Email is one of the most important communications tools for businesses. When it stops working, people start to get nervous.

While there are many things that a user can do to mess up their email, many of these problems can be resolved with a restart of the software or the computer.

However when the old standby of restarting doesn’t work, it is time for the email administrator to start looking into the issue a bit more deeply.

Here are some of the more common errors found in Outlook 2007 along with some of the ways you can make things right again:

1. Error message that reads: “Cannot open your default e-mail folders. The information store could not be opened.”

This issue can be fixed by first locating Outlook.exe that can be found here: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12.

Next, right click Outlook.exe and then click on Properties.

On the Compatibility tab, clear the check box that reads ‘Run this program in compatibility mode’. Then click Ok and restart Outlook.

2. Error message that reads: “Your Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable.”

This error is a bit trickier to resolve only because there can be many different causes.

No data connection – test your SMTP connection using telnet. If you are unsure how to do this, Microsoft has provided a guide on their TechNet site that walks you through this process: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123686.aspx.

Office Outlook files are locked – there are times when .ost and .pst files are accidentally, or purposefully, set to read only. Check the permissions of these two files by navigating to:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\ for .pst files and C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\ for .ost files. Make sure that neither is set to read only.

Third party applications are interfering with Outlook – many programs, including anti-malware solutions, can interfere with Outlook connecting to the Exchange Server. To check to see if this is the cause, start Outlook in safe mode.

Outlook files are corrupted – this can happen after an upgrade is applied to Outlook. If any of the .dat files listed below are present they should be deleted or renamed.

• Extend.dat – Located in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\
• Frmcache.dat – Located in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Forms\
• Views.dat – Located in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\
• Outcmd.dat – Located in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\

All the files, with the exception of Outcmd.dat will be re-created. The Outcmd.dat file saves customized toolbar settings so if it is removed these settings will have to be re-applied.

3. Office Outlook will not open personal folders or personal folders do not show up in Outlook.

Personal folders are often the root of many problems related to Outlook. Microsoft has published the Inbox Repair tool, Scanpst.exe, that can be used to scan .pst and .ost files for errors in the file structure. If this is not intact, it will reset the file structure and rebuild the headers.

This tool will only work on the files that reside on your computer’s hard drive, not the files on the Microsoft Exchange Server.

This will also help to resolve the error message: “Cannot open your default e-mail folder. The file c:\users\owner\documents\software info\outlook.pst is not a personal folders file”.

4. Error messages that read either: “The action cannot be completed. The connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable. Your network adapter does not have a default gateway” or “Your Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable”.

This error occurs when Outlook is unsure of the default gateway address. The former is the error message that shows when the Outlook profile is configured automatically and the latter appears when the profile is manually configured. Both have the same fix.

To repair this you will need to edit the registry so clicking on Start and then Run is necessary. Then, enter regedit in the Open box and click OK.

Next, navigate to the registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\RPC. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.  Type DefConnectOpts, and then press ENTER. Now, right-click DefConnectOpts, and then click Modify. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.

5. None of the authentication methods supported by this client are supported by your server.

This happens to people when they use their computer in multiple locations. For example, a laptop is taken home and connected to the home network or perhaps a computer is taken on the road. Basically, it comes from authentication rules for the SMTP server.

When this error occurs go to the Account Settings tab and click on Change then More Settings. Now select the Outgoing Server tab.

The option that reads: “My outgoing server requires authentication” and the one that reads: “Log on to incoming mail server before sending mail” should both be looked at. If there is a check in the option box remove it.

5 Common Outlook Errors and How to Fix Them

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

When you don’t understand something that your job requires you to know, the most logical thing to do is research the topic and learn as much as you can about it. For many people who find security as part of their job description, learning as you go is the only option available. Yet despite the fact that there is so much information readily available to us, misconceptions regarding email security still confuse many professionals tasked with maintaining the confidentiality, integrity and availability of email services.

Blocking executable files will stop malware from being spread among users

Filtering all attachments that include .exe or .msi, was once a common way to keep users from sending infected files to one another through email. This is still considered by many to be a best practice for securing email systems, however as more tech savvy workers entered the workforce, they found ways around this. Generally, people will simply change the extension on a file and send it in an email attachment to a co-worker, friend, or family member. The recipient simply downloads the file and changes it back to the correct file extension. If that file has malware attached to it, the recipient will become infected when the file is opened and that could spread to other machines on your network.

Another scenario that dates this method of securing email, and is much more common, is when a user receives an email with a link in it. This link takes the user to a seemingly harmless website that is hosting drive-by downloads that install malware onto a computer when the person visits the site. No action on the part of the user is necessary other than clicking on the link.

Email security solutions need to address both of these scenarios in order to truly offer protection.

Attackers target large companies because that is where the rewards are greater

We often hear about how large financial institutions are hit by attackers where the number of users whose confidential information is stolen tops up to millions; or maybe it’s an attack against a huge government organization like the Oak Ridge National Lab attack that makes the headlines. At the same time, we almost never hear of a mom and pop store where the same thing happens. That’s because it’s not sensational. A small business being breached doesn’t warrant enough interest from the major networks but that doesn’t mean it never happens. It actually happens more frequently to small and medium sized enterprises than it does to the big corporations.

Large companies often have the budget to better secure email systems against attack where smaller companies often rely on security by obscurity as their solution and attackers know this. Whether they are looking for the lower hanging fruit, or simply trying to hone their skills, SMBs are frequent targets of email security attacks.

Finding security products that are geared towards SMBs is essential not only because they are affordable, but because they are tailored to the needs of these organizations.

Email encryption is only for healthcare and financial institutions.

It is true that these two industries are required by certain regulations to encrypt email messages, while other industries have nothing that says encryption is necessary it still is good practice to make sure your emails aren’t sent in plain text across the Internet.

There are many reasons why a smaller company would want to protect information sent via email. You could be sending confidential information about employees, details about an investigation, sensitive company financial data, strategies for growing your business… the list is endless. But no matter what the reason for keeping a lid on the contents of your message, if it is not encrypted then anyone with the know-how can capture and read these emails.

Email stored behind your firewall is more secure than email stored in the cloud

Cloud security is one of the most hotly debated topics when it comes to email security. Moving email services to the cloud will certainly take security and control out of your hands and put that responsibility on your cloud provider. But that doesn’t always have to be a bad thing.

If you research cloud providers and find one that takes security seriously and is open to answering questions about your email and data, then odds are their staff will be better able to handle security than a small IT department where the staff wears many different hats.

Cloud providers also have multiple data centers to handle back-up and recovery, as well as multiple layers of security.

Getting the right information when it comes to security can be rather difficult. There are many supposed “experts” who make a great deal of money selling snake oil to companies whether it is in the form of a security solution or education. The key is to read as much as you can and always look for the counterpoints when it comes to finding the best solution. If you spend enough time doing your homework up front, you will spend less time in the future dealing with mistakes.

Misconceptions About Email Security

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

When looking at solutions on securing email, many people don’t take into consideration the type of business environment they work in. All too often, after spending a great amount of time and money, small to medium-sized enterprises find out that what works for a company the size of Bank of America doesn’t quite work for them.

To better help SMBs find solutions scaled to their needs when it comes to email security, I have compiled a list of 5 tips that address the risks and restraints that they face.

1. Get the right solution

Email security can come in any number of packages. Security solutions can be software based, deployed through an appliance or even in a hosted environment. Each type has a variety of advantages, but there may be some disadvantages based on your company size or industry so it is important that you weigh your options carefully.

It is also important to look to solutions that can provide the protection your company needs at a cost that works. Too many times people are under the impression that security appliances are seriously out of reach for most small to medium sized businesses. This isn’t the case. There are many solutions that organizations find affordable and feature rich.

Make content filtering a standard practice

Content filtering needs to be a two way street. Of course, you want to filter out inappropriate content from being received by employees and certain types of attachments need to be blocked to prevent the spread of malware and expose vulnerabilities. However how often do you consider filtering what leaves your business via email?

Many industries nowadays are highly regulated and sending sensitive, or even financial, information out through email can not only bring compliance issues to your business, but it may also give competitors an edge. Filtering what users send out can be just as important as filtering what they receive when it comes to securing your company’s email.

