Sherpa Archive Attender. Product Information Guide Version 3.5

Transcription

1 Sherpa Archive Attender Product Information Guide Version 3.5 Last updated May 28, 2010

2 Table of Contents Introduction 3 Benefits 4 Reduce Installation and Deployment Time 4 Recover Space on the Exchange server 4 Comply With Legal Obligations and Government Regulations 4 Easily Provide Users Access to Archives with No Client Installation 4 Search All s 5 Eliminate PST Files 5 No Installation Required on the Exchange server 5 Product Overview 6 Product Architecture 6 Archive Attender Administrator Console 7 Managing Users in Archive Attender 7 Archive Attender Policies 9 Archiving by Mailbox Quotas 10 Archive Attender Logging 10 Product Licensing 11 Product Features 12 Generating Policy Reports 12 Viewing Archived in.msg and HTML Formats 12 Single Instancing Duplicate s 14 Archive File Format 15 Searching the Archives 16 User Search Views 17 Outlook Integration 18 User Access to Archives 18 Allowing Users to Archive Messages 20 Importing from PST Files 21 Common Questions 22 Product Details 25 Product History 25 Releases 25 Supported Versions 25 Summary 25 Contact Information 25 Under the copyright laws, neither the documentation nor the software can be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated or reduced to any electronic medium of machine-readable form, in whole or in part, without the written consent of Everest Software, except in the manner described in the software agreement. Copyright 2010 Everest Software L.P. d.b.a. Sherpa Software Partners L.P. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States. Archive Attender, Mail Attender and Attender Utilities are registered trademarks of Everest Software L.P. Microsoft, Exchange and Outlook are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Lotus, Lotus Notes and Domino are either trademarks or registered trademarks of the Lotus Development Corporation.

3 Introduction The explosive growth of corporate usage has been well documented. This translates to an increasing challenge for administrators who are trying to keep the server running efficiently. Backups are also a problem, as an inflated mail database leads to increasingly longer times to capture the data. A common remedy is to restrict user storage by enforcing mailbox quota limits. However, this generally leads to the proliferation of PST files a difficult to manage and decentralized storage system. Current trends seem to further deepen these problems for Exchange administrators. Sherpa Software offers a solution in Archive Attender. Archive Attender is an administrator-driven utility that can be used to quickly, and with minimum effort, archive messages and attachments from Microsoft Exchange servers and network-accessible PST files to a separate storage device. Archive Attender extends the capabilities of Sherpa Software s current suite of Attender Utilities for Exchange, specializing in content management, policy enforcement and discovery within Exchange servers and PST files. With its easy to use policy-based architecture, Archive Attender provides administrators with the ability to archive items from mailboxes and PST files (with criteria based on sender, age, date, size, subject or user) to a network-accessible storage device. Administrators, when archiving messages, have the option of replacing the original message body and attachments with a stub. Stubs contain a link allowing the user to quickly access the original message from the archive. Also, users ability to search and recover their archived messages from within Outlook can be controlled using configuration settings available within the administrator console of the application. The data removed from mailboxes and PST files is stored as a zipped.msg file in specialized file shares called Archive Locations which can be located on any network-accessible storage device. The Microsoft.MSG file format, which is native to Outlook, contains the content and attachments of the original message and may be indexed to facilitate quick search and retrieval of the archived data. Page 3

4 Benefits Reduce Installation and Deployment Time Archive Attender features a streamlined application architecture that can be installed and operational very quickly. The management console is very intuitive, dramatically shortening the learning curve for new administrators. This, coupled with the fact that the product requires no additional database or hardware components, allows new customers to roll out the product to a production environment in very little time. Recover Space on the Exchange server With the rapid growth of electronic mail coupled with users habit of using mailboxes as personal file cabinets, organizations must cope with increasingly large databases. Common problems associated with these large mail stores include the need for additional hardware and delays with backups. By using Archive Attender, administrators can control the size of the data by moving messages and/or attachments to less-expensive external storage. Comply With Legal Obligations and Government Regulations With Archive Attender, administrators have the ability to secure and protect corporate knowledge by archiving important data. Archiving policies may be used to locate and retrieve critical documents and move them to a safe and secure location. All message and attachment content stored in the archive location can be indexed and searched quickly and efficiently. If Exchange journaling is enabled, then Archive Attender can be configured to remove all, or a subset of, messages from the journal mailbox. In organizations that must adhere to regulatory or legislative compliance policies, journaling provides a mechanism to ensure that an unadulterated copy of each incoming and outgoing message is captured and stored. These messages may also be indexed and can be searched and recovered using the Archive Attender administrator console. Easily Provide Users Access to Archives with No Client Installation One of the key features of Archive Attender is the ability for the administrator to control users access to their archives without installing any components on the users computers. When archiving messages, administrators can select the option to leave a stub of the message in its original folder location. This stub, or placeholder, contains a link that the user may click on to view a copy of the originally archived message within an Outlook window or web browser. Administrators may authorize the creation of an Archive Search folder within user s mailboxes. When clicking on this specialized folder in Outlook, a user receives a search screen allowing them to find and view previously archived messages. Additionally, administrators may grant individual users the ability to restore or delete messages from their own archives. Finally, in cases where a user is required to search someone else s archives, the product permits the creation of User Search Views allowing this type of delegated search via a similar folder created within Outlook. Page 4

