Withholding mail from users who exceed quota

Quota controls enable the Router to selectively hold or reject mail if the destination mail file has exceeded its quota. When the Router has new mail to deliver to a user whose mail file is already full, it checks the Configuration Settings document to determine the appropriate action. By default the Router continues to deliver mail, even after a mail file exceeds its quota. To change the default behavior, you must configure the Router to refuse or hold mail.

When delivering mail to a user's mail file, the Router checks the mail file's size. If the file will remain within the specified threshold after delivery of the message, no action is taken.

The Router recognizes certain exceptions to the specified quota setting. For example, users who are over quota continue to receive over quota notifications from the Router, regardless of the current setting. However, if the Router is configured to Hold and Retry, all messages are held, and the owner of the mail file receives no further notifications until the size of the mail file is reduced or the administrator takes action to allow messages to be delivered.

To prevent an excessive number of messages from accumulating in MAIL.BOX when you choose the Hold and Retry method of enforcing quota violations, it's best to have Domino® calculate database size based on usage, rather than file size. This is especially true on servers where transaction logging is enabled, because users cannot reduce the size of their mail files without assistance from an administrator.

Limiting the size and number of messages held for retry

If you set the Router to temporarily hold mail intended for users whose mail files exceed the specified quota, the increased number of pending messages can increase the size of MAIL.BOX and decrease Router performance. To help ensure service quality, you can limit the number of pending messages.

You can also specify the maximum size of messages that the Router will hold. If a message is larger than the configured size, it is returned to the sender as undeliverable, rather than held.

Restrictions do not apply to sent messages

Router enforcement of mail file quotas is limited to withholding new mail from users who exceed their quotas. The Router continues to accept outgoing mail from whose mail files are full. However, these users are not able to save any messages to mail files on the server.

When a user who exceeds the configured warning threshold or quota sends a message from an Notes® client, the client displays a warning, but the user can still send the message.