Creating Exchange Cleanup Policies

Applies to: User Mailbox

Exchange cleanup policies determine what happens to messages after they are archived. You can replace messages with stubs so that users can recall archived messages, or you can delete messages without replacing them with stubs. If you choose not to create stubs, users cannot recall archived messages from email clients.

Tip

Typically, the Exchange Mailbox Agent is used to archive mailboxes. However, you can also use the Exchange Mailbox Agent to perform backup-only operations. In this case, you do not enable stub creation when you create the Exchange cleanup policy.

Before You Begin

If you plan to include or exclude folders on the Filters tab, consider the following:

The folder names that you include or exclude must be in the same language (locale) that is used by your end users in Microsoft Outlook. Click Add, and then enter the folder names in each language that you support. You can add folder names in several languages within one policy, or create separate policies for each language.
Folder names that you include or exclude must not contain square brackets (for example, [Folder Name]). The square bracket is treated as a regular expression, and not as a literal character.

Procedure

From the CommCell Console, expand Policies > Configuration Policies.
Right-click Exchange Policies, and then click New Cleanup Policy.

The Create New Cleanup Policy dialog box appears.
On the General tab, in the Policy Name box, type name of the policy.
On the Messages tab, select the Enable these message rules check box, and then define the stubbing and cleanup rules.
1. Do either of the following:
  - If you want to allow users to recall messages, select Replace message with a stub.
    
    After the messages are archived, attachments are removed from the messages on the Exchange server and a stub is created.
  - If you do not want to allow users to recall messages, select Delete messages.
    
    Messages are deleted from the Exchange server after they are archived, but they are not replaced by a stub.
2. If you select Replace message with a stub, do any of the following:
  - To allow users to recall the message from an email client, select the Add recall link to stub body check box.
  - To leave the message body in a stubbed message, select the Leave message body in the stub check box.
    
    Note
    
    After stubbing, inline attachments are removed and they become a part of the attachment.txt file.
  - To limit the size of the stubbed message based on the message body length, select the Truncate body to n bytes check box, and then type a value (in bytes) into the corresponding box.
    
    Two bytes equals one character. For example, if you enter 500 bytes, the message body in the stub is limited to a maximum of 250 characters (including spaces).
    
    The font in truncated messages converts to Times New Roman.
3. In the Clean up messages that meet these criteria area, define which messages will be stubbed or deleted from the Exchange server based on their age and size.
  
  Messages that meet both of these criteria are deleted.
  
  Tip
  
  We recommend that you cleanup messages older than 60 days.
4. Select the Only messages containing attachments check box to stub and delete or delete only the messages that include an attachment.
  
  Caution
  
  Messages that have embedded images are considered to have attachments, and, therefore, are eligible for stubbing and deletion when this option is selected.
5. Select the Skip unread messages check box to prevent unread messages from being stubbed or deleted.
  
  Note
  
  Multiple conditions in points c, d, and e are carried out using the AND operator. Messages that qualify all the conditions are stubbed.
On the Quota tab, define when cleanup occurs.
1. To delete or stub messages when a specific percentage of Exchange server space is used, select the Used disk space check box and then specify the percentage of the total disk volume.
2. To delete or stub messages when the percentage of the mailbox quota that is defined on the Exchange server is exceeded, select the Mailbox Quotas check box, and then do both of the following:
  - In the Start cleaning up messages when mailbox size reaches n% of assigned quota box, type a value (in percent) to start clean up.
  - In the Stop cleaning up messages when mailbox size reaches n% of assigned quota box, type a value (in percent) to stop clean up.
3. Optional: To clean up qualifying messages by age (oldest first), select the Clean up oldest messages first check box.
  Note
  - During cleanup, the current size of the mailbox is compared with the quota value in the cached DB. If the mailbox size is lower than the high watermark, messages are not stubbed. If the mailbox size is higher than the high watermark, stubbing starts and continues until it is either below the watermark, or when all qualifying messages have been stubbed.
  - Quota rules are applied when mailbox size quota is enabled on the Exchange server. If the mailbox size is set to unlimited, cleanup policy quota values are not honored.
On the Filters tab, define which folders and message types will be cleaned up.
1. On the Exclude Folders subtab, select the folders that you do not want to clean up, and then move them to the Selected list.
2. On the Exclude Message Types subtab, select the message types that you do not want to clean up, and then move them to the Selected list.
3. On the Include Folders subtab, select the folders that you want to clean up from the Available list, and then move them to the Selected list.
  Note
  - If the same folder is selected for both inclusion and exclusion, inclusion takes precedence.
  - When you move a folder to the Selected list on the Include Folders tab, only those folders will be cleaned up.
Optional: On the Advanced tab, if you want the Exchange Mailbox Agent to apply the filters that you specified in the policy instead of the Exchange server, clear the Use Exchange restrictions check box.
On the Source Pruning tab, define whether stubs and messages are pruned from the mailbox on the Exchange server and when.

By default, stubs and messages are pruned every 30 days. However, you can modify the pruning time by using the StubPruneFrequency additional setting.

Caution

Based on the settings that you define on this tab, messages are pruned whether or not they have been archived. To prevent unprotected messages from being pruned from the Exchange server, make sure that you have disabled the message rules on the Source Pruning tab.
1. Select the Stubs check box to prune stubs.
2. Select the Messages check box to prune messages.
3. In the Older than n years n months n days based on received time boxes, type the number of years, months, and days after which the selected items are pruned.
Click OK.