Archive Mailbox isone of the many welcoming features in Exchange 2010 Server. This feature solvesissues related to PST files which gives headache for any exchange admins.

Let me explain howarchive mailbox feature will address the existing problems.

• There is no company which doesn’t have staff using PST files. Archive mailbox gets rid of PST files by giving the user an additional mailbox.
• PST files are local to the user’s machine, gets corrupted easily and is hard to include the files in backup. Archive mailbox sits in the same mailbox database as the user’s main mailbox and can be included in the backup easily.
• Archive Mailbox is available in Outlook as well as Outlook Web App (OWA), which is a huge improvement. Users can access their email archive irrespective of where they are.

• Archive Mailbox is included as part of the Exchange Enterprise CALs and hence no extra cost is required (for those who have ECALs).

• Retention policies can be set for emails/folders in the archive mailbox.
• User has the option to search for emails in archive only or both primary & archive mailbox.
• Archive Quota can be set separate to the primary mailbox.
• Emails in existing PSTs can be dragged into the archive mailbox very easily.
• Users get Conversation View scoped to archive mailbox as well.
• The archive and primary mailbox share the same user account.
• Only one archive mailbox can be configured for a user.
• Archives are only available online.
• Archive mailbox gets created on the same mailbox database as the primary one, which is a drawback. Future service packs might bring the option to create the archive mailbox in a different database.
• The default quota warning for the archive mailbox is 10GB, which can be changed.

• All in all, it is good news for admins as they don’t have to worry about issues like a lost laptop with PST files in it, corrupted PSTs etc.

How ToConfigure Archive Mailbox?

Configuring anarchive mailbox is very easy. You can configure an archive mailbox while theuser account is created. Just check the box in the wizard!

To configure archivemailbox for an existing user, launch EMC & navigate to RecipientConfiguration, right click the user and select “Enable Archive”.

 

A windows promptreminds that an enterprise CAL is necessary. Click OK and an archive mailbox isconfigured for the user.

Note that the icondenoting a user with archive mailbox is different to the normal users.

Select theproperties of the user and navigate to the “Mailbox Features” tab. You can seethat the archive mailbox feature is enabled and selecting the properties bringsup a box to give a name for the archive mailbox. The default name is “OnlineArchive – Username”. You can give a different name if you want to.

In order to changethe default quota warning, navigate to “Mailbox Settings” tab, select ArchiveQuota –> Properties.

Launch Outlook 2010and you will see that the archive mailbox is displayed. You can create newfolders, move emails, set retention policies etc.

Launching OutlookWeb App (OWA) gives the same look and feel & your archive mailbox isavailable for sure!

To view the current retention policies in use run

>Get-RetentionPolicy |fl

 

Retention polices required the manage folder assistance schedules to run. To view or set the schedule use the cmdlets below. The schedule is ran at server level, not database.

 

get-mailboxserver | ft -property Identity, managedfolderassistantschedule

Set-mailboxserver -managedfolderassistantschedule

To start the managed folder assistant use the cmdlet below.

Start-managedfolderassistant

 

 

The following is an example on how to create a retention policy  to move mails older than a year automatically in Archive Mailbox

 

 

1. Create a retention policy tag to move all type of message after 365 days to Archive with below cmdlet...

New-RetentionPolicyTag -Name "Move all mail to Archive older than a day" -Type All -MessageClass * -AgeLimitForRetention 1 -RetentionEnabled $true -RetentionAction MoveToArchive

 

2. Create a Retention policy with the tag we created in earlier step along with all other tags (if you have) you want to apply on mailbox through same policy...

New-RetentionPolicy "ArchiveMoveRetentionPolicy" -RetentionPolicyTagLinks "Move all mail to Archive older than a day"

If you have multiple tags which you want to add into same retention policy then create it with below cmdlet...

New-RetentionPolicy "ArchiveMoveRetentionPolicy" -RetentionPolicyTagLinks "Move all mail to Archive older than a year","Retention Policy Tag 2","Default Policy Tag 1", "Personal Tags1"

 

3. Apply the Retention Policy which we created in step 2.

Set-Mailbox "UserMailboxName" -RetentionPolicy "ArchiveMoveRetentionPolicy"

 

Or set on a distribution group

Get-DistributionGroupMember -Identity "DG-21days" | Set-Mailbox -RetentionPolicy "RP-21days'"

This will apply the retentionpolicy called RP-21days to all users who are member of the distribution group DG021days. Keep in mind that this script will need to be run manually again when users are added or removed from the group.

 

4. Schedule Folder assistant for the mailbox server and start it manually also if you want to run it immediately (but restart Mailbox Assistants service before starting this manually immediately)...

Set-MailboxServer -Identity MailboxServerName -ManagedFolderAssistantSchedule "Sun.14:00-Sun.13:00"

Start-ManagedFolderAssistant

That's all, Mails older than a years will move to Archive mailbox....

 

 

 Retention Age Limit

You can select from one of the following actions to specifywhat retention action should apply to a mailbox item when it reachesits retention age:

• MoveToArchive   The MoveToArchive action moves a message to the user's archive mailbox. Messages are moved to a folder in the archive mailbox that has the same name as the source folder in the user's primary mailbox. This allows users to more easily find messages in their archive mailbox. To learn more about archive mailboxes, see Understanding Personal Archives.
• MoveToDeletedItems   The MoveToDeletedItems action moves messages to the Deleted Items folder. This emulates the behavior experienced by users when they delete a message. Items in the Deleted Items folder can be moved back to the Inbox or any other mailbox folder. Depending on the user's mailbox settings in Outlook or Outlook Web App, the Deleted Items folder may be emptied when the user logs off Outlook Web App or closes Outlook. You can also create an RPT for the Deleted Items folder to take the required action after a specified period.
• DeleteAndAllowRecovery   The DeleteAndAllowRecovery action emulates the behavior when the Deleted Items folder is emptied or the user hard deletes a message. When this happens, and deleted item retention is configured for the mailbox database or the user, messages move to the Recoverable Items folder. The Recoverable Items folder (also known as the dumpster) provides the user another chance to recover deleted messages. To do so, the user would access the Recover Deleted Items dialog box in Outlook 2010 or Outlook Web App. To learn more about recoverable items, see Understanding Recoverable Items.
• PermanentlyDelete   The PermanentlyDelete action permanently deletes a message. When this action is applied to a message, it's purged from the mailbox. This action is like a deleted message being removed from the Recoverable Items folder. After this happens, the user can no longer recover the message.
  

  Important:
  If legal hold is enabled for a mailbox user, Multi-Mailbox Search will still return permanently deleted messages in search results. To learn more, see Understanding Multi-Mailbox Search.

• MarkAsPastRetentionLimit   The MarkAsPastRetentionLimit action marks a message as past the retention limit. Supported Outlook clients (Outlook 2010 and Office Outlook 2007) use strikethrough text when displaying messages that are past their retention limit. The strikethrough text will notify users that the message is expired. As a result, they can take further action, such as deleting the message or moving it to the archive mailbox. This action can help create awareness about the MRM functionality in your organization.

 

New-RetentionPolicyTag For a complete list of syntax options

 

Pasted from <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd335226.aspx>