5 Search All s By using Archive Attender, administrators have the option of indexing messages and attachments while they are archived. This ensures quick, efficient and comprehensive searching of all content being moved from Exchange mailboxes or PST files into the archive. Eliminate PST Files Archiving is an effective strategy for eliminating PST files. With Archive Attender, an administrator can move all content from network-based PST files into the archive for long-term storage. During the import process, administrators may select from 4 different actions for the original message: 1. Message stubs may be placed in the originating PST file. 2. Message stubs may be placed in a newly created folder within the user s Exchange mailbox. 3. Original messages may be left intact in the PST file. 4. Messages may be placed into the archive and removed from the PST file. When restoring messages archived out of PST files, messages are returned to the user s Exchange mailbox. No Installation Required on the Exchange server Archive Attender consists of 3 components: an application console, a Windows service and an Internet Information Server (IIS) web application. None of these components need to be installed on the Exchange server freeing the Exchange server from hosting and executing additional processes. If you are using Outlook Web Access (OWA) and want the archived messages accessible to OWA users, you may install the Archive Attender Outlook Web Console component on the server that is hosting OWA. Page 5

6 Product Overview Archive Attender is designed as an administrator tool to help organizations manage their storage. It requires no additional hardware or purchase of any additional software. Additionally, it requires no client installation for users to access their archive messages. All of this means that deployment is an easy and simple process. Product Architecture As mentioned before, Archive Attender contains 3 major components: 1. An Application Console. This serves as the administrator s interface to setup, configure and manage the processing of the product. 2. A Windows Service. This performs all the activities tasked by the administrator. 3. An IIS Web Application. This provides a convenient way for Outlook users to access or search their archived messages. The diagram below illustrates the workflow of these components long with the integration of the Archive Storage component. Figure 1: Archive Attender Architecture Page 6

7 Archive Attender Administrator Console Archive Attender does not require an external database. Configuration details are maintained in XML files and in the registry of the local computer. Besides IIS, Outlook and the.net framework, all other required components are included in the application. Administrators provision archive storage space, associate users accounts, formulate archiving policies and manage other aspects of the product through the console application shown in Figure 2: Figure 2: Archive Attender Console Application Managing Users in Archive Attender Users may be added into the Archive Attender configuration by either querying Active Directory or by having Archive Attender log into the Global Address List (GAL) and query the Exchange server. This process of adding users may also be scheduled so that Archive Attender can periodically query and automatically include new users that have been added to the specified Active Directory path (Figure 3), or new mailboxes that have been added to the targeted Exchange server. Page 7

8 Figure 3: Adding Users from Active Directory Once users have been added to Archive Attender, there are a number of options that can be configured by the administrator including: The ability to search the archives The ability to archive by category Options to restore and/or delete archived messages Customizing the display of archived data The assignment of policies to be enforced on the user Page 8

9 Archive Attender Policies Archive Attender s flexible policy architecture provides a way to evaluate users mailboxes and archive data that meets the organization s retention policy requirements. Policies can be defined to capture messages based on conditions including age, date, size, sender or keywords in the subject (Figure 4). Archive Attender s criteria set could be expanded to include additional options such as keywords in the message body, attachment names and types, mailbox sizes, etc., by using it in conjunction with Mail Attender for Exchange. Archive Attender policies also include options to target specific types of content from within the mailboxes, and also to restrict the mining to a limited set of folders rather than looking through all folders within the mailbox. Once a policy is created, it can be assigned to the users on whom the policy must be enforced. Policies may be processed either manually or by enabling the policy schedule option to automate its execution. Figure 4: Creating a Policy Page 9

