There's no rest for the wicked. Or the SysAdmin, it seems. Either your infrastructure is evolving, your pesky users are throwing spanners in the works, or your first visit to a new client reveals a mind-bending mess of policies and PST files which would make M.C Escher's head spin.

Take a moment and ask yourself how much time you spend just trying to figure out what your Exchange environment looks like, who has the largest mailboxes, and where in your network PST files have been squirreled away. Then consider how tedious it is to deal with that mess manually (or worse still, imagine the pain of relying on users to help you out - just ask Sean Duffy.)

You can tackle both of these mind-numbing tasks quickly & easily with two free tools from Red Gate. The Exchange Mailbox Sizer tool (which was built in a week by caffeine-fuelled geniuses) will tell you the size and structure of your information stores, complete with detailed visual breakdowns of the data, and then it will show you how much space you could save by archiving. This is vital information when you're in front of managers. Next, the PST Importer tool (built by the same team, and currently in EAP) will tell you exactly where on your network PST files are stored, and help you to smoothly take control of them with minimal impact on your network and users.

These are two key components for making the life of a SysAdmin hassle-free. Between them, they'll let you examine and manage your Exchange environment with a minimum of fuss, and for the best price around - nothing.