Difference between revisions of "Retain Exchange"

Revision as of 15:56, 28 October 2015

Exchange is a cluster of roles on one or more servers that transfers messages.

The major roles are:

• DNS (Domain Name Server)
• AD DS (Active Directory Directory Services)
• CAS (Client Access Server)
• Exchange Mailbox Server

The Name Server resolves which server is doing what role. It is very important that Retain and the Exchange servers all point to the same one so the domains are all resolved correctly.

Active Directory organizes the domains, users and computers of the network so they have the proper rights. Mainly that the Retain user has ApplicationImpersonation rights.

The CAS is the front door of the network, it sends requests from the users to the proper place in the network, in the case of Retain it is access to the mailbox database.

The Exchange Mailbox Server hosts the database(s) that stores the users messages.

How It Works

Overview of Retain's Access to Exchange

Autodiscover: How Retain Connects to Your Exchange Mailboxes

When Retain archives from Exchange it uses the Impersonation User aka Global Catalog User to enter Active Directory (AD) to find a user.

We enter Exchange in one of four ways:

• LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)
• SCP (Service Connection Point)
• EWS (Exchange Web Services)
• Autodiscover

In that user it searches for the user's homeMDB (homeMailboxDataBase) and uses that to link to the homeMDBBL object in AD. From there it gets the current list of mailboxes in the mail server's database.

Retain will go to the first user in that list and using ApplicationImpersonation rights. It will get the list of folders for the first user and then will process the messages.

Exchange Limitations

Exchange has certain stated limitations [1], but even in cases where there are no stated limits, there are practical limitations you are going to reach.

“I usually recommend no more than about 2500 - 5000 messages in any of the critical path folders. The critical path folders are the Calendar, Contacts, Inbox, and Sent Item folder. Ideally, keep the Inbox, Contacts and Calendar to 1000 or less. Other folders, particularly custom folders created by the user, can handle having larger numbers of items without having a broad impact on the user experience (20,000 items in my "Cookie Recipes" folder? No problem - except when I need to find that recipe from last Christmas!).” [2]

Attempting to send the Enron dataset to a user >500,000 message cause the test system to have issues at ~125,000 messages.

Like many computer systems it works best when it is lightly loaded which in the case of Exchange means keeping as few messages the mailbox database as is practical and since the vast majority of messages are never viewed again after they are initially received it makes sense to get them out of the system.

The average user receives 120 emails a day, 260 days of the year or 31,200 messages a year.

Exchange Module On-Premise

The Exchange servers are on your organization's property somewhere. You have full control over them.

Exchange Module Office365

Your organization had decided to host your email system with Microsoft on Microsoft's servers and you have little control over them.

Exchange Installation

• Installing Windows Server 2012 R2
• Installing Exchange 2013 for a lab enviroment
• Installing Standalone CAS for Exchange 2013
• Installing Retain on Windows
• Retain Outlook Web Access 2013 Plugin
• Retain Outlook 2013 Plugin

Exchange Archive Strategies

Exchange Archiving Strategies

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting Exchange

PowerShell Commands

Powershell Commands

Bug Watch

These are important bugs/enhancements to watch for:

Exchange

• Bug 7128 - Excel files throw error when opened from Retain in IE ASSIGNED
• Bug 7738 - When archiving a journaling mailbox some messages are not deleted but logs showing deletion command sent Need Info
• 9481 - Slow entering of Exchange mailboxes NEED INFO
• 8860 - Outlook Web Plugin opens only the top 85 pixel rows of the Retain user interface ASSIGNED
• 9330 - Errors and slow throughput when Mailbox Audit Logging is enabled in Exchange REOPENED

Office 365

• Bug 8629 - Need to support Hybrid Exchange environments ASSIGNED
• 8988 - Connection to O365 is failing during job NEED INFO

Other

• 7281 - Deletion jobs are not deleting all desired data - getting a "PREVENTLOOP - ABORT" message CLOSED FIXED
• 5914 - Deletion Management Report shows messages which should not be eligible for deletion CLOSED WONT FIX
• 4842 - localization for french does not work REOPENED
• 5595 - Deleted Users still persists in default Groups ASSIGNED
• 6293 - Migrated calendar items don't display the organizer and the invitees ASSIGNED

Field Test Files

• Patches

Back to Retain Module Configuration