Backups are one of those things in IT that most people know are very important, but not everyone treats them that way.

More times than I care to remember I have entered a disaster recovery situation for an email system in which the recovery options are limited because either:

• The backups hadn’t been running and no one realised
• The backups hadn’t been running and people knew but didn’t do anything about it
• The backups had been running but had never been tested

I can tell you that the worst possible time to put your backups to the test is during a real disaster situation.

Take a look at your current email backups and ask yourself these questions.

Are the Backups Running?

Even if you know that the backups have been set up and scheduled you still need to know whether they are actually running.  It is not a nice feeling when you open up the backup history of a server and see that every backup job has actually failed.

Good backup software includes alerting options for the outcome of a job.  Set these options to send email reports to the people responsible for checking the backups.  It is also advisable to have a weekly or monthly summary report sent to other people such as managers so that they can verify that the backups are being done.

Are the Backups Successful?

Not only do you need to know whether the jobs are running, you also need to know what the outcome of the backup job was.  Obviously the goal is a successful backup job, but in the real world backups will fail from time to time.

Have a response and escalation process in place for any failed backup jobs so that they are investigated immediately that day.  If the problem can’t be resolved, or a consecutive day’s backup also fails, escalate the problem to a senior administrator or seek vendor support.  Some environments can tolerate a single failed backup but the risks grow exponentially with every subsequent failure.

Are the Backups Protecting the Data You Think They Are?

It might not occur to everyone to check not only the successful outcome of the backup job, but also verify that the job is backing up everything you intend it to.  No backup software will report that it failed to backup something it isn’t configured to backup in the first place. Continue reading Are You Sure Your Backups Are Working?

Outlook is used in many corporations by many users and has been for many years. So it is not surprising that problems eventually emerge that are related to file sizes or email file corruptions.

Sometimes when an end user has started Outlook they will report receiving an error code such as 0×80040116. Usually the error message will read, “Outlook.pst can not be accessed – 0×80040116”. If this error message is received then be aware that this could result in a loss of all emails and contacts that have been saved in Outlook. So it is a serious error code message and one that will require immediate attention.

This is one of the reasons why I always encourage email archiving so as to reduce the use of Personal Storage Folder (.pst) files which can be difficult to use. Having a good email archiving solution can also help when data and other critical email files have become corrupted or accidentally damaged and are no longer accessible.

There are other reasons why the error code 0×80040116 can be received. It is also possible that the error code has been generated in response to a file size limitation having been reached. Usually this will occur if a 2GB maximum file size had been encroached while running Outlook 2000 or earlier versions. If this is the case then an administrator should try running a couple of different tools to correct the problem. Some of these tools include: ScanDisk, PST2GB and ScanPST. These tools can be used to reduce the size of the “pst” file below the 2GB limit.

Continue reading Troubleshooting the 0×80040116 Error Code

Better security is changing iPhone's image in IT departments.

While the iPhone’s “cool factor” has made it a hit among status conscious corporate executives, the mopho has been greeted with skepticism from the rank and file in the IT trenches. From their point of view, competing products like Research in Motion’s Blackberry and smartphones built on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform offer better security for their organizations. With the introduction of the latest version of the iPhone’s operating system, version 3.0, and iPhone Configuration Utility, version 2.0, IT resistance to letting Apple’s handset into the corporate tent seems to be weakening.

What has bugged IT folks in the past about the iPhone? For one thing, user profiles can’t be managed over-the-air as they can with a Blackberry and Blackberry Enterprise server or Motorola Good for enterprise servers. Another irritant is there’s no way to ensure that corporate policies on email, encryption, etc. have been installed or updated on the phones. What’s more, it’s difficult to preconfigure the units with settings for email, VPN access and such.

Apple’s update of the iPhone’s configuration utility, which gives network administrators a rich set of policy controls, has addressed some of those concerns and may be why IT doubters are relenting on their staunch opposition to the hardware.

For example, password entry into a phone can be required. The composition of the password, when passwords should be changed, rules on reuse of passwords and the number of failed password attempts before a phone automatically wipes out all the data on it can all be controlled by an IT department.