Practice recovery as well as backup and archiving

Do you brush just half of your teeth? Then why would you only test half of your backup and recovery solution? Many companies find out, only when it is too late, that their backup and recovery solution was not configured properly or that there is some sort of problem.

This can be alleviated by regularly testing the recovery portion of your backup. By simply setting up a server (or virtual server) on which you can replicate your email system you can frequently test the validity of your backups in a way that will not disrupt your current email process.

Create fair policies that management will enforce

One of the biggest mistakes that SMBs make when it comes to email security is to take an overly aggressive approach. Without the manpower and resources to fine tune security policies, it becomes easier to just restrict anything that could be a perceived threat. This becomes especially true in small IT departments because they are tasked with so many other responsibilities.

When creating policies, it is important to bring other departments to the table so that these policies do not restrict anyone from getting their work done efficiently and effectively. Involving others at the management level also helps them better understand the reasons behind email policies and the ramifications for not following them. Gaining this support will help when it comes time to enforce these policies and discipline those who violate them.

Educate your staff

When it comes to security, it is a common misconception that bigger, state of the art, expensive solutions provide the best protection. Even though this isn’t true, SMBs often feel that they are at a disadvantage when it comes to email security because they cannot afford to deploy such solutions.

What many SMBs don’t see is that they have a distinct advantage over their larger counterparts when it comes to educating end users. When you have a smaller number of employees to train you have the advantage of being able to spend more time with them to make sure they understand the material you are delivering. You also have the opportunity to be readily available to answer questions or address any concerns or issues that your users may have.

Developing a solid training series for email security can also help free up time for IT departments that find themselves tasked with too many responsibilities because users who are informed and educated require less oversight and less attention.

5 Essential Tips for SMB Email Security

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

Advanced persistent threats make email security a necessity

Most email administrators consider security to be a large part of what they do. With so many laws and regulations governing the storage, discovery and retrieval of email messages, security has become a second job to many.

Unfortunately, many administrators either forget, or simply aren’t aware, that securing email requires much more effort than hardening the email servers against attack. In order to fully protect your organization’s email and their contents the mailbox also needs to be defended. Especially when you consider how popular Advanced Persistent Threats are becoming with large cyber crime syndicates who use email not only as a way to harvest sensitive information, but also as a method of attack through phishing and social engineering.

By implementing the following tips into your security plan you can help protect against these, and the many other threats that your organization may face:

Create email policies to regulate the communication of confidential information

Email communication has become second nature in the workplace. It is quick, easy and it gives us a record of our conversation so we can refer back to any information at a later date. However, if the conversation contains sensitive information like login credentials, financials, personal information, and the like, then it can be extremely valuable to anyone who may harvest those emails.

By simply setting up, and enforcing, policies that restrict certain information from being sent via email you can mitigate the damage done if emails are exposed. At the very least, your policy should state that user logins and passwords (and/or PINs) not be communicated via email.

Teach users to encrypt their messages

One of the best analogies I have seen to describe the need for encrypting emails is one that compares email to a postcard. Basically, anyone who comes across it can read the contents if they want. This can be stopped by encrypting emails to prevent eavesdropping.

Encryption is a hard thing for many people. It requires additional steps, training and, in some cases, third-party software (such as PGP) yet it is really the only way to keep your messages private in transit.

Encryption shouldn’t be limited to sending and receiving messages alone. Any email that is stored on a hard drive (think personal folders), a network drive, backup servers or archive systems should also be protected from any prying eyes.

Get rid of old email

A long time ago, storage space was a precious resource. Nowadays inboxes can be easily scaled to hold enormous amounts of data. Unfortunately that provides a greater possibility that an attacker will find something valuable.

Email should be moved, or deleted, when their life cycle is up. Make sure to check with any regulations regarding discovery and archiving before getting rid of the old stuff, but if you combine this with encryption you will be taking great strides to protect older emails.

Practice good network security habits

Make sure that desktops are continually scanned for malware that could possibly expose email login credentials, filter Internet content to protect against malicious websites, understand how to properly use a firewall and update server and client software as needed.

In addition to the employing technology to help secure your email systems you should also consider human factors as well. One of the ways that people first discover that their systems have been compromised is by noticing an anomaly. Be on the lookout for log-ins that just don’t seem right whether it be the IP address, the time of day or even the length of time.

This can be one of the most tedious tasks to undertake when it comes to security but it is by far the most important.

Put the right solutions in place

In many small and medium-sized enterprises, the email administrator alone cannot be as vigilant as he or she would like. Even in organizations where there is team of professionals dedicated to security use necessary security tools to help them do their jobs. Smaller companies need to understand this as well.

By employing technologies that help manage email, backup and recovery, archiving and security, you are plugging the little holes that provide that chink in the armor most attackers are looking for.

No one said that email security is going to be an easy task, but it is one that cannot be ignored just because it’s too hard or it costs too much.

Tips for Better Email Security

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

Getting your co-workers to adhere to policies that govern the use of email in the workplace can be tough. Despite your best efforts, email is still used to send jokes, chain letters, pictures, slide shows and other inappropriate content.

For whatever reason, people don’t quite get that not only are email policies in place to protect them and the company brand, but there are consequences for violating these policies. Unfortunately, the only time when people begin to comprehend just how serious email policies are is when it is too late.

To better help your co-workers and employees understand why it is important to adhere to email regulations and company policies, here are a few real life examples that you can use to get the point across:

Sarah Palin

The mistake: Using personal email to conduct business.

Nothing of note was found when her official email archives were released to the press recently but remember back when her personal Yahoo! account was cracked? She had to answer questions regarding the use of her personal email to conduct state business instead of her official account that is subject to laws and regulations regarding public records.

Mark Foley

The mistake: Sending inappropriate messages while intoxicated.

The congressman from Florida was caught up in an email scandal when he sent a message to a former Congressional page requesting a photo. Although the email was sent from his personal account it did open up the floodgates and it was found that he had also sent suggestive text messages to the same young man. Foley later explained that he had a drinking problem and that the messages were all sent when he was intoxicated. After all this surfaced he was told to either resign or he would be expelled from the House of Representatives.

Neal Patterson

The mistake: Expectations that emails are private communications and bad etiquette.

Whenever a paper trail exists there should be no expectation that the communication will remain private. In 2001 Neal Patterson, CEO of the Cerner Corporation, learned this when an email he sent out to his senior staff was leaked.

The email, which berated and threatened managers by stating, “As managers, you either do not know what your EMPLOYEES are doing or you do not CARE. In either case, you have a problem and you will fix it or I will replace you,” caused a 22 percent drop in the company’s stock.

Climate Research Unit, England

The mistake: Confirming a cover-up using email.

Much of the research from the CRU is used by the United Nations for its global climate reports so when an email surfaced from Phil Jones, the head of the CRU, that read, “I’ve just completed Mike’s [science journal] Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline,” you can imagine what happened to the credibility of this group.

Galleon Group

The mistakes: Fake emails to cover up security fraud.

Galleon founder, Raj Rajaratnam told employees to create a fake email trail to make it appear to the SEC that some of his recent stock purchases were based on price rather than inside information he had received.

“You just have to be careful, right?” Mr. Rajaratnam told the former Galleon employees in a taped conversation. He later explained that he would send an email asking about a stock “so that we just protect ourselves.”

He was found guilty on 14 counts of conspiracy and securities fraud and faces sentencing on July 29^th.

Lee Abrams

The mistake: Sending offensive content via his company’s email system.

The chief innovation officer of the Tribune Co. resigned in 2010 because he sent an email memo with a link to a video that he thought was funny. Some of the people who received the email didn’t quite see it in the same light. In fact, they found it offensive and complained. Originally, Abrams was suspended by the company indefinitely but later left his position.

As you can see, and hopefully your co-workers understand, that when it comes to the inappropriate use of email the intent isn’t taken into consideration. Even something that the sender views as harmless often carries the same consequences as something done maliciously.

