploy desktop using flexcast model. Now major application is email client outlook. When we talked about outlook then we should also talk about PST and OST. Exchange has limited mailbox size and IT policy expects you to maintain your own PST . There is also archiving or backup solution.


In such situation you are provided with home drive where you have to dump PST . Since you are on VHD (VM hosted desktop ) or HSD (Hosted Shared desktop ) , you have to provide this home drive either via DFS/CIFS. In either situation you will be storing PST or OST over network. Most of the time people have a question and also knows the answer : PST is not supported over network share. This answer comes from following article directly or indirectly from Microsoft .

1. From Askperf team (Let me admit , I am the biggest fan of this blog)

http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/01/21/network-stored-pst-files-don-t-do-it.aspx

2. Microsoft KB

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019/

After reading above you will sure that you will be start hunting for alternate solutions like increasing mailbox size/Mail archiving solution or providing locally attach storage to each users so that they can store PST minus network and get MS support it.

But let me tell Microsoft following KB’s has something else to say:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=776e5d50-d35a-483a-a3e5-99944f4bae42

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019  .

In middle of this article it says

Outlook 2010 hosted remotely by using Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) configuration

Network access of .pst and .ost files is a supported scenario in Outlook 2010 if the following conditions are true:

• A high bandwidth/low latency network connection is used.

• There is single client access per file (one Outlook client per .pst).

• Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) are used.

Network scalability guidance that is specific to this configuration can be found in the "Cached Exchange Mode in a Remote Desktop Session Host environment: planning considerations (Outlook 2010)" white paper. Although this document specifically refers to Exchange Cached Mode, the scalability metrics should also apply to other Outlook configurations, assuming the criteria that are mentioned in the preceding list are met.

Yes you heard correctly PST is supported on network share if you meet above three criteria.