10 Archiving by Mailbox Quotas Archive Attender also offers the ability to select messages based on mailbox quota settings (Figure 5). This feature can be used to monitor one of the four Exchange quota settings, or to specify a mailbox size that the policy will use to evaluate the user mailbox. Quota archiving targets mailboxes that are at a given high-mark percentage of their allowed quota, 90% for instance, and will archive messages until the mailbox reaches a minimum percentage of quota, for example 50%. Along with specifying these quota thresholds, the administrator also specifies the properties of the messages that will be archived to bring the user s mailbox to the optimum level. These properties include: the size of the message, the age of the message or a combination of the two. A weighted scale, based on the size/age selection, determines what messages will be archived. The policy also includes a few failsafe options to prevent the archiving of very small and/or very recently received messages. Figure 5: A Quota Based Policy Archive Attender Logging Archive Attender includes extensive logging capabilities. All activities performed by the Archive Attender service and the Archive Attender console are logged daily in an HTML format. Detailed information of all Page 10

11 tasks processed by Archive Attender is logged in a text format and can be used to audit what activities are performed. A debug logging level is also available to provide very granular information about the processes completed. Product Licensing The evaluation version of Archive Attender is limited to the processing of 10 mailboxes and may be used for a trial period of 45 days. The trial version includes all the capabilities of the full licensed version. In order to use the full version of the product, the evaluation installation of Archive Attender must be upgraded using the installer for the full version. The full product version includes an interface to enter and manage license keys provided by Sherpa Software. Adding these license keys will permit processing for the total number of mailboxes or PST files that you purchased. Page 11

12 Product Features In addition to being cost effective and easy to implement, this section highlights some additional product features of Archive Attender. Generating Policy Reports To analyze the potential results of an archiving policy, an administrator can select a reporting action when creating the policy (Figure 6). This is a particularly helpful way of evaluating how a policy will behave when you are developing new archiving rules. Figure 6: The Report Action in Policies Viewing Archived in.msg and HTML Formats Administrators can permit Archive Attender for Exchange end users to view their archived items in Outlook s native format (.MSG) or in HTML. Specifying.MSG permits the user to view the in its original form with all functionality (reply, forward, etc). Specifying HTML permits the user to view the message without requiring Outlook and supports mobile devices (Blackberry, iphone and others). Page 12

13 When a user opens an in HTML format, the is displayed in the default web browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, FireFox). Administrators have the ability to specify each user s default message format (Figure 7). Figure 7: Specifying the Default Message Format When opening an archived message, a user is given the option of selecting an alternate to their default format. For example, if a user s default message setting is HTML, the user has the option to view it in.msg format as well. Page 13

14 Single Instancing Duplicate s Administrators can optimize their archive storage and eliminate duplicate messages in an archive location by using the deduplication process (Figure 8). This single instancing process is performed at the message level. Therefore, if a message has been sent to more than one recipient, only a single copy is maintained in the archive, duplicates are deleted and all recipients are referenced to the shared copy. Figure 8: Deduplication of Archives Page 14

15 Archive File Format Archive data is stored in compressed (zipped).msg files, which is the native Microsoft Outlook message format. This format provides customers with the ability to view archived information outside of Archive Attender and easily back it up without the use of any specialized agent software. Figure 9 depicts individual messages in an Archive Location. Figure 9: An Archive Storage Location Page 15

16 Searching the Archives The archive search interface built into the Archive Attender console gives the administrator the ability to search all indexed messages stored in the archives. Indexing is a default option when creating an archiving policy, and stores lookup information for the message body and attachments. For messages that have been indexed, the administrator has the ability to search based on keywords contained within the message header, message body or attachments (Figure 10). Along with keywords, searches may be filtered by sender, recipient, received date, archived dates and several other criteria. Search results can be opened, copied to a mailbox or public folder or copied to a PST file. Figure 10: Archive Attender Console Search Page 16

17 User Search Views User Search Views are a way in which an end-user can search another person s mailbox or public folder archives this is often referred to as a delegated search. For example, a manager may require access to search the archived data for all employees in their department. The administrator can grant access to owners (Figure 11), who can then search specific mailbox or public folder archives via a folder view within Outlook. Figure 11: Allowing Delegated Search Page 17

