1.3.1 Private and Public Stores

The client can log on to a private user mailbox for access to that user's mailbox data (folders, messages, and attachments). Once logged on, the client can use this protocol to perform operations on that mailbox. The client can also simultaneously log on to another user'' mailboxes and, granted sufficient permissions by that other user, access that user's mailbox data as well as perform operations on the mailbox. Additionally, the client can simultaneously log on to a public folder message store.

The content within an entire private mailbox is confined to a single server. The client determines which server to log on to from global directory data about the user. If the mailbox has been moved to another server, then an attempt to log on to the wrong server results in an error response from the server, along with a return value providing guidance about which server to try next.

Move mailbox is an administrative operation during which a mailbox is moved from one server mailbox database to another server mailbox database. The client interacts with the server during and after the move mailbox operation to determine the location of the source and destination servers that hold the mailbox databases.

The content within the public folders message store is typically spread across many different containers and is replicated among those containers. A container can be a mailbox or a database. The client determines which public folder container to log on to by using the global directory information about the user. All of the containers that host public folders contain a complete copy of the folder hierarchy of the public folders message store. However, a specific container does not have to contain the contents of any particular public folder. The set of containers with content for a specific folder are said to be content replicas for that folder. If the client attempts to read folder content from a container that is not a content replica for that folder, it will result in an error response from the server. The client is then able to use the operations described in this protocol to discover which containers have content replicas for the folder. After making that determination, the client then logs on to one of those containers to read or update the content for that public folder.