Looking at some archive options

[Mouseclone]

I'm trying to figure out some of the archive options that I have for my employees. I have some users with 2 or 3 PST's that we brok away from their email over the years. These PSTs need to bee search able and I would like to have them on the Scalix Server. What I do not want if for them to be apart of the Primary mail store. I would like like the users to be able to search and go back into the archive as sometimes they need to retrieve email from a few years back.

I'm currently trying to read the wiki on some of the archiving options that I have. I just wasn't sure if there was a way to do it so that I'm not waisting my time.

Recap:
Need to archive mail boxes from primary mail box.
Need to have it search able by the user.
need to have the ability to import the PSTs either to the primary mail bax and then run the archive, or directly into the archive.

[kanderson]

I'd say the best bet is to import the PST into your primary mail store.

I know you said you don't want to do that, but I'd recommend it anyway, because that's the only way you'll have access to use those messages permanently. Additionally, those messages will then be available via webmail or whatever. You can use something like omtidyallu to clean out old messages after a certain date if you want later on.

Kev.

[Mouseclone]

after giving this considerable thought about how to keep the Webmail and Outlook faster along with the ability to to have an online archive I have come up with a solution that might fit a few people, more than likely not all.

Scalix cost is based around the Outlook connector and is "free" for just IMAP and POP3 services. With out the extra cost of 2 connection peruser, because it just will not allow you to do it in Outlook with scalix connect, I have decided to go the IMAP route for the Archive.

let me explain.

You will need to create a user for he archive. I used userid-archive. Then you will set imapsync to syncronize the the userid and userid-archive mail stores. then you will use omtidyu to clean up old email message out of the userid mail store.

i hope he helps explain it some. Well I put together some scripts that will do the trick. This is to sync the mail stores using imapsync:

Code: Select all

imapsync --user1 userid --password1 password --host1 localhost --user2 userid-archive --password2 password --host2 localhost --exclude \"\|^Calendar.*\|^Contacts.*\|^Deleted.*\|^Drafts.*\|^Handheld.*\|^Tasks.*\|^Sent.*\|^Search.*\|^Junk.*\|^Journal\|^Infected.*\|^Notes.*  --syncinternaldates

This next one will delete all emails over 90days old:

Code: Select all

omtidyu -B -u "Mark Pipkin"/kauffmantire -d -k -T 1opfiw -S -a 90


i will work on getting this more together, ie creating archive users from current users. and in general doing a full script that will make this possible with ease if someone wants to give me a hand on it that would be great as well. I have little knowledge of bash/perl and other scripts. So If i do it you will get a very basic of it working. more than likely no checks and balances either. but I will try.

*EDIT- there is a 90day over lap of the mail stores as well. I have not found a way to delete messages new than 90days out of the archive mailstore

[kanderson]

If all you want is to store old mail "in case you need it", why not purge the person's email when it's 90 days old, and leave it in the recovery folder? You can adjust the recovery folder to store things for longer than the 7 day default...

I'm just not understanding what you're trying to accomplish? Why not just leave their email in the mailbox forever? Who cares if they have a 10TB mailstore? It doesn't matter.

Kev.

[Mouseclone]

the larger the mailstore the longer it takes Webmail to work. If it is retrieving message that are 4 years old and you have 5 thousand messages with attachments then it will take a long time and load the server down.

I'm just trying to make it easier with out having the users try and recover or me recovering their emails.

[kanderson]

No question, but as Florian in particular can attest (He has a ridiculous pile of email in his inbox) a big inbox shouldn't take very long to load. Mine is well into the thousands, and I have no problem with webmail.

Pointing out to the users that having more mail will slow down the access time gives them a choice. Clean it, or accept slower responses. That way you aren't the evil IT guy deleting their stuff.

Webmail should open pretty fast with just 5 thousand messages though. The headers will be cached in PostgreSQL, and access should be quite reasonable.

You can also speed up access in webmail by moving mail out of the inbox and into a folder. Make one called "historical" and move everything 90 days or older into there. That would help...

If it's ust webmail that you're worried about, what about a second machine that just serves the web and Postgre data?

Unfortunately, there isn't a good way to resolve this. In my experience, the least bad is to keep it all in the mailbox. If for no reason than that it makes it a user problem rather than an IT problem. (Disk space can be an IT problem, but that's an easy one to deal with.)

Kev.

[Mouseclone]

So I just want to understand this. You are saying that it is better for me to import 3gig worth of PST into the main mailstore than into an archive store?

I have to keep about 5 years maybe longer depending on how the laws get passed, that and the fact that the users around here, well the VPs think that they should keep email as long as possible.

[kanderson]

I would.

On the server means backed up.
-almost nobody backs up a desktop PST.
On the server means accessible via webmail.
-this is more convenient.
On the server means no screwiness when you build a new machine.
-no "what happened to my archive folders" questions.
On the server means it's in smartcache.
-again, it's normal mail. New/old, it's all the same.
On the server means one place to worry about from an admin point of view.
-where did THIS guy keep his PSTs...

etc.

I know it's a huge amount of space. But I've always found it easier. I know others will disagree, but as soon as you're asked to restore a PST from someone's laptop that had that executives "ultra important email" from 5 years ago, after he had his laptop stolen/lost/broken/etc, it'll all make sense.

That's been my experience. I'm sure others will disagree.

Kev.

[Mouseclone]

i can't not disagree with the PSTs. I don't want the things. They corrupt way to easy. I mean it is a MS data base. We currently don't use an enterpise edition of of Scalix. Although we are working on getting it.

I'm also working with my boss on getting something standardized rules for email. I don't know how well that will go I have been here 4 years and we still have zero rules or policies yet. Go fig.