18 Outlook Integration Archive Attender is designed to be easily integrated into an existing infrastructure by working seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook. User Access to Archives There are 3 methods of accessing archived data that can be provided to Outlook users, all of which are controlled by the administrator. The first method is to define a policy that creates stubs when messages are archived out of the user s mailbox. Stubbing replaces the original message body in the user s mailbox with a condensed version of it, usually with an HTTP link (Figure 12). Users can click on this link to quickly retrieve and view the original message. Viewing the message from the archive does not in any way affect the stub message in the mailbox or the original message in the archive. Figure 12: Example of a Stubbed Message A second method of providing a user access to his or her archives is by enabling the display of the search folder within Outlook from the administrator console of Archive Attender. This option generates a folder in the user s mailbox, which displays a web-based search interface within an Outlook window (Figure 13). From this interface, users can search, view and optionally restore or delete messages archived out their mailbox. Page 18

19 Figure 13: The Outlook Archive Search A third mechanism for searching archived data is available from the folder search link. This link provides access to a web application that shows users their archived data in a folder hierarchy. The left-hand side of the screen contains a collapsible menu tree which lists each folder containing archived messages. Clicking on a folder will display a summary of the messages archived from that folder in the center of the window (Figure 14). Figure 14: Searching Archived Messages by Folder Page 19

20 Allowing Users to Archive Messages Archive Attender includes the ability for an administrator to allow a user to archive his or her own messages out of the mailbox. This is accomplished through the Outlook categories feature by creating a custom category called *Archive Message. Users may select all the messages they would like archived and assign the *Archive Message category. Archive Attender periodically scans mailboxes of users that are authorized to archive messages, and removes all messages categorized as *Archive Message, replacing them with a stub message. This scanning is initiated as a periodic maintenance task by the Archive Attender service. The administrator can configure the frequency of this process. Page 20

21 Importing from PST Files Archive Attender includes a separate PST import utility that can be used to move messages from PST files into the user s archive, thereby eliminating the need to retain the PST files (Figure 15). This option allows network-based PST files to be imported in 3 easy steps: 1. Administrators scan network shares for PST files. 2. Associate those PST files with Archive Attender users (either manually or through a scanning process). 3. Import the PST data into the archives. The import process includes an option to provide users with the stub of the message being imported into the archive. These stubs can be generated in the PST file or in the mailbox of the user associated with the PST file. If the administrator chooses to create the stub in the user s mailbox, then a separate folder for the imported data is created at the root of the user s mailbox and stubs are generated for the same folder path where they occur in the PST file. For example, an Outlook user may see the folder: Imported PST Data\Inbox Figure 15: PST Import Utility Page 21

22 Common Questions Q. Where can I install Archive Attender? A. Archive Attender contains 3 main components: an application console, a Windows NT service and an IIS web application. Unless access to archives through Outlook Web Access (OWA) is required, no Archive Attender components need to be installed on the Exchange server. The product may be installed on any computer in the network with access to the Exchange server and the archive locations. If OWA is being used to provide external access to s and users require access to the archives through OWA, the IIS website portion of the Archive Attender application must be installed on the front-end Exchange server (the one that serves as the external host for OWA). Q. Does Archive Attender use a back-end database? A. Archive Attender does not use a database for its storage. All necessary configuration information is stored as XML and in the registry and all s are stored as zipped MSG files, which allows easy retrieval by eliminating any proprietary storage formats. Q. How does Archive Attender access the Exchange server? A. Archive Attender uses MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface) to connect to Exchange servers and access the messages contained within them. This requires the installation of Outlook on the computer where the Archive Attender Service is running. Q. Where can I archive the messages and attachments? A. Archive Attender can move content to any storage device that is accessible using a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path. That includes SAN devices, NAS devices, file servers, worm drives, DVD drives, etc. Q. Can I search the archived data? A. Archived data that has been indexed is available to be searched. If an index was not created at the time that the message was archived, one could be built at a later time. Anyone with access to the Archive Attender console will have the ability to search the indexed portion of the archives based on keywords within messages and attachments, received date of the message, the message sender and several other criteria. Users will be able to search their own archives using similar criteria. Q. What permissions must the archiving service have? A. The account used by the archiving service must have full administrative rights to the computer where Archive Attender is installed, full rights to all the mailboxes on the Exchange server from where data is to be moved and read/write access to the storage locations where data is to be archived. Please be aware that domain administrator accounts are denied rights on the Exchange server by design. For questions about providing adequate permissions, please refer to Microsoft Knowledgebase articles Q for Microsoft Exchange 2003 and Q for Microsoft Exchange server Q. What pieces of Archive Attender should I backup? A. Please be aware that Archive Attender does not maintain redundancies of the archived data and it is imperative that you maintain regular backups of the archives and configuration details. Page 22