Specific content can be blocked on the phones, although that’s not true for specific applications. A workaround for that situation is to install all necessary apps when the phone is issued, then turn off the ability to install any more programs. The problem with that approach, however, is a user won’t be able to upgrade the existing apps on the phone.

Continue reading Security skeptics less skeptic about iPhone

In another post I discussed the situation of emails that are not sent and are instead stuck in the email outbox. The flip side of that problem is when emails that are in the email inbox seemingly disappear. This can occur after email messages have been read. It can also happen if the preview pane has been opened and the email has not yet been read.

What might be happening is that a filter is being applied that only displays unread messages. Obviously what needs to happen is to either remove the filter or modify it.

If you want to reset to a known state you can also just remove all filters. This is a very easy procedure.

• In Outlook 2000 bring up the View menu and move to the Current View.
• Once there you can click on Customize Current View.
• This will bring up a View Summary dialog box where you can then choose Filter which will pop up the Filter dialog box.
• Here you’ll want to click on Clear All and then click OK or hit enter a couple times to exit the dialog.
• You should now be able to view all email messages whether they are read or unread.

There is another possible cause for disappearing emails. If one of your end users has managed to set Outlook so that email delivery is pointed at a personal folder file such as a pst file then this can have the undesirable consequence of disappearing email.

Continue reading How to prevent emails disappearing from the inbox

So you’re thinking of acquiring a new email archiving tool and need to craft an acquisition and implementation strategy. Here are some things you may want to consider.

Regulations, rules, requirements and product warranties can make buying archiving tools a minefield. By consulting with your corporate legal and compliance people, as well as your company’s business managers, you can get an idea about where those mines are buried. Moreover, you can use your efforts to educate yourself about what requirements must be met by your new tools to build support and acceptance among your legal and compliance people.

When garnering information from legal and business colleagues, it’s important not to lose sight of your role as a technology advocate. While it’s critical to know what your new archiving tools must do to meet compliance and warranty demands, it’s also crucial that those unschooled in the intricacies of storage management understand basic concepts, such as the distinction between backups and archiving and the hard and soft costs attached to storage.

Keep in mind that your new archiving tools need to do more that meet compliance requirements if they’re going to be accepted by your users. After all, you don’t want to trade one headache–jumping through compliance hoops–for another–a disgruntled user base that sees your new technology as an impediment to its doing its job.

Continue reading Tips when making email archiving choices

Clark: "We hire attorneys for their IP and not their IT."

Electronic discovery has increased demands on storage systems, and that’s likely to continue.

According to Michael A. Clark, a managing director at EDDix LLC, an electronic discovery consulting firm, corporations with revenues greater than $1 billion is carrying around a caseload 150 active matters, 35 to 40 percent of which involve electronic discovery. With the new rules of Federal Civil Procedure adopted last December, he observed, “we’re going to see an ink blotting downward of electronic discovery to ever smaller matters.” He projects that within the next three years that 35 to 40 percent will move to 75 percent.

Finding information within the enterprise has always been a challenging task for legal ferrets, but those challenges have ballooned in recent times, according to Clark. “There are now not only more things to find, but more places to look for them than there had been before,” he said in a video interview posted at SearchStorage.com.

Finding information is a big challenge to operators of an enterprise network, but so too is deciding what should be stored and how long to store it, Clark noted.

“A number of corporations are devoting considerable resources to creating retention policies and then trying to enforce those policies,” he observed.

Continue reading E-discovery demands to double in three years

U.S. Appeals Court for Ninth Circuit.

Workers who use company email for disloyal activities may be targeted for administrative sanctions, but they’re not necessarily criminals under U.S. law, according to a recent decision by a federal court. The ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which includes California, found that an employee for a residential treatment center for addicted persons in Nevada could not be prosecuted under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) for emailing himself client files for use in a competing business after his employment was terminated from the center.

The case, LVRC Holdings v. Brekka, involves Christopher Brekka, who was hired by LVRC and worked at its Fountain Ridge facility in Nevada. Brekka’s duties included conducting Internet marketing programs and interacting with Web metrics company, LOAD, which LVRC employed to provide email, Web site, and related services for the treatment center. At the time of his hiring, Brekka owned and operated EBSN and EBSF, two consulting businesses that obtained referrals for addiction rehabilitation services and provided referrals of potential patients to rehabilitation facilities through the use of Internet sites and advertisements. According to the court, LVRC was aware of Brekka’s involvement with EBSN and EBSF when it brought him on board.