Email Scandals That Should Make Us Think Twice

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

In just one week Google, the International Monetary Fund and Citigroup have all made headlines as a result of email associated with them being under attack. The reason we continue to see companies make the news as a result of email attacks is that email security is sometimes ignored when it comes to training users properly and making good decisions. In some cases, having the latest and greatest when it comes to security tools even creates a false sense of security that causes us, and our users, to overlook the little things. A multi-layered defense that has been properly configured with all the best technology can be rendered useless if the little things are forgotten.

This list displays some of the most common mistakes that are made when it comes to email security and a brief description of what you can do to prevent them.

Leaky emails

There are many times when sensitive information is passed along via email. If everything is encrypted properly you, and your users, often assume that it will only be seen by the appropriate people. Unfortunately this isn’t always the case. Too many times a recipient may answer an email with sensitive information and hit the reply all button without checking to see who will be receiving the email.

The fix: Put a policy in place that addresses sensitive emails and reply to emails. However a policy alone isn’t enough. Make users aware of the policy through training and keep a record that all users were trained/informed of the policy and repercussions of not adhering to it.

Trusting others

When we receive emails from family, friends and business colleagues we often blindly open them without much concern. Especially if they are contacts we communicate with on a regular basis. However malware can easily be spread through emails by attachment or embedded code and links.

The fix: HTML in emails should be blocked if this is a concern, as should the ability for your users to receive attachments that are scripts or executable files.

Passwords that are easy to guess

Remember when Sarah Palin’s personal email account was breached? It was because her password was easy to guess using information the attacker found on her Wikipedia page. Companies often list information on corporate sites that provide attackers enough information to guess passwords as well.

The fix: Enforce strong passwords or password phrases for all users. Also, make sure that people don’t give up information that may be used to guess their passwords when providing bios.

Ignoring malware protection on the desktop

While scanning all emails for malware needs to be done, the desktop should not be ignored. And all too often it is. Malware definitions are outdated, software is not configured to run properly or protection is completely left to the user.

Even if you have a policy that enforces strong passwords, a keystroke logger can easily give up even the most complex password combination.

The fix: Email administrators should work closely with IT security to make sure that the desktop and network security isn’t lax so passwords are tougher to expose.

Failing to check on backups

Some companies and industries are required, by law, to back up and archive emails for a set period of time. Others are not required to do so. Regardless of the laws, every person and company should be in the practice of backing up emails. Emails often provide important records and information that could be lost.

But what happens if you need to restore your emails and find that something went wrong? Maybe the backup was incorrectly configured or the backup location was insecure. In any event, the inability to restore emails from a backup can render the entire solution useless.

The fix: Frequently test the ability of your backup solution, and staff, to restore emails.

These five tips may seem basic and simple. But that is the point. Working in IT we often gravitate towards the more complex issues and ignore simple techniques and solutions until it is too late. By taking the time to do the little things when it comes to security, we build an even stronger foundation for all the bells, whistles and technologies that really impress us and our bosses.

5 Simple Mistakes When it Comes to Email Security

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

Everyone knows that without an active practice of management in place that our lives and every facet of our businesses can result in a chaotic existence. We need to manage our checking accounts, our income and expenses, the food we eat, the amount of paperwork we keep, etc.

The same concept of management applies to our email systems. We need to implement a usage and accounting email system to track and report how much of our computer resources are being consumed so that we can properly bill out to the various departments we support in our organizations.

Administrators also need to monitor the flow of emails that are incoming and outgoing from their systems so as to create trending reports and to project when systems will become overloaded. Trending and analysis of email communications make it easier for administrators to request additional resources from their IT departments in terms of bringing newer and larger systems online. It may be that those resources are physical in nature or that the newly requested resources are virtual resources. The point is that, without monitoring and managing their systems resource usage and having the corresponding reports to support their trend analysis, administrators will have a tougher time in asking for upgrades or more system resources.

Managing your email systems also involves the practice of archiving an organization’s email messages so that they can easily be recalled at a later date when needed.

Here are five benefits of Email Management:

1. Reduced Litigation Costs
   It is a given that companies and organizations should have some methodology for storing old email messages. An email archiving system should be able to captures every email, – along with their attachments – that comes into or out of an organization. A complete archiving solution would also include some capacity for scanning and indexing of email messages. Indexes should, at the very least, be based on: who the sender is, who is the recipient, the message content, attachments, metadata, etc. and classified according to results. Because all email is preserved in the archive in its original form (ensuring that no messages are tampered with, altered or deleted) for the entire retention period set by the company, there is no backup media restoration to contend with. Having a storage system that is easily searchable is one goal of an email archiving system. Another goal is being able to reproduce the original email messages on demand. Each of these goals will have long-term benefits by reducing the costs of litigation.
2. Increased Recovery Time
   Having every megabyte of data stored on backup servers is an important starting point for post-disaster recovery, but having a well-defined archiving system for email can help a business get back up and running much more quickly after a disaster occurs. Essentially, knowing where data came from (and thus, where it should be restored to), can be the difference between a calm recovery and a frantic one.
3. Reduced Exposure to Spam
   Having an automated technology in place that can easily identify and delete spam can be a great benefit to any organization. It can help to save the most important non-renewable resource that any company cannot lose. And that is Time. Organizations can save a lot of time that might otherwise be wasted on reading spam email messages by blocking spam before it ever reaches an end user’s inbox. Good anti-spam solutions can block email messages based on their addresses, subject lines and content. Look for solutions that can also block based on origin and on non-existent recipient addresses.
4. Reduced Exposure to Security Threats
   Everyone knows that viruses can severely impact an organization’s operations if their email servers are running in an exposed mode. When exposed servers are unprotected then viruses can and will attack. And once a server goes down it can have a domino effect on the rest of production. The result is that all departments within a company or organization will experience severe downtime and with downtime comes loss of money and services.
5. Reduced Compliance Costs
   There has been a number of regulatory bodies defining the compliance measures that organizations must follow for their respective industries. Compliance regulations govern many industries such as: financial services, manufacturing, health care and customer care. When companies stay in compliance with their respective regulatory agencies then the benefits can include:
   • More effective auditing practices.
   • Well-defined retention and disposal policies.
   • Identification of confidential and/or sensitive information.

5 Email Management Benefits

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

Exchange 2010 SP1 offers significant capabilities for data storage and retention, all of which can be greatly enhanced by the addition of third party archiving solutions. These solutions can increase mailbox storage to virtually unlimited capacity, provide for search and discovery, reviews for compliance and internal investigations, disaster recover scenarios, and more, all by maintaining a complete record of all messaging that is kept separate from the Exchange infrastructure.

Exchange has its own archiving solution in place, but many customers choose to go with a more feature rich third-party software package, either to get more features or to separate the archiving function from the Exchange server function. Third-party solutions have three distinctly different methods for accessing messaging data within Exchange. Understanding these methods and how each can impact the performance of your Exchange system is important when shopping for a solution. Each has both pros and cons, depending upon the goals of the archiving, and the system resources of key Exchange server roles within your organization.

1. Journaling

Journaling captures copies of all messages sent using SMTP, and is very good at archiving messages and calendar data when it is sent to or from external users. Journaling can place an additional load on hub transport servers, and won’t capture any changes to messages or calendar data once it is in a user’s mailbox.

2. Crawling

Crawling accesses an archiving mailbox at regular intervals, and copies messages down to the mail archive system from that archiving mailbox. It uses a standard client access protocol, such as IMAP over an SSL connection, to download data securely and without requiring any additional agent on the Exchange server. While it is possible that messages that are created and then hard deleted between intervals could be missed, a shorter polling interval minimizes this. Crawling can place an additional load on mailbox servers.

3. Log shipping

Log shipping is able to archive every transaction including messages and calendar information, and any changes to those, by copying the Exchange logs to the archiving system. The archiving system replays the logs to reproduce the exact state of all data, much like high-availability solutions within Exchange. This is a very effective and low impact way to record all messaging transactions, but is not supported by Microsoft as a third party archiving solution, primarily because many third party applications may inject data back into the Exchange database.

With so many ways to implement archiving, evaluate the archiving solution you are considering based on its performance and potential impact to your system. Depending upon which method your product uses, you could consider scaling up your hub transport or mailbox servers to meet any additional load introduced by journaling or crawling.

