Scripted PST Migration

[Rob_Wilcox1]

One of the many different ways that you can do PST Migrations into an Enterprise Vault archive is to use what is known as Scripted PST Migration.  I will try to explain and give some examples of how this works below

Simplest Form

Scripted PST migrations rely on using .ini files, and EVPM.  The simplest EVPM script looks something like this:

[directory]
DirectoryComputerName = bauerev
SiteName = bauersite

[PSTDefaults]
MigrationMode = Process
PSTLanguage = Western European

[PST]
VaultName = PST
ShortcutMode = NoShortcuts
FileName = c:\AlphaBet.pst

The format ofthe file is fairly similar even when dealing with a more complicated example.  It can be split in to 3 parts :

Part 1

The Enterprise Vault Directory information.  This is at the start of the file, and it’s what to connect to.  In this example the Directory is on a machine called bauerev, the site is called bauersite

Part 2

Defaults to use for all PSTs listed (as the name of the article implies you can do more than one file.. but there might be common things between them all).  In this section you list a bunch of standard options to use against each PST file, and importantly you also specify the mode of running EVPM (more on that shortly!)

Part 3

A list of PSTs to process, and where they should be processed to.  So in this case I’m going to ingest the contents of C:\Alpabet.pst into an archive called PST, and I’ve opted not to create any shortcuts.

There is quite an important point to make here with regards to the shortcut mode.  There are three options, no shortcuts as is used here, shortcuts in the PST (PSTShortcuts) which will put the shortcuts in the PST file (makes it hard to post-process aka delete the PST!) and finally shortcuts in the mailbox (MailboxShortcuts).  However if the archive you are ingesting into is a Shared Archive then there is no concept of a mailbox so that option will not function entirely as you might wish.  The last thing to note is if you have the option for MailboxShortcuts then, any non-eligible items or items that fail to ingest, will be moved to the mailbox at the end of the migration, along with all the shortcuts.

MailboxShortcuts as you can imagine can be quite useful, since (at least in theory) after processing the PST file will be empty, and you can delete it (thereby cross one off the list of 10,000 you have to do!)

Testing, Testing, 123

The first thing you might want to do with a slightly more complete example is to “test” that everything is in order before you start to process the PST files for real.

To do this you use the MigrationMode of Report.

Here is an example :

 [directory]
DirectoryComputerName = ev01.wolfpack.local
SiteName = ev01

[PSTDefaults]
MigrationMode = Report
PSTLanguage = Western European
ShortcutMode = NoShortcuts
CancelMbxAutoArchive = true
MailboxFolder = PST Migrations
SetPSThidden = true
SetPSTReadOnly = true
CompactPST = true
DeletePST = false

[PST]
FileName = \\ev01\psth\Burzacott,Vanessa_Export_0001.pst

The output of that is as follows :

Creating privileged MAPI session ..
Parsing input file: c:\program files\enterprise vault\migrateme.ini
Processing input file
============================================================================
============================================================================
11:19:45 Processing PST file: \\ev01\psth\Burzacott,Vanessa_Export_0001.pst
============================================================================
============================================================================
============================================================================
Summary:
Number of PST files checked: 1
Number of PST files not ready for migration: 1
Number of PST settings-override warnings: 0
New initialization file generated: c:\program files\enterprise vault\migrateme_1.INI

When you run the EVPM script in “Report” mode, then it will generate a second INI file with comments/issues/problems in it.  For the above we see the following part way down the file :

 [PST]
;----------------------------------------------------------------------
; Report_Status: PST cannot be migrated
; Report_Error: Incomplete migration settings defined
; VaultName = UNKNOWN
; RetentionCategory = UNKNOWN
;----------------------------------------------------------------------
DONOTPROCESS = TRUE
  FILENAME = \\ev01\psth\Burzacott,Vanessa_Export_0001.pst

You will see that it has told you what it think is wrong (you didn’t specify a Vault or a Retention Category for the ingest) and it marks this PST as “DoNotProcess”, which means that if you push the new INI file through EVPM, it will skip this PST.  [There might be lots of others in your list that were fine, but the above example is simplified]

More Complex Example

Below is a more complex example :

 [Directory]
DirectoryComputerName= evault1.ev.local
SiteName = EV1

[PSTDefaults]
MigrationMode=Report
PSTLanguage=Western European
ShortcutMode=MailboxShortcuts
SetPSThidden = false
SetPSTReadOnly = false
CompactPST = false
DeletePST = true

[PST]
VaultName=dog2
FileName=\\192.168.1.2\ingest\t1.pst
MailboxFolder=t-test

[PST]
VaultName=dog2
FileName=\\192.168.1.2\ingest\a1.pst
MailboxFolder=t-test22

The output of that is as follows :

 Parsing input file: c:\program files\enterprise vault\test2.ini
Processing input file
============================================================================
============================================================================
10:21:05 Processing PST file: \\192.168.1.2\ingest\a1.pst
============================================================================
============================================================================
10:21:07 Processing PST file: \\192.168.1.2\ingest\t1.pst  ============================================================================
============================================================================
        Summary:

        Number of PST files checked: 2
        Number of PST files not ready for migration: 0
        Number of PST settings-override warnings: 0

