Why does ZCO feel the need to cache 12GB of email on my workstation?

[Baylink]

I've just had a "mail won't come in" problem on Outlook03SP3 with ZCO 6.0.4. Rebuilding the ZCO cache from scratch on the workstation finally fixed the problem, but also took about 10 hours.

Could someone explain to me in detail, in short sentences with diagrams, why it is that ZCO seems to need to cache *the entire user mailstore* on the user's workstation?

Is this Microsoft Brain Damage, whereby the "real" Exchange driver doesn't need to do it, but MS forces people building 3rd party server plugins to have to?

It's a *massive* pain in the ass. Every single thing that's gotten me yelled at by an executive since I installed Zimbra lands squarely on this point.

[Baylink]

{bumpitty bump bump bump}

[fsiegel]

ZCO uses the PST provider -- that's how Microsoft works -- it stores the data on the local machine and syncs. Did you try other methods besides having to create a new profile? Perhaps enabling logging, and having us help diagnose the problem could have saved you that trouble.

Sometimes "mail won't come in" problems have to do with other Outlook addins. Sometimes, they can be caused by corrupt entries. There are a number of ways we can solve these issues, without having to rebuild from scratch.

If you do resync, and you had logging on at that time, that would slow things down considerably.

[Klug]

Originally Posted by fsiegel

ZCO uses the PST provider -- that's how Microsoft works -- it stores the data on the local machine and syncs.

I think that, when you use Exchange (and not ZCS), you have the ability to leave all messages on the server (and not having them both on server and in the local PST).

IIRC there's a RFE about getting the same feature in ZCS/ZCO.

[fsiegel]

That stuff is built into Exchange. Not so easy for us. Same issue with our BES connector.

[Klug]

At least, now we know where the difference lies.
Thanks a lot for sharing this.

[Baylink]

Originally Posted by Klug

I think that, when you use Exchange (and not ZCS), you have the ability to leave all messages on the server (and not having them both on server and in the local PST).

IIRC there's a RFE about getting the same feature in ZCS/ZCO.

You're correct, Krug: Outlook talking to a *native* Exchange server does not need to cache the entire mailstore on the workstation in order to provide realtime service.

I'm going to attribute this one the Microsoft's traditional "let's keep for ourselves the *good* way of doing things, and provide a half-ass, broken almost-workalike for those bitchy people who don't like our stuff" behavior; I see no reason why they *couldn't* have made it possible for code like ZCO to work the "right" way, except illegal competitive "reverse-tying" disadvantage.