Personally, I do not recommend any solution that puts you in an unsupported configuration, so my advice is to stay away from products that use log shipping. While you may not ever need to call Microsoft Support, you don’t want to put yourself into a situation where they cannot help you.

3 Ways to Implement Exchange 2010 Archiving

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

Email has become a vital part of our lives, crucial in to business and the way we work in this new information age. With literally billions of email messages being sent every single day, it has become quite literally indispensable. Each business worker sends an average of 36 emails a day, and they receive as many as 74 in return. This huge volume brings into sharp focus issues of mailbox size, as well as the attachment size for files that go with the emails that we send and receive.

Specifically, I am considering the issue of email attachments from the perspective of businesses and their employees.

Most corporations, in order to try and balance storage capacity with backup and restore time, and data recovery, will place restrictions on the size of their users’ mailboxes. Companies will also restrict the size of an attachment that users can send via the corporate email server. Sometimes, companies will also place restrictions on the size of email attachments that can be received as well.

I recently came across an interesting bit of research in the UK by Virgin Media Business, which shows that these limitations that organizations place on attachment and mailbox size are actually holding back the country’s public sector with regards to efficiency.

In many cases, public sector workers are instead resorting to the use of public file sharing services to transmit company files and other sensitive information. Of course, this creates a huge problem with regard to corporate data security. The survey, which was completed by ten of the largest public sector organizations in the UK, came up with some very surprising and sometimes even disturbing results.

Interestingly though, it also showed that by relaxing the limitations on attachment and inbox size, increased productivity and a reduced security risk would result.

The survey found that a lot of the restrictions these organizations placed on employees were unnecessarily tight. As a result, productivity was being impacted and a lot of confidential data was being put at risk. The results also indicated that a great many staff were constantly attempting to find methods of circumventing the tight restrictions, as they were worried that important messages and/or attachments would not be received.

Focusing on the limitations placed on mailboxes, the survey showed that some 69% of workers were unable to send or receive email messages that are bigger than 10MB, while 89% were limited to 15 MB for sending and receiving mails.

On average, workers in the UK are restricted to sending messages no bigger than 12.5 MB in total, and they are also restricted to a mailbox size of just 140 MB, which is not that big at all when you consider those 74 messages we receive each day.

These tight restrictions that have been placed on UK workers mean that they are very often unable to send or share large documents and files with colleagues and/or clients. In order to get by this problem, workers are instead making use of public file sharing websites such as DropBox or YouSendIt in order to upload and share the files there. Another way round the problem is to simply use personal email accounts.

Now, while this stop gap approach may work for the time being, and many workers and even bosses seem to be quite comfortable with the practice, doing such a thing is incredibly risky. Sensitive company data can easily be put at risks when it is transmitted using these methods.

Moreover, as the trend is for businesses and their workers to need to share ever-larger files with their co-workers, mailbox and sending limitations have the potential to become a massive hindrance. In many cases, employees will experience errors with their emails because either the attachment they are trying to send exceeds the limit of the recipient’s mailbox, or because it is already full.

In my own organization, we too have similar network restrictions, which are in place to balance bandwidth management with data storage, while maintaining a backup and restore time that is acceptable.

Currently, the restrictions in our office are that attachments can go up to a maximum 20 MB, but there are no restrictions to what we can receive. Our mailbox size meanwhile, is restricted to 2 GB.

These restrictions are justified, based on the number of employees we have, and the current storage capacity we have available.

However, I wonder if this will always be the case? When I consider the temptations of my staff to make use of public file sharing services, I am sure that when it comes round to me evaluating our data storage capabilities again, I will seriously consider raising these numbers a bit.

So a few thoughts to leave you with. What is the maximum mailbox size of your organization, and what’s the maximum attachment size?

Instead of just arbitrarily setting them, you may want to consider if these limits are justified, or if they need to be increased.

The Tricky Question of Balancing Mailbox Size Limits

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

Is your email inbox literally bursting at the seams every time you open it? If it is, then don’t you think that perhaps it’s time to get a little more organized? Having an overflowing email inbox is the main cause of your email client slowing down, and it also means you waste time not being able to find crucial emails in a hurry.

I understand it might seem like a daunting task to get yourself organized, but it’s really not so difficult when you know how. The first step on the road towards organization is cleaning up your inbox, followed by some intelligent archiving of your emails. In this post I’m going to outline my simple Microsoft Outlook system for keeping my emails tidy, and I’ll also throw in some tips on how you can archive your older emails too. And even if you use another email client instead of Outlook, you can probably apply these tips anyway.

The most important tool that Outlook has is the AutoArchive feature. It allows you to do all kinds of things, including directing where archived data should go and specifying how old items need to be before they are archived.

1 – Globally Configuring AutoArchive

Setting up AutoArchive is a very easy process. Go to Tools > Options > Other > AutoArchive, and then choose the settings that work best for you. My personal preference is for a weekly cleanup, and to be informed when it’s about to do so. Another thing I like is to collect all of my archived data into just one archive folder (Archive.pst), and then as the year progresses I will manually move the old data to monthly archives. These are the settings I recommend for easy organization:

• Turn on – AutoArchive every week
• Turn on – AutoArchive prompts
• Turn off – expired item deletion when AutoArchiving
• Set Archive.pst as default archive file

2 – Setting AutoArchive Properties for Individual Folders

If you want to set the properties for your individual folders, do this:

Select the folder > Right Click > Properties > AutoArchive and then choose the settings you want. Don’t forget to repeat this for each folder that you wish to archive.

Recommended settings:

• Turn on – Clean items more than 1 month old
• Turn on – Move old items to default archive folder

3 – Manually Move Archived Files to Monthly Folders

This should be done each month, in order to have a nice organized monthly record of all your emails, just like mine. To do so, you need to create a new folder each month, something like “Archive 2010 December n.pst”.

By doing this, your archived files will be nicely organized when you come to view them all in Windows Explorer or the File Open box. Creating a new PST file is very easy, simply follow these steps:

Select File > Personal Folders File (.pst) > Choose a folder > Enter the name > Click Create. Make sure that the descriptions you use each month are consistent, so that Windows will file them in a nice, organized way. As for the other options, I just leave them all set as default. You should now be able to see the new PST folder listed in your Folder List or Outlook bar, and it will contain only one folder – Deleted Items.

4 – Copy Data Before You Move It

It is strongly recommended that you copy your data before you attempt to move it. Once you have successfully copied the data, you can then delete it from its source. You need to do this because copying or moving files is very resource-consuming, and will slow everything else on your computer down. Should you get the “Low Resources” message flashing up on your screen, there’s a good chance that something will go wrong with the operation and you could lose data. So always make a copy first.

5 – Tidying Up Your Monthly Archives

Once a new month begins and there is no more data for that month coming in, you can tidy everything up before dumping it into your new PST folder for the past month. You may or may not want to take out any old attachments, and you should also check that no records are saved in the Deleted Items folder.

You can open an archival PST file by selecting File > Open > Personal Folders File (.pst) > Choose the file you need > Click OK. Note that you only have to open these archival PST files when you are moving data into them.

When you want to close a PST, simply right click it on your Outlook folder list and select the “Close” option.

6 – Compacting Your PST Files

Doing this will not only leave everything nice and tidy, but it will save a load of space on your hard drive too, so it’s always a good idea. First of all, you need to close any applications you have running, including the Task Scheduler. Now, right click on the PST you wish to condense > click Advanced > Compact Now. This may take a while, even several minutes depending on how big the file is, but whatever you do, do not interrupt the process. Once it’s finished, clear all dialogs and finally close the folder.

7 – Don’t Let Your Archive.pst Get too Big!

You should routinely check your archive.pst folder (before each monthly archive) to make sure it doesn’t get too unmanageable. My personal rule is to compact it when it gets too big, but if it’s over 80MB then you should carry out some manual pruning first, because the compacting operation is somewhat untrustworthy.

