It is the beginning of a new year, which is the perfect time for email admins to make (and keep, this time) some new year’s resolutions for improving the upkeep of their email systems, which in turn will improve the uptime of their email systems, which in a perfect world would lead to an uptick in their salaries. Okay, maybe that is a bit more optimistic than realistic, but hard work is its own reward, right?

Okay, how about this…an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and taking these steps now will help ensure a well run system for the upcoming year. If that sounds more palatable to you, then begin by making a resolution to have fewer issues this year with your email system. Here are # great ways to begin.

1. Delete old mailboxes

Remember those eight former employees whose mailboxes should have been deleted months ago, but the manager asked if you could please just leave them for a little bit longer? Unless there is a legal hold in place, dump the contents to PST and get rid of them. That, or start making chargebacks for the space.

2. Reallocate mailboxes to match storage needs

Business units reorg, employees change roles, different roles need different storage limits, and DR plans change. Some users’ mailboxes may not be on the right store for their current role. Take stock now, and move mailboxes around as necessary to match your current situation. And don’t forget to perform an offline defragmentation of your datastores when you are done.

3. Purge old logs

Don’t violate any security policy on log retention, but dump any logs that are so old you don’t recognize the names of the users. Right now, they are just taking up space.

4. Resize drives that are low on space

Those of you running email servers on virtual machines (and you know who you are) probably walk a tightrope line between adequate free space and system errors. Take the time now to resize those drives so that this year you can be 2013 free.

5. Catch up on patches

Even the best of us may fall behind on patches. By now, and ‘issues’ with patches and service packs should have shaken out, so get caught up…at least through November 2010.

6. Review distribution lists

Whether internal or external, review all D/Ls to make sure memberships are appropriate. People change jobs, business reorg, and you should make sure at least once a year that all D/Ls are correct. If you have assigned owners to these lists, send the task over to them and set a deadline.

7. Review delegated access

Speaking of changes, make sure that all delegated access is correct. Whether we are talking about “send as” or “send on behalf of” you want to make sure that the folks don’t maintain access to mailboxes they no longer should be accessing.

8. Make the switch to SPF “hard fail”

Not using SPF records? Go read this post, and start now. If you are, then make 2011 the year of the “hard fail.”

9. Test your restores

While this shouldn’t have to be said, we all know that this is one of the first things to get pushed off when staffing is tight and task lists are long. Go test your restores now to be sure that, should disaster strike, you can actually bring back data from tape.

10. Test your UPS/backup power

Since you are taking the servers down anyway to patch them, stop their boot sequence at the BIOS and make sure your UPS systems can keep the servers running. While you are in the BIOS, it can’t hurt to review those settings too. What made sense ages ago when the servers were deployed might not today.

11. Test your DR

Hopefully you do this anyway, but just in case this isn’t something you do as an annual exercise, test your email system’s DR by bringing the secondary units online and verifying all inbound and outbound email, and client access, all work.

Resolve now to take care of all of these points, and start this new year off with your email system in top condition.

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