System Requirements

Hardware

The calculator below helps to specify the hardware needs subject to the number of users, stored email, and the archiving strategy.

Calculations are based on the following base values:

• Yearly Email Volume per User: 10000
• Email Size: 75Kb
• Compression Ratio: 60%

Total Number of Users
Total Number of Instances
Years of Email Data
Archiving Strategy	Journal or Multidrop Archiving  Mailbox Archiving

Important notice: Ensure that the SSD drives to be used are designed for operation in database servers.

Processor (Cores/Threads)		/
Main Memory
Disk Space	Operating System
	Databases
	Search Indexes
	Content
	Total
Network Bandwidth			1000 Mbit/s

Software

Operating System

MailStore Server, MailStore Client and MailStore Outlook Add-in require the following operating systems for installation and execution. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are supported.

• Microsoft Windows 10
• Microsoft Windows 8.1
• Microsoft Windows 7 SP1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (Essentials, Standard, Datacenter)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (Foundation, Essentials, Standard, Datacenter)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (Foundation, Essentials, Standard, Datacenter)
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011 SP1
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008 SP2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter)

Other Software

The following other software is required:

• Microsoft .NET Framework Version 4.5.1
• Optional: IFilter driver on the MailStore Server computer for filetypes to be indexed

Outlook Versions

MailStore Outlook Add-in is compatible with the following versions of Microsoft Outlook for Windows. Both, 32-bit and 64-bit versions are supported.

• Microsoft Outlook 2019 (Click-to-Run only, Windows Store version is not supported)
• Microsoft Outlook 2016 as component for Office 365 (Click-to-Run)
• Microsoft Outlook 2016
• Microsoft Outlook 2013 as component for Office 365 (Click-to-Run)
• Microsoft Outlook 2013
• Microsoft Outlook 2010 (Click-to-Run is not supported)
• Microsoft Outlook 2007
• Microsoft Outlook 2003

Important Notice: Outlook 2003 and 2007 are no longer maintained by Microsoft. Therefore, we are only able to ensure limited compatibility and thus provide limited technical support for Outlook 2003 and 2007. Information in this document regarding MailStore's capabilities towards Outlook 2003 and 2007 is no longer maintained and may no longer be up-to-date. Furthermore, we reserve the right to partially as well as completely remove support for Outlook 2003 and 2007 in a future MailStore update.

Web Browsers

The following web browsers are officially supported by MailStore Web Access. Other browsers based on the same rendering engine as the once below (e.g. Opera) may work as well.

Operating System / Browser	Edge	IE 11	Firefox (Latest)	Chrome (Latest)	Safari 10	Safari 11
Windows 10	Supported	Supported	Supported	Supported
Windows 8.1		Supported	Supported	Supported
Windows 7 (SP1)		Supported	Supported	Supported
Mac OS X (10.8 and later)			Supported	Supported	Supported	Supported
Linux			Supported	Supported

Frequently Asked Questions

Email Volume

Q: How do large email volumes affect the performance and what is recommended maximum?

A: The more emails are archived on a daily basis the more resources are required and more time is needed to execute certain tasks such as searching the archive. Environment with much higher volumes than 10000 emails per user per year, may experience degraded performance over time.

Dedicated machine

Q: Can I install MailStore Server on the same computer where Microsoft Exchange or any other email server is installed or do I have to install it on a dedicated machine?

A: Primarily this depends on the size of your setup, the archiving strategy and the kind of usage. Whenever possible MailStore Server should be installed on a dedicated machine.

Database server

Q: Most email archiving products on the market seem to require Microsoft SQL Server or a similar product installed. Does MailStore Server also require an external database server?

A: MailStore Server comes with an embedded database and does not depend on any other external database server.

Web server

Q: Do I need an additional web server like Microsoft IIS or Apache to offer MailStore Web Access to my clients?

A: No. MailStore Server runs its own HTTP server on the corresponding TCP ports. Therefore you do not need an additional web server to use MailStore Web Access.

Anti-Virus Software

F: What needs to be considered while using anti-virus software with MailStore?

A: When using file based virus scanners, it is recommended to exclude all archive directories (master database and archive stores) from scanning. If the virus scanner also scans network connections, especially SMTP, POP3 and IMAP as well as HTTP/HTTPS connections, you must fully uninstall the product and reboot the machine in case any occurring archiving problems such as timeouts.

Virtualization

Q: Is it possible to run MailStore Server on virtual machines like VMWare guests or similar?

A: Yes it is possible, as long as the underlying operating system supports it, there is no problem running MailStore Server inside a virtualized environment.

Terminal Server environments

Q: Is it possible to run MailStore in a terminal server environment?

A: Yes, running MailStore Client and MailStore Outlook Add-in is absolutely possible. Running MailStore Server itself on a terminal server is not recommended.

Network Attached Storage

Q: Do I have to store the archive on the local hard disk, or can I also store it (or parts of it) on network attached storage, e.g. a network share?

A: Since version 4.0, MailStore supports the storage on NAS (Network Attached Storage) systems. To use MailStore with storage on a NAS, different options are available. Those are described in the article Using Network Attached Storage (NAS). In general, local storage is to to be preferred over network storage. Latter is more suitable as a target for the integrated backup function.

Note: A storage system attached via FibreChannel or iSCSI is called Storage Area Network-storage (SAN). SAN-storage is used like a local disk, so that no further configuration is needed to run MailStore Server on it.