7 Tips For Managing Outlook Email Archives

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

My colleague Paul Mah recently wrote an excellent article called “The Argument for Smaller Email Inboxes.” In this post, he laid out several compelling reasons why companies may want to limit the size of their users’ inboxes, and I encourage you to review Paul’s article, either before continuing with this one, or after. Every story has two sides, and his post addresses real issues companies may encounter if they simply allow unlimited mailbox size without first assessing their environment.

However, I have been and always will be an advocate for larger mailboxes. The larger, the better, and if you have the infrastructure, and the clients that can support this, I think you’ll understand that this is a great way to go. While my post here will address Microsoft Exchange, several of the ideas are applicable to other mail servers too. Here are my 5 reasons for supporting larger inboxes.

1. All email, all the time

I have had a Gmail account since the days of the pre-announced betas. My mailbox capacity is currently listed at > 7.5 GB. I only have about 412 MB of mail in it, but I have every old email I might ever need to find, no matter what or how long ago it was received. The oldest email I have in it is from 2001. In a company, I want the same thing. Who cares if the email was from five years ago? I know I received an email that has the information I need… I ought to be able to simply find and open it. I don’t want to have to parse through dozens of archives, or request a tape be brought up from the catacombs. Outlook 2010 has a great search tool and I should be able to use it.

2. Ready access from anywhere

If all the email I have is on the server, then I can get to it from anywhere. Whether I use Outlook on the laptop you just gave me because mine died, or OWA, or my phone, or my iPad, mail that lives on the server is backed up, online, and accessible no matter what happens to my client devices.

3. It’s discoverable

Sure, there are two sides to this argument too, however, if something comes up and you are served with a court order to provide emails relevant to an issue, being able to simply index and dump from the server is quick, easy, and keeps you from having to bring in the users’ laptops for imaging, pull tapes from years old archives, or any of the other fun things that might be necessary to comply with the order.

4. Exchange is designed with this in mind

Exchange 2010’s design is intended to keep all your mail on the server, ready for whatever client device an authorized user has to access it. Exchange 2010 has reduced IOPS per user to 0.1, ensuring optimum performance from the largest drives even if you are not buying top of the line SANs. Reducing IOPS was done with less expensive hard drives in mind. Since that does not come without its own set of risks, consider Database Access Groups and the self-healing capabilities of Exchange 2010.

5. PSTs (the alternative) are evil

When you limit users’ mailbox size, your intent may be to encourage them to prune their inboxes of unnecessary emails, but the result is they will create PSTs; lots of really big ones. After the first hard disk crash on a laptop (which will probably result in lost business data unless you can recover the PST,) the users will start to move those PSTs off to network shares so they are backed up. Congratulations, they have just crushed your fileservers. PSTs are NOT supported as an enterprise means for storing mail (KB297019) and you can read more about their performance hit on the network here.

As I indicated at the start of this post, a lot of the above is predicated on you having current version clients, the latest version of Exchange, and adequate storage for these large mailboxes. If you are running on an older system now, please keep the above in mind as you begin to plan for your new system. Whether that is for next quarter, or next year, being able to support large mailboxes offers significant advantages to businesses, and will make the email admin’s day much easier.

At my current company, we give each user, whether they are the CEO or an intern, 25GB of space. How large (or small) are your inboxes, and why?

5 Reasons for Larger Email Inboxes

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

There is little doubt that Microsoft Outlook is one of the leading forces on the desktop email client front, a fact concurred by at least one survey of email clients.  While the increasing acceptance and popularity of Web-based email means that the overall use of Exchange and Outlook has declined in recent years, the majority of corporations are still reliant on Outlook to conduct their business.

With the recent release of Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2011, the relevance of Exchange and Outlook looks set to stay.  As you can imagine, it makes sense for a server administrator to not only ensure that the company’s Exchange server is properly maintained and backed-up, but that the desktop side of things run smoothly too.  So what are some common problems in Microsoft Outlook, and what can the savvy IT professional do to pre-empt them before they happen?

• Standardizing on newer versions of Outlook

It is in an organisation’s best interest to standardize on the same version of Microsoft Outlook.  The benefits are many, and are primarily related to productivity gains in not having to support disparate versions of the same software.  Also, it is far easier for administrators to test out new security patches of service packs on a reference system and know that it will behave in the same way when rolled out across the company.

In addition, it is generally a good idea to upgrade to a newer version of the Microsoft Outlook client for new features and heightened security.  Older versions might no longer be covered by security patches from Microsoft, while newer iterations tend to incorporate up-to-date security best practices.  As a reaction to image and malware spam for example, Outlook 2003 and later no longer load images in HTML e-mails automatically or permit opening executable attachments by default, and comes with a rudimentary junk filter.

• Deploy Microsoft Outlook not Outlook Express

It might sound strange, but I’ve seen my fair share of businesses that use Outlook Express with their Exchange infrastructure.  Typical reasons range from the cost of having to purchase Microsoft Outlook to users indicating a preference for Outlook Express.  To be sure, only Microsoft Outlook offers MAPI client access in order to fully leverage the inherent capabilities of Microsoft Exchange.  Despite the similarity in their names, Outlook Express (and its replacement, the recently released Windows Live Mail 2011) is designed to function as a standard email client.

The downside of retrieving emails via POP is that data can become irretrievably lost should workstation crash and backups are not in place.  While I don’t have the numbers to prove it, my experiences with Outlook Express and Microsoft Outlook is that the latter tends to be more robust and stable.

• Keep the mailbox lean

Any administrators or IT managers are no doubt acutely aware of the benefits of a lean mailbox.  Your typical users do not know that, unfortunately.  Regardless, below are some pointers of what you can do to help employees keep their mailboxes lean.

Run Autoarchive regularly

If run regularly, this magical tool will go a long way towards helping your users keep their mailboxes in shape.  Emails that are older than a predefined limit can be automatically moved into an archival file, bringing down the size of the inbox.  By default, the Autoarchive tool will launch every 14 days, so ensure that its configuration is tweaked accordingly and users do not disable the tool when it is scheduled to run.  And yes, it also makes sense to ensure that the resultant archive is part of your corporation’s backup regime.

Impose limits on large attachments

I once saw a question on a forum enquiring about the maximum file size allowable under Microsoft Outlook.  One witty response went along the line of “You are using a screw to chop wood,” which I thought to be an apt description.  The fact is that users will end up sending large attachments via email because they forgot to first check on the size of the file.  While not a cure-all solution, administrators need to impose limits on large attachments, and also create alternative ways of transferring files – such as FTP – that users can tap into.

Empty the Deleted folder

It might surprise you, but there are users who like to leave trash lying around, so to speak.  To help them along, you can empty the “Deleted Items” folder on a regular basis in order to reduce the size of their mailboxes.  Thankfully, Outlook has precisely this option under the “Empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting” checkbox under Options.

Compact Outlook data files regularly

Finally, it pays to periodically compact Outlook’s data file under File -> Data File Management.  This will bring down the size of the file and maximize available hard disk space.

How to Pre-empt Common Problems in Microsoft Outlook

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

Administrators who have ever deployed or maintained Microsoft Exchange will know that it is no mere e-mail server; more than ever, organisations are integrating access to its contacts, calendaring, and collaboration functionality as part of their core business processes.

One unfortunate complaint that seems to afflict many users though would be the seemingly inevitable slowdowns in Outlook, resulting in an inferior experience when accessing Exchange.  I can certainly identify with the frustration, having first used Microsoft Outlook in the days of Outlook 95.

In order to increase the user satisfaction on your network, let’s take a look at some steps that you can take to ensure that your non-IT colleagues are able to work at their maximum productivity.

1. Upgrade to Outlook 2010
   Organizations looking for a speedier Exchange experience will do well to upgrade to the recently released Outlook 2010, which has been enhanced to improve the handling of e-mails.  Performance tweaks made by Microsoft means that Outlook 2010 is simply more stable and faster, a fact that I can personally attest to. In addition, users dismayed by the poor search capabilities of Outlook 2007 will be pleasantly surprised by its much more capable and faster searching.
   