23 The data that must be backed up to facilitate smooth recovery from disasters are: the archive location(s) containing the archived content and the Archive Attender configuration details stored in the services directory in the Archive Attender installation directory (the default path to this directory is C:\Program Files\Sherpa Software Group\Archive Attender for Exchange\Service). Q. What do I do if the computer running Archive Attender crashes? A. In order to restore Archive Attender, reinstall the application and point it to the location where the archived messages are stored. All the pointers to the data will be regenerated and the archived data will once again be accessible. To restore the settings, user information, policies and other configuration details, replace the Service folder in the Archive Attender installation directory (default is C:\Program Files\Sherpa Software Group\Archive Attender for Exchange) with one restored from a previous backup. Q. In what format are the messages and attachments exported? A. All content archived out of mailboxes and PST files are stored as compressed MSG files. Microsoft Outlook is the default application for files of type MSG. Q. Can I archive from multiple Exchange servers? A. Yes, you can. You may also install multiple copies of the Archive Attender application to share the processing load. However, each installation functions as an independent entity and would need to be configured and managed individually. Q. What versions of Exchange are supported? A. Archive Attender can archive messages from Exchange versions 5.5, 2000, or Q. Can the administrator restore messages from the archive? A. Yes, the administrator can restore messages out of the archive into an Exchange mailbox or into a PST file. Q. Does Archive Attender work with Exchange journaling? A. Yes. An Archive Attender policy can be configured to periodically connect to the journal mailbox and move either all or a filtered list of messages into the archive. Q. How can users access messages from the archive? A. Archive Attender provides 2 options for users to access their archived messages, both of which are controlled by the administrator. The first option is to leave behind stubs in place of the messages moved into the archive. These stubbed messages contain a link within the body of the message to access the original message in the archive. This option requires the administrator to specify the leave stub action when creating the Archive Attender policy Page 23

24 The second method for providing access to archived messages is to enable the Archive Search feature for a particular user. This option creates a folder in the user s mailbox, which links to a web search interface for archived data. Q. Can users archive their own messages? A. Using the Archive Attender console, administrators have the ability to provide users the option to archive their own messages. User initiated archiving is performed using the Categories feature within Outlook. Once configured, users may categorize messages they would like to archive using the custom *Archive Message category. Archive Attender periodically scans mailboxes of authorized users to archive all messages tagged with the custom category. Q. What are the system requirements for Archive Attender? A. The console requirements are: Windows Sever 2000, 2003 or 2008, XP Professional, Vista or Windows 7.NET Framework 2.0 Microsoft IIS 5.0 or higher (installed from the Microsoft operating system disk) Microsoft Outlook 2000 or greater, or Exchange 5.5 or higher Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher Approximately 100MB of available disk space to store application files and configuration data Page 24

25 Product Details Product History Sherpa Software has been a market leader in management software for Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange for several years. Our original product, Mail Attender for Exchange, quickly became a popular administrative tool for managing content. Mail Attender for Exchange excels in its ability to enforce corporate policy, making it easy for administrators to find, eliminate or move messages and attachments based on a number of flexible criteria from Exchange mailboxes, public folders and/or PST files. But as regulatory requirements began to shape the corporate data storage landscape, the need to effectively store data for extended periods outside of Microsoft Exchange has gone from being a luxury to an absolute necessity. Archive Attender is Sherpa s response to this need. Building on over a decade of expertise in developing tools for the Microsoft platform, Archive Attender is a simple yet effective archiving tool designed to allow companies to archive quickly and inexpensively. Releases Periodic major releases may be expected two to three times a year. For customers with active maintenance/support agreements hot fixes will be created as needed to resolve issues in the product. Supported Versions Archive Attender can archive data from Exchange 5.5, Exchange 2000, Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007 and Exchange Users accessing their archived messages can do so using Outlook versions 2000, XP and 2003, 2007 or P r o d u c t I n f o r m a t i o n G u i d e Summary Storage demands for today s corporate systems are enormous. Archive Attender is a simple, easy to use, effective and inexpensive tool to help administrators address their storage concerns. Future versions of Archive Attender will continue to include additional features to meet the ever-changing demands of the storage landscape. Contact Information For additional information on Archive Attender, please visit website or call Page 25