Exchange Server Archiver - 3.0

Exchange Server Archiver

Learning Exchange Server Archiver - 3.0

Setting up rules

You set up archive rules to:

  • specify which mailboxes are to be archived

    You can apply a rule to individual mailboxes or to groups of mailboxes.

  • specify conditions that define which messages will be archived (such as 'messages over 10MB or older than 30 days')
  • specify the Archive Store to which the messages will be archived
  • set up schedules to control when messages will be processed

Note that only one rule can be active on a mailbox. However, you can create complex criteria for archiving by specifying a number of conditions within a rule. For more details, see Rule conditions.

The Archive Rules tab displays a summary of the rules you have created, and enables you to create new rules and edit existing rules.

Contents

Rule conditions
Rule precedence
New mailbox rule inheritance
Example: creating exceptions to group rules
Example: excluding mailboxes from a group rule
Scheduling rules
Running a rule immediately

Rule conditions

When you create a rule, you can select New Rule to create a rule from scratch, or New from Template to create a rule that has some conditions already preset that you can then edit.

A simple rule could contain just one condition, such as archive messages that are older than 90 days which uses the Age template.

You may want to set up a rule that will archive messages under a number of different conditions. You can do this by clicking Add condition and selecting a new condition.

In the example below, messages are will be archived if they are older than 120 days or if they are older than 30 days and larger than 5 MB.

You can also use the All messages condition to ensure that all messages in a mailbox are archived, or No messages to ensure that messages in a mailbox are never archived; see Example: excluding mailboxes from a group rule for an example of this.

Rule precedence

Only one rule can be active on a mailbox at any one time; if more than one rule is applied to a mailbox:

  • a rule that is applied using the Active Directory tree takes priority over a rule that has been applied using the Exchange organization tree
  • the rule that is most specifically applied is used

For example, if you apply Rule A to First storage Group, this is inherited by all mailboxes within that group. This is displayed in the Rule column on the dashboard.

If you then create Rule B and apply it to mailbox 3 only:

...Rule B overrides Rule A because it is more specific:

This is also shown in the mailbox properties:

It does not matter in which order you create the rules; the most specific rule always takes precedence.

You can use rule precedence to exclude individual mailboxes from a group rule; see Example: excluding mailboxes from a group rule.

Note that you cannot have two rules applied to the same group or mailbox at the same level; if you apply Rule C to mailbox 1 and then you apply Rule D to mailbox 1, Rule C is automatically changed so that it no longer applies to mailbox 1.

New mailbox rule inheritance

When you apply a rule to a group, such as a storage group, a DAG, or an Active Directory folder, any new mailboxes that are added to that group in Exchange automatically inherit the group's rule.

If, however, you select individual mailboxes in a group rather than applying the rule at group level, new mailboxes that are added subsequently do not inherit a rule and will not be archived unless you explicitly apply a rule.

Therefore, if you want a rule to be inherited when you add mailboxes, it is best to create a group rule. You can then create individual rules for any mailboxes within the group that you do not want to use the group rule.

Note that in Exchange Server Archiver, domains and subdomains are all considered to be at the top-level; therefore, if you add a subdomain, the mailboxes in the subdomain will not inherit rules from the parent domain.

If you select a group containing a large number of mailboxes, to ensure that you have not exceeded your mailbox entitlement, on the Help menu, click Licensing Status.

Example: creating exceptions to group rules

In this example, you have a company policy that specifies that messages must be archived at least every 90 days, but a graphic designer in your marketing department often receives messages with large attachments so you want to archive his mailbox more frequently.

  1. Create a rule for the company using the Age template, and on the Conditions tab specify Messages older than 90 days.
  2. On the Applies to tab, select the top level check box to apply the rule to all users in the company.
  3. Specify the name, archive store, and schedule, and click OK.
  4. Create a new rule for the graphic designer using the Age template, and on the Conditions tab specify Messages older than 90 days.
  5. Click Add Condition, select the Age and Size condition, and specify Messages older than 14 days and larger than 5 MB.

    This rule will archive any messages that are older than 90 days. It will also archive any messages that are older than 14 days and larger than 5 MB.

  6. On the Applies to tab, select the check box to apply the rule to the graphic designer's mailbox.
  7. Specify the name, archive store, and schedule, and click OK.

The company rule will act on all mailboxes except the graphic designer's mailbox, and any new mailboxes that are added to the company group will inherit this rule. The individual rule will act only on the graphic designer's mailbox, and will ensure that large messages are archived after 14 days.

Example: excluding mailboxes from a group rule

There may be occasions on which you do not want a mailbox within a group to be archived at all. For example, you may want to set up a global company rule, but you do not want the mailbox for a resource to be archived. To do this:

  1. Create the global rule, and apply it to the company group.
  2. Create a new rule, and on the Conditions tab under Add condition, select No messages.
  3. Delete any other conditions by clicking
  4. On the Applies to tab, select the mailbox for the resource.
  5. Complete the details for the rule.

    (Although the rule will not archive messages, you must select an Archive Store and a schedule to complete the rule setup.)

The company rule will act on all mailboxes except the resource's mailbox, and any new mailboxes that are added to the company group will inherit the company rule. The individual rule will ensure that messages in the resource's mailbox are never archived.

Scheduling rules

When you create a rule you can set up a schedule, for example to run the rule weekly.

Rule Schedule tab

You should ensure that your archive rule schedules do not coincide with any Archive Store backup schedules. If an archive occurs while you are backing up, the database file could be inconsistent with the archived messages in the backup. For more information about backing up Archive Stores, see Backing up Archive Stores.

You can specify the length of time for which you want the archive task to run. The default time is 3 hours. If the archive task has not completed at the end of the specified time, messages that match the archive rule but have not yet been processed remain unarchived. The next archive run starts again at the first mailbox. If the archive process repeatedly does not complete, mailboxes at the end of the archive process will remain unarchived and you are recommended to extend the time for which you want the archive task to run.

If you want the archive process to run until it has processed all messages that match the archive rule, clear the Stop processing messages check box.

Note that the first archive run using a particular rule will take longer than subsequent archive runs using the same rule.

Running a rule immediately

When you create a rule, the next occurrence of the task is displayed in the Scheduled Tasks tab. If you want to run the rule immediately:

  • in the Scheduled Tasks tab, right-click the task and click Run Now
  • or, in the Archive Rules tab, right-click the rule and click Run Rule

To run tasks associated with all rules, on the Archiving menu, click Run All Rules Now.

Keywords: rule, archive rule, run now, precedence, inheritance

See also

Using the Admin Console

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