New initialization file generated: c:\program files\enterprise vault\test2_1.INI

So then after checking test2_1.ini, you can change the Migration Mode to PROCESS, and this is the outcome :


 Parsing input file: c:\program files\enterprise vault\test2.ini
Processing input file

*** Migration started...
Ctrl-C to quit migration

10:22:31 Processing PST file: \\192.168.1.2\ingest\a1.pst
  ============================================================================

  ============================================================================
10:22:31 Processing PST file: \\192.168.1.2\ingest\a1.pst

        PST migration option settings:

        PST File: \\192.168.1.2\ingest\a1.pst
        Vault: 12F9F876EF9080C4EAB7464661DBF39961110000evault1.EV.Local
        Exchange Mailbox: /o=EV Training/ou=First Administrative Group/cn=Recipients/cn=dog2
        Retention Category: 18EB50155ABC5954F8FDE126E23D8C1001b10000evault1.EV.Local
        Mailbox Folder: t-test22
        Server Computer Name: Not specified in ini file.  Obtain from PST, if marked.
        Shortcut Mode: MAILBOXSHORTCUTS
        Merge PST Folders: 1
        Include Deleted Items: 0
        Set PST Hidden: 0
        Set PST ReadOnly: 0
        Compact PST: 0
        Delete PST: 1
        Cancel Mailbox AutoArchive: 0
        PST Language: WESTERN EUROPEAN

10:31:45 PST Migration completed successfully

        PST migration summary:

        PST File: \\192.168.1.2\ingest\a1.pst
        Number of folders processed: 39
        Number of items archived to vault: 309 of 309
        Number of items moved to mailbox: 309 of 309
            - Number of archived items moved to mailbox: 309
            - Number of other items moved to mailbox: 0

10:31:46 Processing PST file: \\192.168.1.2\ingest\t1.pst
  ============================================================================

  ============================================================================
10:31:46 Processing PST file: \\192.168.1.2\ingest\t1.pst

        PST migration option settings:

        PST File: \\192.168.1.2\ingest\t1.pst
        Vault: 12F9F876EF9080C4EAB7464661DBF39961110000evault1.EV.Local
        Exchange Mailbox: /o=EV Training/ou=First Administrative Group/cn=Recipients/cn=dog2
        Retention Category: 18EB50155ABC5954F8FDE126E23D8C1001b10000evault1.EV.Local
        Mailbox Folder: t-test
        Server Computer Name: Not specified in ini file.  Obtain from PST, if marked.
        Shortcut Mode: MAILBOXSHORTCUTS
        Merge PST Folders: 1
        Include Deleted Items: 0
        Set PST Hidden: 0
        Set PST ReadOnly: 0
        Compact PST: 0
        Delete PST: 1
        Cancel Mailbox AutoArchive: 0
        PST Language: WESTERN EUROPEAN

10:41:39 PST Migration completed successfully

        PST migration summary:

        PST File: \\192.168.1.2\ingest\t1.pst
        Number of folders processed: 13
        Number of items archived to vault: 135 of 171
            - Number of items failed archiving (See the Event Log for details): 1
            - Number of items not eligible for archiving because of PST Migration Policy setting: 35
        Number of items moved to mailbox: 171 of 171
            - Number of archived items moved to mailbox: 135
            - Number of other items moved to mailbox: 36
  ============================================================================
  ============================================================================

        Summary:

        Number of PST migrations performed: 2
        Number of PST migrations completed successfully: 1
        Number of PSTs partially processed: 1
        Number of PST migrations failed: 0
        Number of PST migrations unprocessed: 0
        Number of PST migrations processing incomplete: 0

New initialization file generated: c:\program files\enterprise vault\test2_1.INI

Review the new file, fix any problems and run Policy Manager with this new initialization file.

Here is another example output :

 08:20:01 PST Migration completed successfully

        PST migration summary:

        PST File: \\ev01\psth\pst8912_2.pst
        Number of folders processed: 5
        Number of items archived to vault: 1 of 517
            - Number of items not eligible for archiving because of PST Migration Policy setting: 516
        Number of items moved to mailbox: 517 of 517
            - Number of archived items moved to mailbox: 1
            - Number of other items moved to mailbox: 516

From it you can discern that there were a large number of items in the PST that were outside of the policy (for example Message Classes that aren’t include – eg calendar items).  You can also tell from this that the Shortcut Mode must have been MailboxShortcuts, since the items that weren’t eligible were moved to the mailbox.

Other things to think about / remember

You can do PST marking before any of the migrations take place, which will mean that you don’t have to specify a Vault/Archive on the import.

You can ensure that all appropriate message classes are added to the PST Policy for migration.  This will give you far more chance of the PST file ending up “empty” following the migration, which means it can be cleaned up (aka deleted)


Remaining Thoughts

The difficult job of locating the PSTs in your environment still remains, even with scripted PST migration.  What some people may wish to do is perhaps use Server PST Migration to LOCATE the PSTs on the network, and then create a collection of INI files to process them with EVPM.  Other people may wish to use something else to generate a text file of file paths and names of PSTs, and then write a vbscript which puts together a collection of INI files to process.

References

Excellent additional information can be found in the Utilities Guide included in the Enterprise Vault documentation