Configure the Managed Folder Assistant

Applies to: Exchange Server 2013

The Managed Folder Assistant is a Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistant that applies message retention settings configured in retention policies.

For additional management tasks related to messaging records management (MRM), see Messaging Records Management Procedures.

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Time to complete: 1 minute.

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Messaging records management" entry in the Messaging policy and compliance permissions topic.

  • You can't use the Exchange admin center (EAC) to configure the Managed Folder Assistant. You must use the Shell

  • In Exchange 2013, the Managed Folder Assistant is a throttle-based assistant. Throttle-based assistants are always running and don't need to be scheduled. The system resources they can consume are throttled. You can configure the Managed Folder Assistant to process all mailboxes on a Mailbox server within a certain period (known as a _work cycle)*. The work cycle is set to one day by default.

  • For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this topic, see Keyboard shortcuts in the Exchange admin center.

Tip

Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at Exchange Server.

Use the Shell to configure the Managed Folder Assistant

This example configures the Managed Folder Assistant to process all mailboxes within one day.

Set-MailboxServer MyMailboxServer -ManagedFolderWorkCycle 1

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-MailboxServer.

How do I know this worked?

To verify that you have successfully configured the Managed Folder Assistant, use the Get-MailboxServer cmdlet to check the ManagedFolderWorkCycle parameter.

This command retrieves all Mailbox servers in the organization and outputs the Managed Folder Assistant's workcycle properties from each server in a table format. The Auto switch is used to automatically fit column width.

Get-MailboxServer |* -Auto

Use the Shell to start the Managed Folder Assistant

This example triggers the Managed Folder Assistant to immediately process Morris Cornejo's mailbox.

Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -Identity morris.cornejo@contoso.com

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Start-ManagedFolderAssistant.