Issues With UNC Paths for Archive, Message Storage, etc.

IMPORTANT NOTE: UNC is NOT an ideal solution for use in archiving or other types of "off server" storage. SmarterTools strongly recommends using ISCSI or SAN as they are far more efficient for communication and allow for a higher amount of disk i/o that's necessary for any email server.

When configuring SmarterMail to use a UNC path (e.g., \\StorageDrive\Archive) or similar shared drive location as the message archive destination, domain and mail data storage location, etc. you may receive errors when saving the path changes. You may also have an issue where you're not able to successfully use these locations for storage purposes. The root cause of this issue is a permissions issue, and likely will not occur on networks where domain authentication is present and configured. To correct this issue you'll need to adjust the SmarterMail service to utilize a logon account that has permissions to the remote storage location.

The user account used should have FULL CONTROL over the mapped drive or UNC path, and a strong password should be set. Additionally, this account should be added to the ADMINISTRATORS group in Windows on the SmarterMail server. Once this has been done, use the following settings to adjust the permissions used by the SmarterMail service:
 
1 Log in to the SmarterMail server as an administrator.
2. Open the Windows Services console. (Start>Run>SERVICES.EXE)
3. Locate the SmarterMail service. First, right-click and Stop the service. Then, right-click it and choose Properties.
4. Switch to the LOG ON tab, and select THIS ACCOUNT.
5. Complete the username/password fields with the account that has permissions on the storage drive.
6. When finished, click APPLY and restart the SmarterMail system service to have the changes take affect.

Once this has been completed, you should now be able to configure your UNC path or other storage drive location for domain storage locations, spool or log storage purposes, message archival paths, etc.