Mailbox Manager in Exchange 2000 uses mailbox recipient policies to enforce defined policies on all mailboxes that are members of the policy. Using the policy's LDAP query interface, you configure Mailbox Manager to search all users' mailbox folders or select only a particular server or one Exchange Mailbox Store. Figure 1 shows the first screen that appears when you create a new mailbox recipient policy.
To create a new mailbox recipient policy, open the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Exchange System Manager snap-in. Right-click the Recipient Policies object, right-click the object, and select New, Recipient Policy, as Figure 2 shows. In the New Policy dialog box, select the Mailbox Manager Settings check box.
Setting Policies
As you can in the Exchange Server 5.5 version, you can still set the Mailbox Manager policy option to move items to Deleted Items or System Cleanup Folders. However, the Exchange 2000 version also lets you either generate a report only or delete the items immediately, as Figure 3 shows. Depending on which process you select, Mailbox Manager performs certain actions on messages. Table 1 shows the actions and their functions.
By default, Mailbox Manager selects all folders, the message age limit is 30 days, and the message size is 1024KB. However, you can customize these settings in the Folder Retention Settings dialog box by selecting the folder you want to modify and clicking Edit. When you select a folder type, the policy searches the default Outlook folder (e.g., Contacts) and all user-created folders based on the root folder (e.g., a user-created new Personal Contacts folder with the content type set to Contacts).
Another new feature lets you exclude a particular type of object from the policy, regardless of the folder the object resides in. For example, you might not want to use the rules on a Public Folder application, on a custom form, or maybe even in Calendar items. (By default, the policy deletes the selected folder's message class from the selected folder, but you might, for example, have contact information saved in another folder that you want to preserve.) To exclude a specific message class, you select the Exclude specific message classes check box on the Mailbox Manager Settings (Policy) tab, which Figure 3 shows, and customize the classes you want to exclude (e.g., IPM.CompanyClass.Post, IPM.CompanyClass.Contact). You can also use wildcards to exclude all classes or subclasses (e.g., IPM.CompanyClass.*).
One characteristic I don't like is that you ultimately end up with several (10 or more) recipient policies just because you want to keep your system healthy. For example, you might want to have different policies on different SGs. You'll also have at least as many policies as you have servers you want to manage because the Exchange 2000 version doesn't let a Mailbox Manager policy span servers. Having to maintain multiple policies means that you must spend more time not only designing and configuring them correctly but also managing them.
Enabling Policies
To enable Mailbox Manager, use Exchange System Manager to set up a mailbox recipient policy on objects. To filter membership and configure Mailbox Manager parameters, go to the Recipient Policies object, which I discussed previously. To set the Mailbox Manager properties on each server you want Mailbox Manager to run on, use the Mailbox Management tab in the server's Properties dialog box, as Figure 4 shows. This step is necessary because Mailbox Manager can handle only users that belong to the selected server. You also schedule the process on the Mailbox Management tab. Because Mailbox Manager creates performance overhead, select a schedule that doesn't conflict with other resource-intensive tasks, such as backups or antivirus scanning.
A new feature in the SP1 version is that when you enable Mailbox Manager on a server, you can choose to produce a summary report or a detailed report and send it to a designated administrator mailbox. Figure 5 shows a summary report. Web Figure 1 on the Exchange Administrator Web site (http://www.exchangeadmin.com) shows a truncated version of a detailed report.
Finally, you can run the cleanup process manually at any time by right-clicking the server on which you want to run the process and selecting Start Mailbox Management Process from the context menu. This action starts the management process immediately.
A Welcome Addition
The inclusion of Mailbox Manager in Exchange 2000 SP1 is welcome. I find the tool extremely useful in preventing the messaging system from becoming overloaded. Administration of Mailbox Manager has become more complex, and the process might scare off some administrators. However, when you understand the concepts, the process is straightforward, although you must carefully plan the schedules for each server.