2. Implement an archival solution
   One of the main reasons for slow mailboxes is an excessive amount of e-mails.  While improvements have been made in each version of Exchange Server to handle ever larger mailbox sizes, a leaner mailbox of 1GB or lower contributes immensely to snappier performance.  Compliance laws however, mean that users are not necessarily free to delete e-mails on whim.  This is where a good archival solution such as GFI’s MailArchiver comes into play, allowing users to keep their mailboxes trim while still being able to search for and refer to older e-mails.
3. Limit Storage Space
   In line with the rationale behind implementing an archiving solution, a simpler way to keep mailboxes lean would be to limit the amount of storage space allowable per user.  In general, users who know that they don’t have unlimited storage on their e-mail accounts tend to be more amenable to not mass-mailing irrelevant video clips and large pictures attachments to their colleagues.
   One concession to appease senior executives (who might veto this move) would be to tier differing allotments of storage space based on seniority.  Such an initiative would serve at least to speed up the Exchange experience for the majority of workers.
4. Disable Outlook plug-ins
   One sure way to slow down or render Microsoft Outlook unstable would be to install lots of Outlook plug-ins.  They can be particularly insidious due to the fact that some applications install such plug-ins by default, or obfuscate their presence by bundling it as part of an innocuous option.  If your users are complaining of frequent unexplained crashes though, there is a good chance that it is the direct result of an ill-behaving plug-in.
   In order to benefit from Google Desktop’s search capabilities, I had, in the past, opted to install the bundled Outlook plug-in with Outlook 2007.  I noticed that it lead to a large number of crashes though, prompting me to eventually uninstall it.  On the Outlook front, fellow blogger John P Mello Jr wrote an excellent piece recently on how to speed up the popular e-mail client.
5. Disable HTTP
   To facilitate communication from behind a firewall, Outlook comes with the option of connecting to Microsoft Exchange Server via an HTTP proxy.  In a tacit acknowledgement that encapsulating RPC calls within HTTP packets is slower, Microsoft has built the relevant options into Outlook allowing users to opt for direct TCP/IP connection before switching to HTTP.  Ensure that direct TCP/IP is prioritized.
6. Enable Cached Exchange Mode
   The key strength of a corporate mail server like Microsoft Exchange has to do with how it securely and reliably stores all e-mails in a central repository.  Still, the experienced system administrator will know that accessing data will always be faster from a local cache.  While I noticed that “Cached Exchange Mode” was enabled by default for me in Outlook 2010, system administrators will do well to ensure that e-mail caching have not been mistakenly disabled by end-users.
7. Upgrade your client computer
   Regardless of the tweaks suggested above, attempting to access Microsoft Exchange via a netbook computer with slow storage will likely result in an unpleasant experience.  I did notice a far snappier response from Outlook after I upgraded my laptop to use a solid-state disk (SSD), which has much faster read and write timings than conventional hard disk drives (HDDs).  In addition, the case for upgrading to SSDs is bolstered should you enable Cached Exchange Mode, while the steadily decreasing prices should also make it an attractive option.

Seven Ways to Speed up Your Exchange Experience

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

We hear a lot of talk these days about the benefits of a hosted Exchange deployment.  Probably reflecting the desires of IT managers on the ground, Microsoft’s latest and greatest version of the Exchange messaging server, better known as Exchange 2010, was touted by Microsoft to be “designed from the ground up” to be equally at ease running as a hosted service or as an on-premise solution.

While running one’s Exchange server on a hosted service certainly does have its allure, e-mail administrators or IT managers ultimately need to consider and weigh the merits of both scenarios carefully.  So when does it make sense for organizations to opt for an on-premise deployment of Exchange?

Let’s take a look at some of them today.

More choice of anti-spam and anti-malware solutions

The state of spam and malware proliferation via e-mail today means there is little tolerance for any Exchange installation that is not protected by some sort of spam and malware filtering.  While most hosted Exchange providers incorporate some form of spam protection, choices offered might be limited or expensive.  The alternative would be to opt for a cloud-based anti-spam service by using MX forwarding, though adding in another hosted service does increase the recurring cost of the hosted Exchange deployment.

On the other hand, an on-premise installation of Microsoft Exchange gives businesses a free rein on whether they want to rely on a cloud-based anti-spam service or a traditional server-deployed solution such as GFI MailEssentials, which allows for a greater degree of configurability.  In fact, it is entirely feasible to deploy both in tandem if necessary.

Heightened confidentiality and compliance

Where there have been many prominent news reports of organizations shifting to a hosted e-mail deployment, a closer examination will show that they are often not companies in the financial, health or other tightly-regulated sectors.

The truth is that the outsourcing of critical installations does not exonerate an organization should something go wrong, as can be evidenced by the case of the prominent seven hours downtime experienced by Singapore bank DBS recently.  The fact that the affected infrastructure was operated and maintained by IT vendor IBM – and the mistake perpetuated by personnel from IBM, cut no ice with the government regulator, who slapped a number of measures on the bank to censure it for the outage.

Another complication inherent to an Exchange deployment has to do with how legal jurisdiction is typically applied based on the location of the physical server.  And what happens if the data is stored at an off-site location in yet another country?  In fact, compliance laws might mean that a hosted deployment might not even be legally possible in the first place – an aspect worth investigating first.

Increased Backup and Archival Options

Moving on, an on-premise Exchange deployment also offers much greater flexibility when it comes to e-mail archival and management of backups.  While all cloud providers will position their backup capabilities as a selling point, the recent data loss experienced by some users of online note-taking service Evernote is a sombre reminder that mistakes can and do happen.

Ultimately, an on-site installation presents the e-mail administrator with the largest number of tried-and-tested solutions that can be used to backup Exchange mailboxes under their charge.  In addition, companies interested in increasing their Exchange performance will also be able to make use of solutions such as GFI MailArchiver to help create backups of old e-mail without running afoul of e-mail retention policies.

Better performance

It is now an accepted practice to connect to Microsoft Exchange via HTTP, which contributes to administrators making the mistaken assumption that the performance for a local area network (LAN) deployment compared to that of a hosted Exchange server is similar. The truth is that an on-site deployment within the network will always perform better than any service hosted on the Internet – where it is subjected to the fluctuating conditions of one’s ISP connection or the bandwidth capacity of your hosting provider.

This is especially important since employees are increasingly using Microsoft Exchange not just for e-mails, but as a collaboration and productivity tool with which to track contacts, schedule meetings, or even to book company resources like meeting rooms and projectors.  And depending on company policies, IT managers might need to roll-out brand new workstations (or do a fresh install) every couple of years.  The performance of a local Exchange deployment will be much faster during these periods.

Some Reasons for an On-Premise Deployment of Exchange Server

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

Email retention is a very important component in every company’s day to day business practices. The reasons are many: legal requirements, efficient use of storage, privacy of corporate email messages and others.

Policies and best practices should be clearly stated in every company’s IT department for how best to archive the multitude of emails that accumulate each day.

Here are some of the best practices and considerations for email archival.

