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KeirL's avatar
KeirL
Level 6
2 years ago

Move Archive on WORM device

Hi

I'm trying to find out if I can move multiple user archives into a single new archive? The scenario is that we have about 100 user archives from a recently closed office which we no longer need these. I'm looking for a way to merge these into a single archive to reclaim the licenses - but I want to retain the data. Is this possible.

The user archives were on WORM storage in compliance mode and had a 10 year retention that is not yet elapsed. Are there any options to delete the archives (if I export to PST first perhaps) or use 'move archive' and point them to a single new archive on a new VS with a different WORM configuration.

Thanks

KL

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  • GertjanA's avatar
    GertjanA
    Moderator
    2 years ago

    Hello,

    An inactive user (mailbox/archive) does not need a license. 

    Deleting an item from WORM when the retention period is not yet changed is (or should) not possible. That's why you use WORM. That implies you cannot use move archive, as the move archive will try to delete the source once moved. it MIGHT be possible to hack the DB to make the archives 'disappear', but that is not advised..

    If you can afford to retain the WORM device, I would just let it sit there, and wait for the retention period to finish.

    There is a 3rd party which moves data from WORM to somewhere else, but that comes at a cost. See https://www.interlock-tech.com/veritas-enterprise-vault

    • KeirL's avatar
      KeirL
      Level 6
      2 years ago

      Many thanks both

      So what constitutes an 'inactive user'? My understanding was that any archive that contains even a single item - whether that user has an active mailbox or not (or still works for the business or not) requires a license - if it's done per user then when a user leaves the business and a new user is hired as a replacement, we assign them a new Exchange mailbox and enable them for archiving - does that new user need a new license or can they use the out-going users license - based on the fact that the outgoing users archive remains within EV (containing items) until they are removed by EV storage expiry.

      Thanks

  • GertjanA's avatar
    GertjanA
    Moderator
    2 years ago

    Hi Keirl,

    If I recall correct, an ACTIVE usermailbox requires a license. If I recall correct (2), you do NOT need a license for group- or functional mailboxes, nor for mailboxes which do no longer have an active user.

    coming back to your question, example. The below is for MAILBOX archiving.

    You have 500 licenses, for your 500 employees with a mailbox. 

    20 employees leave, 20 are hired = still 500 licenses. 

    20 employees leave, 10 are hired = 10 unassigned licenses.

    0 leave, 100 are hired, = you need 100 more licenses.

    150 new groupmailboxes are made = you need 0 new licenses.

    HOWEVER! If you do Journal Mailbox archiving (i.e. Journal Archiving), you need a license for the amount of mailboxes you journal. This means that if you have 500 usermailboxes, you need 500 'journal' licenses. If you have an additional 200 groupmailboxes which are journaled, you need 500+200 'journal' licenses.

    Your Veritas contact should be able to explain exact, or put you in contact with the licensing department to verify.

    I hope this helps. If in doubt, reach out to  your SE, who can bring you in contact with the correct department.

    • KeirL's avatar
      KeirL
      Level 6
      2 years ago

      Thanks - that's interesting, different to what I thought.

      Like many others, we have a 'Leavers provisioning group' to archive all items from a leavers mailbox into their archive before deleting their mailbox from Exchange. Over many years this has resulted in several thousand EV archives for users that have left the company, don't have an active mailbox but their EV archive still contains items yet be expire and are (technically) still searchable. We do have journaling but nothing new gets journaled for these users as they don't exist within Exchange.

      I understood that a license would be required for ALL EV archives that contain searchable content - irrespective as to if the user has left the company (no longer has a mailbox and is no longer actively archiving data) or not.

      We do use EVDA but only search against the journal archives.

       

  • Tonaco_pt's avatar
    Tonaco_pt
    Moderator
    2 years ago
    You can look at Shared Archives. Note that the archive will loose folder.

    I not an expert on licensing but I believe the license are per user not per archive