Exchange Server 2007 Standard Edition - Unlimited Database size???

In Exchange Server 2007, we made some major changes to the Standard Edition of the product as it relates to the database support.  Just a little history first ...  In Exchange Server 2003, Standard Edition supported 2 Databases in 1 Storage Group (1 Mailbox Database and 1 Public Folder Database).  The size limitation was 16 GB for each prior to SP2.  With the advent of Exchange Server 2003 SP2, the Standard Edition Database size was increased to 75 GB.  Upon installing SP2, the Database size actually increased to 18 GB by default.  Exchange Administrators had to edit a registry as defined in this article: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6c4ce7bb-5289-4221-a87c-b9c78ab7c09c.aspx.

With the introduction of Exchange Server 2007, we made some changes to the Standard Edition so that we now support up to 5 Databases and up to 5 Storage Groups with Standard Edition.  Each of these Databases has a size limit of 16 TB (considered "unlimited" for all intense and purposes).  This is great news, right??  I think so as do quite a few of our customers.

So why am I writing this post???  It would seem that the default installation of Exchange Server 2007 Standard Edition does not immediately start off with this "unlimited" size.  It actually has a default limit of 50 GB per Database.  The Exchange Administrator would still need to edit the registry as defined in the same article I referenced for Exchange Server 2003 (here it is again just to be safe: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6c4ce7bb-5289-4221-a87c-b9c78ab7c09c.aspx).

Harold Wong
harold.wong@microsoft.com