How to Create a New Mailbox in Exchange Management Console

In this article we are going to see how we can create a new mailbox in Exchange 2010 server using Exchange Management Console, which will hold all users’ data.

Introduction:

As we have seen in our previous article in this series that user mailbox is like a container that get stored in the user mailbox database. All users will connect their mailbox with the help of the client side tools, namely Outlook, Outlook Anywhere, Outlook Web Access, ActiveSync and so on. In Outlook, there is an option to save all the data locally like how it got stored in Exchange database. It is called Cached mode and the Local database for outlook is called OST file. In case of any disaster, we can convert OST to PST using recovery tools to recover the data. In order to connect to Exchange, user should have a dedicated mailbox in the server.

Using Exchange Management Console:

In Exchange management console (EMC), we can create a user mailbox under Recipient Configuration section. In order to open EMC, Go to “Start” –> “All programs” –> “Microsoft Exchange Server 2010” –> “Exchange Management Console”. You need to expand Microsoft Exchange on-premises (Exchange) and expand Recipient configuration. Please click on Mailbox. In this section we can see all our user’s mailboxes. In order to create a new one, click “New Mailbox” under Action menu at the right end top.

In the User Mailbox window, you can see four different types of mailbox option. Each has its own purpose.

1. User Mailbox: This is going to be the real user mailbox which will be linked to an Active Directory User account. For example if we wanted to create a mailbox for User A, we will use this option.
2. Room Mailbox: Mostly this will be used to create a mailbox for any conference rooms. If you wanted to book a meeting schedule for any specific meeting room, then blocking its calendar during that time will let the other users know that it will be occupied during that certain time.
3. Equipment Mailbox: This is similar to room mailbox, however it is for any equipment that you wanted to book for certain time. Both room and equipment mailbox’s user account will be in disabled state so no one can login using any client, however can open it in their client with full access which we will see in detail in our upcoming articles.
4. Linked Mailbox: If you have trust connectivity between two Active Directory forests then you can create a user account in one forest and its mailbox in other forest using this option.

Let’s select User mailbox and click “Next” button. In the next section, we can see an option to either create a new user account or select an existing one. If you already have a user account in your Active Directory then you can select existing user option and select that account (Only accounts which does not have any mailbox associate to it will be displayed here). Since I do not have any user account, I am going to create one now.

In the User Information, we need to fill all the requirement information. We also have an option to select the Organizational Unit that we wanted to have the account in place.

In the next section, we have an option to select in which mailbox database we need to place this mailbox. Since we have only one database currently, leaving the option blank will select that default database. If you have multiple database, then you can select one here. Similar to that, if you wanted to associate any specific address book policy, retention period, you can also do so here.

Next window will give you an option to select whether this user needed to have an archive mailbox. Archive mailbox concept is introduced in Exchange server 2010. Till 2007 server, if anyone wanted to archive the content, then they have to use PST option in their Outlook. Big disadvantage in this method is it will be stored in a specific machine. So it cannot be access across all devices that we are using. This archive mailbox feature will resolve that issue. Please remember it needs a Client Access License in order to create one.

In configuration summary, make sure you have entered everything correctly and click new.

Now we can see the mailbox in the console.

Conclusion:

We have seen how to create a mailbox in Exchange management console in this article. We can see how to do the same in Exchange Management Shell (EMS) in the next article.

Author Introduction:

Sophia Mao is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including outlook recovery and word recovery software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com