Continue reading Disloyal use of email isn’t a crime

By now, every business knows that they need to archive their emails, for convenience, as well as for compliance, e-discovery, and disaster recovery purposes. But once archived, how long do you need to keep them?

There’s really no fixed answer, as is often the case when lawyers are involved. But what’s most important is that there is a written policy about data retention, and that it is followed to the letter, documented, and has an audit trail. The reason for this is clear. Suppose for example, that you are subject to a lawsuit, and opposing counsel has demanded records pertaining to a certain subject. You provide records going back two years. But you have no written policy on data retention. Guess what? Even if the records you provide show no evidence of your guilt, you still lose by default. That is of course, assuming that your opponent has a competent lawyer. The logic behind this is that since you have no retention policy, you may have deleted older emails that showed your liability. 

Now suppose that you do have a written retention policy that says you archive all emails for two years. But, there’s no formal audit trail that shows when those archives are accessed. Again, you lose. Opposing counsel will argue that without an audit trail, there is no reason to believe that you haven’t gone in and erased the evidence! Oh, those tricky lawyers.

Continue reading Email archives, retention periods, and tricky lawyers

The upcoming release of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 includes new email archiving features.  Previously the domain of third party add-on products from various software vendors, this marks the first time it has been built in to the Exchange Server product itself.

Given the long and proven history of some of the third party solutions one wonders whether Microsoft’s first attempt at a built in archiving feature will compare favorably.  Let’s take a look at what we know so far about archiving in Exchange Server 2010.

Exchange Server 2010 Archiving

There are a few pre-requisites for Exchange Server 2010 archiving to function.  Firstly, it requires Enterprise CALs for the users that will be archive enabled.  In addition, the archive mailbox is only viewable using Outlook 2010 (due for release sometime after Exchange 2010), which means Outlook 2007 and prior versions will not be able to see it, although it is visible using the Exchange 2010 Outlook Web App.

The archiving feature can be enabled on a per-mailbox basis.  Once enabled it creates a second mailbox for the user, the archive mailbox.  Mailbox items can be moved to the archive mailbox either manually or via the use of Retention Policies set by the administrator.

Unlike the primary mailbox, the archive mailbox cannot be cached by Outlook for offline access.  This reduces the file size of the cached OST file on the end user’s computer; however, this benefit is somewhat redundant because the OST file format in Outlook 2007 SP2 and Outlook 2010 has been greatly optimized and will now run quite efficiently at large sizes such as 10 gigabytes. Continue reading Is Exchange Server 2010 Archiving a Hit or Miss?

In my last couple posts I addressed the issue of running out of memory and how it affects Outlook and Outlook Express. As an email administrator you will often have various resource issues as you have probably already experienced. Besides finding out that your system is running out of memory the other issues you will probably run into from time to time is that of running out of disk space.

If you’ve received any of the following errors then you have already dealt with these issues. But if not then here are some low disk space scenarios and potential solutions.

One indication that you may have a low disk space problem that adversely affects Outlook Express execution is if you receive the following error:

OLEXP: Error Message If the Folders.dbx File Is Missing or Damaged

Other errors you may receive, after you start Outlook Express or try to send any email messages can include any of the following error messages:

MSIMN caused an invalid page fault in module Msoe.dll
MSIMN caused an invalid page fault in module “unknown”
MSIMN caused an invalid page fault in module Directdb.dll
Msimn caused an exception C0000006h in module Directdb.dll
Outlook Express: The message could not be sent. There is not enough Disk space.
Unknown error has occurred. Protocol: SMTP Port: 0 Secure: No [SSL] Error: 0×800c0131

If you get any of these error messages then it is most likely because your Folders.dbx file has become corrupted or cannot be found for some reason. It is also possible that the read-only attribute has been set for the Folders.dbx file.

Continue reading Troubleshooting Error Code 800c0131