Exchange Server 2007 Messaging Records Management

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Messaging Records Management (MRM) is the set of events that is applied to any e-mail message or e-mail related item, such as a calendar item. These events are applied from the moment that the item is created until the item is deleted. In Exchange Server 2007, the e-mail retention policy defines how long an item must be kept, where it must be kept, and when it expires.

An e-mail retention policy includes business needs and legal or regulatory requirements. Usually, these policies are complex. They list various actions that must be taken for different types of content. Many information workers lack sufficient time or ability to fully understand these requirements, or they may just choose not to comply.

Messaging Records Management has the following purposes:

  • To provide customers features that help them to reduce legal liability, including the following:

    • Preserve messages that have to be kept

    • Permanently delete messages for which there is no longer a business or legal requirement

    • Reduce the time that is required to find the "e-mail in a haystack" when searches of large data stores are required for specific items

    • Track down users who do not follow company policy and legal or regulatory requirements

  • To provide features that remove unnecessary data to reduce storage costs, such as deleting unnecessary messages

  • To enable unobtrusive policy enforcement for the information worker (requiring minimal user effort to categorize messages and to apply the appropriate policy)

Definitions

 Term Definition

Item

For the purposes of this topic: any object that is stored in Exchange and that a user usually acts on (including messages, calendar items, meeting requests, contacts, and other Microsoft Office and non-MSFT file attachments, such as PDF)

Retention Policies

Policies about how long an item must be kept, where it must be kept, and when it must be deleted

Expiration

Deletion of items for which there are no longer any legal or business requirements

Preservation

Keeping one or more items for a specific time period

Discovery

Demanding and producing documents and other potential evidence among opposing parties for use in a court or regulatory proceeding (typically involving searching e-mail stores for items that concern a specific project or topic)

Journaling

Moving content from the production e-mail store to a long-term repository

Evidence

All data and properties of an item (including the item category, the sender, the recipient, and text in the subject or in the body)

Messaging Records Management Scenario

In the following scenario, assume that your company has the following requirements:

  • User mailbox items must be reviewed 15 days after the item is received in the user Inbox.

  • Messages of the "Meeting Requests, Responses and Cancellations" type must be deleted after 16 days after the item is received in the user Inbox.

  • All legal documents must be retained for one year.

To do this, you must perform the following tasks:

  • Create a Managed Custom Folder named Cleanup Review.

  • After 15 days, move all items from the user Inbox to the Cleanup Review folder.

  • For the Cleanup Review folder, specify the following settings:

    • Permanently delete messages of the "Meeting Requests, Responses and Cancellations" type one (1) day after the messages are delivered to the Cleanup Review folder.

    • After 15 days, move all other items to the Deleted Items folder.

  • Create a "Managed Custom Folder" named Legal Docs to be configured as follows:

    • Journal items that have been moved into the Legal Docs folder. This means that a copy of each message that is moved to the Legal Docs folder is automatically forwarded to a mailbox that is named Journal.

    • Documents that are moved to this folder should be retained for one (1) year after they are put into in this folder. After that time, the documents can be moved to the Cleanup Review folder.

Create and Configure the Managed Custom Folders

Create a new Managed Custom Folder

  1. Open the Exchange Management Console, expand Organization Configuration, and then click Mailbox.

  2. In the Actions pane, click New Managed Custom Folder to start the New Managed Custom Folder wizard.

  3. In the Name field, type Cleanup Review.

  4. Click New, and then click Finish.

Configure the Inbox Retention Period

  1. Click the Managed Default Folders tab.

  2. Right-click Inbox, and then select New Managed Content Settings.

  3. In the Message Type list, select All Mail Content.

  4. Click to select the Length of retention period (days) check box, and then type 15 for the value

  5. Click Browse to select the managed folder. Select Cleanup Review, and then click OK.

  6. Click Next two times, and then click New.

  7. Click Finish.

  8. To confirm the changes, click the Managed Default Folder tab, and then review the new Managed Content settings.

Configure the New Managed Content Settings

  1. Right-click Cleanup Review, and then click New Managed Content Settings.

  2. In the Name field, type Cleanup Meeting Requests, Responses and Cancellations.

  3. In the Message type list, select Meeting Requests, Responses and Cancellations.

  4. Click to select the Length of retention period (days) check box, and then type 15 for the value.

  5. Under Action to take at the end of the retention period, select Permanently Delete.

  6. Click Next two times, and then click New.

  7. Click Finish.

  8. Right-click Cleanup Review, and then click New Managed Content Settings.

  9. In the Name field, type Cleanup All other items after 15 days.

  10. In the Message type list, select All Mailbox Content.

  11. Under Retention period starts, select When the item is moved to the folder.

  12. Under Action to take at the end of the retention period, select Move to Deleted Items folder.

  13. Click Next two times, and then click New.

  14. Click Finish.

Create a New Managed Custom Folder named Legal Docs

  1. Open the Exchange Management Console, expand Organization Configuration, and then select Mailbox.

  2. In the Actions pane, click New Managed Custom Folder to start the New Managed Custom Folder wizard.

  3. In the Name field, type Legal Docs.

  4. Click New.

  5. Click Finish.

  6. Right-click the new folder that is named Legal Docs.

  7. Click New Managed Custom Setting.

  8. In the Message type list, select All Mailbox Content.

  9. Click to select the Length of retention period (days) check box, and then type 365 for the value.

  10. On the Retention period starts list select When delivered, end date for calendar and recurring tasks.

  11. On the Action to take at the end of the retention period list, select Permanently Delete.

  12. Click Browse, and then select Cleanup Review to move the items to that Managed Custom Folder after 365 days.

  13. Click OK, and then click Next.

  14. On the Journaling page, click Browse under Forward copies to.

  15. Select Journal, and then click OK.

  16. Click Next, and then click New.

  17. Click Finish.

Create the Managed Folder Mailbox Policies

After you have created Managed Custom Folders, you must create the Managed Folder Mailbox Policies.

Create the Managed Folder Mailbox Policies

  1. In the Exchange Management Console, expand Organization Configuration, and then click Mailbox.

  2. In the Actions pane, click New Managed Folder Mailbox Policy. The New Managed Folder Mailbox Policy wizard appears.

  3. In the Managed folder mailbox policy name box, type Inbox and Cleanup Review MRM.

  4. Click Add, and then select Cleanup Review.

  5. Click New.

  6. Click Finish.

  7. Click New Managed Folder Mailbox Policy.

  8. In the Managed folder mailbox policy name box, type Legal Docs, Inbox, and Cleanup Review MRM.

  9. Click Add, and then select the following folders:

    • Cleanup Review

    • Inbox

    • Legal Docs

  10. Click New.

  11. Click Finish.

Provisioning the users

Provision the users

  1. Expand Recipient Configuration, and then click Mailbox.

  2. In the details pane, right-click a user, and then click Properties.

Note

The Properties page for the user appears.

  1. Click the Mailbox Settings tab.

  2. Click Messaging Records Management, and then click Properties.

  3. Click to select the Managed folder mailbox policy check box, and then click Browse.

  4. Select the mailbox policy that you want to apply.

  5. Click OK three times.

  6. Run the following command from the Exchange Management Shell:

    Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -mailbox mailboxname

  7. To configure the assistant to run on a scheduled basis, right-click the server object in the Exchange Management Console, and then click the Messaging Records Management tab.

  8. Under Schedule the Managed Folder Assistant, select Use Custom Schedule.

  9. Click the Customize button to customize the schedule.

More Information

For more information about the Records Management Team, see the Microsoft Records Management Team Blog site.

Note

The content of each blog and its URL are subject to change without notice.