1. Indexing and searching capability should be features of all email archival systems. Companies need to be able to respond quickly to requests for old emails particularly when those requests are coming from legal entities outside of the company. Months and months of email messages can quickly become millions of archived messages. IT departments will need to be able to respond to information requests in the least amount of time possible so as to meet any legal requirements necessary. Having a fully indexed archival message system will support the retrieval of any documents or email messages in a short period of time. In addition, being able to respond to requests for archived emails can help to meet discovery or subpoena requests in a timely manner.
2. Audit trails should be another component of any good email archival system. Companies need to secure and track their archived emails to meet the regulations of the various governing bodies such as the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) that can request specific emails from them. Audit trails can also be used to prove compliance with reporting regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
3. Complete email integrity needs to be maintained so as to meet the rules of evidentiary standards. Email integrity can be maintained by use of electronic signatures and time stamps of each email that is archived, redundancy of archival systems to provide continuous access to archived emails and encryption of email messages to protect against tampering of original data.
4. Virus scanning of all email messages prior to archival should be an additional step in the archival process so as to ensure not only the integrity of archived email messages but also the protection of email system at the time of retrieval of email messages from the archive system.
5. Support of multiple email systems and protocols is another feature that can help to reduce the number of archive systems that are needed within a corporation. Some of the more widely used email systems that ought to be included in an email archive system include: Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, Novell Groupwise, First Class, standard POP3, SMTP and Imap protocols.
6. Administrators should coordinate with their in-house legal department and with the department managers of the various business units that the IT organization is responsible for supporting. Those department managers may have additional requirements for email archiving of their employees emails based on their applications used and types of businesses they engage in. And legal departments can also provide guidance in the necessary archival rules and regulations which the company as a whole must comply with.
7. Know what time periods are required by specific regulations when determining how long to keep email messages in the archives. Some companies do not routinely rotate their archived email messages out to the bit bucket and as expected continue to drive up their storage and administrative costs unnecessarily. The more email messages that are stored then the more indexes are required and longer search times than are necessary will occur.
8. Designate someone within the IT organization who is the interface to the legal department. In smaller organizations the legal department will most likely be an outside law firm. Schedule regular quarterly reviews of the laws and regulations specific to your industry that have mandates related to email retention requirements. Some of these compliance laws, regulations, and standards that can impact how email is retained include: the Federal E-Discovery Rules; the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA); the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX); the PCI Data Security Standard; the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA); the EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC; the Basel II Accord and others.
9. Although not considered email, instant messages should also be included as electronic items that can be stored in an email archival system. Within the course of daily activities business communication emails that are received can sometimes start off as instant messages that have been converted into email when the sender was no longer able to communicate with the recipient.
10. The implementation and execution of a good email archival system can save a company much valuable time and money when all contingencies have been taken into account and the planning has been done well.

10 Email Archival Best Practices and Considerations

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

Retention Policy Tag types available in Exchange Server 2010.

With email playing a critical role in every business’s operations, protecting it has become more important than ever. One way to do that is by archiving it. Unfortunately, some organizations may find the task daunting.

Why? Messages may be stored all over the place–in .PST files, on SharePoint sites, on backup tapes, with third-party providers and in employees’ personal email accounts.

“With the potential of up to 90 percent of your e-mail residing outside of your Exchange Server, it can be daunting to enforce data retention policies or locate relevant communications when compliance matters arise,” Microsoft observed in a White Paper titled “Addressing E-mail Archiving and Discovery with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.”

Another barrier to email archiving can be worker resistance. Some archiving solutions require both desktop and IT folks to change the ways they do things. Users may need to leave the comfort of their email applications to interact with archived messages. They may also need to learn new clients or applications to work in the new environment. Those things can discourage employee buy-in to the new system.

Not only can those accommodations to change disrupt established workflows of desktop workers, but it can affect an organization’s productivity. For instance, an archival system that doesn’t integrate seamlessly with an existing email setup can disable features in that existing system designed to increase productivity. For example, if the archives were set up outside Exchange, workers might lose the benefits of tools like Conversation View and the “anywhere access” capability of Microsoft’s Outlook Web App.

Similar challenges can confront an IT department. They may have to maintain new add-ons to email and Web apps to adjust to the archive scheme. What’s more, archiving could create a whole new infrastructure that must be made reliable and accessible to users. In addition, search methods that work with an existing system may not work with the new archival system. That can create quite a can of worms when compliance officers, legal departments and human resource people are breathing down an administrator’s neck for data to meet legal or regulatory demands.

Cost can also be a barrier to archiving. If you have to create a parallel infrastructure to integrate an archiving solution into your system, that’s an added cost to your organization. On top of that, you’ll probably need additional training, and you can expect help desk volumes to rise as your workers acclimate themselves to the new way of doing business. Added costs are met with resistance even in the best of times, but that’s even more so now when every business is trying to make IT into a competitive asset by driving down the cost and overhead of infrastructure investments.

With that in mind, Microsoft has added some new features to Exchange Server 2010 that make creating an archival system less burdensome. One of those features is the Personal Archive.

What’s often done by users to preserve their email overflows is create additional .PST files. Those files are stored locally, which makes them difficult to manage. Personal Archive creates a secondary Exchange mailbox linked to each users main mailbox. Email overflows can then be shipped to the Personal Archive box where they can be better managed by a system’s administrators.

A nice feature of Personal Archive is that it doesn’t impose any additional burdens on users. It looks like an ordinary folder in Outlook or Outlook Web App and users can interact with it just as they do with their other folders.

The same is true for your IT crew. Tools they use to manage Exchange–such as Exchange Management Console and PowerShell–can be used with Personal Archive.

Exchange 2010 has also improved how it manages message retention. Policies can easily be implemented that automate deletion and archiving of email.

In addition, Retention Policy Tags can be attached to default folders–all inbox folders, for example, or Sent items–so as messages meet the retention action in a tag, they’re automatically performed. What’s more, users can assign personal retention tags to individual messages, conversations, or custom folders. To make things easier on users, retention policy details are displayed in a message’s preview pane to make it easy for users to keep tabs on what’s in store for a message.

Electronic Discovery is also facilitated in Exchange 2010 with a Legal Hold feature. If a user is placed on legal hold, any edits or deletions he or she makes to emails in his or her primary or Personal Archive account are preserved and stored in a separate recoverable items store that’s inaccessible to the user.

Another addition to Exchange’s e-discovery arsenal is a new multi-mailbox search. What makes this feature nice for IT folks is that they can delegate it to people like compliance officers or corporate legal staff without having to give the searchers full administrative privileges to their networks.

While Microsoft would never sell itself on the archiving capabilities it has packed into Exchange, it appears to recognize that not all good ideas originate in Redmond. It’s also built into Exchange 2010 ways for other software makers to add the software’s archiving, retention and discovery capabilities.

“There are likely many reasons your organization is seeking new and better ways to preserve and discover the critical business communications conducted over e-mail,” Microsoft noted in its White Paper. “Whether your motivation is to lower your storage costs, address regulatory compliance, or meet time tables for legal discovery orders, the integrated e-mail archiving, retention, and discovery features offered in Exchange 2010 can help your organization.”

Dashing barriers to email archiving with Exchange 2010

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

The Outlook Personal Folders file (PST) had its day.  It was once the ultimate or perhaps only solution to reducing the cost of storing old emails within the Exchange server database.

Those days are largely gone.  Exchange servers can scale up to much larger database sizes than they could 10 years ago.  Disk and tape storage is cheap, and emails themselves are getting larger and larger.  And enterprise email archiving is efficient, cost effective, and even comes built in to the latest version of Exchange Server.

The benefits of the PST format are now close to nil, while all of the problems remain.  PST files are single-user access only, can’t be indexed or easily searched, are sensitive to corruption when they get larger or are being accessed over networks, and consume more space due to their general inefficiency.

But many organizations have a lot of archived emails still stored in PST files.  Moving to a new Exchange server doesn’t magically solve that problem.  The question is what should you do about all those PST files?

Do Nothing

The least effort, but also least effective solution is to simply do nothing.  Draw a line in the sand and leave all those PST archives as is, but begin archiving to a proper email archiving solution from this point forward.

A serious downside of this is that you can’t reclaim all that wasted disk space that the PSTs are using up.

Import to Exchange Server

The tools to import PST files into mailboxes have been around for a long time.  The upside of this option is that it gets the data back into a server database where it can then be archived off to a proper email archiving solution.

The downside is that you risk bloating your Exchange databases in the process.  You might also make a mess of people’s inboxes if the imports are not directed to the right mailbox folders.

Import to Email Archives

Any good enterprise email archiving solution includes tools for importing PST files into the archive database.  The advantage of this option is that the data goes straight into the archives, is indexed and searchable, and doesn’t negatively impact the Exchange Server in the process.

PST Discovery

In either of the import scenarios above one of the big challenges is discovering all of the PST files on the network and correctly matching them up to mailbox users.  This is relatively easy when PST files are in a standard location such as the user home drive, but more complicated if they are stored in shared folders on the network or on PCs.

Discovery is also problematic on PCs because they can be offline at any time of the day, unlike servers which tend to run 24×7.  Custom scripts and third party file system analysis tools can assist with this, but the process will still be labour intensive.

Unfortunately the end users are not likely to be too much help identifying and locating their own PST files, as it’s not a concept they all fully understand.

Preventing PSTs from Returning

At some stage when the PST import challenge has been met the administrator will want to implement measures to prevent PST files returning to the network.  Fortunately this is fairly simple with Group Policy settings for Outlook, and File Server Resource Manager tools for Windows servers that can be used to implement file screening.

Though there is some effort involved to do it right, ridding the network of PST files is beneficial in the long term.

What to do With Those PST Files

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

On more than one occasion I have worked with a customer whose email archiving strategy could be stated like this.

“When people stop working for us we never, ever delete their mailbox.”

As you might guess from the title of this post, that is not really “email archiving”.  You could call it “email keeping”, but I would put it as “creates more problems than it solves”.

If your email archiving strategy is to have no strategy at all, and that’s a deliberate decision by your organization, then consider some of the problems that you are creating.

• Every mailbox you keep adds to the size of the database, which therefore consumes more disk space, and more backup media
• Larger databases take longer to back up, and longer to recover if there is a problem
• Every mailbox you keep is an active mailbox that can potentially continue to receive emails, increasing your storage needs at a rate faster than necessary
• Every mailbox you keep is also an active user account, leaving a potential attack vector for hackers or disgruntled former staff
• When the time comes to migrate to a new email server, the amount of data to move is that much larger
• Keeping emails in mailboxes on an Exchange server (prior to Exchange 2010 which relatively few organizations have moved to yet) does not make them easily auditable

Email Archiving Solutions

A proper email archiving strategy can be conceived and executed with the right archiving solution.  Here are some of the ways that email archiving can be implemented.

• 100% of inbound/outbound email is journaled and archived at the time of transit for historical record.  This can be done to meet legal or regulatory compliance requirements if necessary.
• Email items that exceed a certain age threshold are removed from mailboxes into the archive store.  This is one method for keeping mailbox sizes down.
• Mailboxes that reach a certain “watermark” or size also have their oldest items removed to the archive store, even if they are not yet old enough.  This also helps keep overall mailbox sizes down.
• Mailboxes for inactive users are sent to the archive store and removed from the server entirely.  This allows email for former staff to remain accessible without impacting the email server.
• The archive store is in one or two centralized locations, which consolidates email archives down to as few main data centers as possible regardless of the number of actual email servers in operation.
• The archive store is end user-accessible, secure, and searchable for easy access to archive items for both users and auditors.

The cost to implement these types of solutions is often less than the ongoing costs of maintaining all of that data within the production email servers.  And instead of creating problems, a genuine email archiving strategy creates solutions and improves the email environment for everyone.

When Email Archiving Isn’t Really Email Archiving

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

IT managers must account for many demands on their time and resources. Storage is always an issue and having to estimate the growth needs of the company and all the various departments can be a time-consuming and sometimes thankless job.

Estimating email storage needs can be started by making assumptions about the average size in bytes that attachments will require, the hours of day that the email servers will be the busiest and the number of users per email server. Those three variables multiplied together are a good starting point in estimating how much storage to allocate for email servers.

And the same computations can also be used when estimating how much storage to allocate for archiving purposes.

Archiving email messages can save an IT data center in many ways. Some of the reasons for archiving email messages include:

1. Freeing up storage on email servers. Email clients and servers provide a valuable function in any corporation and employees have come to rely on them for not just sending and receiving email messages accompanied with large attachments but also now for collaboration with co-workers. Most email applications now have integrated address books, calendar functions, “to do” lists and some have also included instant messaging as part of their email package.  But with all of these newly added capabilities there has also been a corresponding growth in the storage needs of these more robust applications. IT departments can benefit by reducing their storage needs through the use of archival media.
2. Compliance regulations. Corporations must comply with many regulations within their industries as well as many governmental regulations such as the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002. When companies find themselves having to provide information to various governmental agencies then they have to be able to rely on systems, policies and their IT departments to be able to retrieve the necessary data such as email messages in a timely manner. So IT departments have to stay current and be a part of all corporate discussions involving regulations and industry standards related to communications particularly related to email communications. In addition to SOX there are other government regulations to be made aware of such as: GLBA, SEC, FINRA, HIPAA, BASEL II, FOI, etc
3. Electronic discovery. As of December 1, 2006, Federal amendments went into effect which mandated that companies must be prepared to locate, retrieve, respond to data requests and be able to filter out data not necessary for a litigation action. Such data includes email messages, attachments and calendar entries. These amendments are known as the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and apply to any organization that can be subject to litigation.
4. Disaster recovery. An added benefit of having email messages that are archived is that messages can be retrieved in the event that your primary server goes down and backups are not current. If your archival systems have been set up to replicate data continuously from the primary mail server then your loss of email messages can be almost eliminated.
5. Improved email management. An automated email archival system can improve the management of emails through the use of rules and policies that can be customized for any organization. The time it takes to store, search and retrieve email messages can be greatly improved when performed automatically as opposed to a manual process. Documents which are methodically saved and stored can expeditiously be retrieved and help to avoid potential lawsuits when time constraints are critical particularly in litigious matters.
6. Increased employee productivity. Most employees spend a lot of time managing their email folders and moving data from folders to local storage. All this time managing their email can and would be better spent working on company projects.
7. Reporting and monitoring of email. HR departments cannot enforce the corporate policies without knowing that all communications that occur in an organization are within the proper guidelines as mandated by company policy. Searches can be conducted that look for suspicious patterns within company emails which can be exposed through pattern recognition software and various monitoring tools that are offered as additional services by archival management systems.

An email archival system can help many businesses with their management and storage of all email messages both incoming and outgoing. Storage space savings, increased productivity, regulatory compliance, satisfaction of discovery mandates and guaranteed retrieval are all benefits of a well maintained and administered email archival system.

7 Reasons for Email Archiving

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators

SearchExchange has written an article on the best and worst practices for email archiving in Exchange Server.  It is a detailed post and I agree with it, however it highlights some best practices that Exchange Server does not do very well on its own without additional systems in place.

PST Files

Outlook PST files are big disk space consumers and are not subject to inspection and retention by archiving systems.  Exchange Server itself cannot prevent the creation of PST files.  This requires the use of other systems such as Group Policy restrictions and file server storage policies.

For environments where PST files have been allowed to proliferate, Exchange Server offers very little in the way of tools to efficiently import the data into archives.  Fortunately there are third party email archive applications that do offer these tools for bulk processing of PST archives.

Separate Archival and DR Storage

The built in archiving available in Exchange Server 2010 does not separate active mailbox data from archive mailbox data.  Both types of data are stored in the same database, subject to the same backup and recovery process.

The best practice is to store and backup archive information on less expensive, high volume storage, and retain it separately (though it can be sent to the same offsite location as the active data).

During a recovery situation the active data can then be restored first as a priority, and archive data restored separately later when normal services have been resumed, because archive data is usually a much lower priority for restore in a DR situation.

Centralize Email Storage

Although Exchange Server environments are typically consolidated into fewer physical locations these days compared to previous years, in larger environments they are still often distributed into regional locations.

Archive information is best kept as centralized as possible, in one primary location with an additional offsite backup copy.  Again the archive features of Exchange Server 2010 limit this capability, because archive data is stored in the same location as the active mailbox.

Third party archiving systems that extract email data from Exchange Server and store it in separate databases are much more capable of the desired centralization.

Maintain Older Readable Versions of Archival Data

The Exchange Server database format has changed several times as the product has iterated through its version history.  Older versions of Exchange Server did not have database portability, which is the feature by which a foreign database can be mounted and read by a different Exchange Server than it was originally connected to.

Restoring very old Exchange data can often mean building a replica of the original Active Directory and Exchange environments in an isolated lab, a situation in which virtualization comes in very handy instead of trying to retain and rely on very old hardware platforms for this task.  Even so it is time consuming and cumbersome to retrieve the data.

On the other hand most third party archive systems store archives in a format independent of Exchange Server database developments, and that data is preserved and retrievable throughout any upgrades of the archiving product itself.

As good as Exchange Server is it is clear that adhering to best practices for email archiving will require organizations to look beyond Exchange at third party products that can integrate and offer more flexibility and reliability over time.

Email Archiving Best Practices that Exchange Server Doesn’t Do Well

Free ebook download: Top 10 Most Popular Troubleshooting Posts for Email Administrators