Managing Archived emails

[Jeremy_Roberts]

I have inherited a 1TB vault store in a single partition. I would very much like to get rid of a lot spam (those emails that were sent in 1791 and 2020) and generally carve it all up in to some more manageable chunks, and if possible move a lot of it off to either some cheap disks or even tape. I have attempted search the Symantec site but can find no documentation that deals with this.

I am left with the feeling that there are no tools for an administrator to manage the items once they are in the vault.

Can anyone point me to any stuff that could help me. or shoot me and put me out of my misery.

We are on version 2007 sp4

[GertjanA]

Hello Jeremy. As far as I am aware, it is not possible to split vaultstore. There is some additional info you can look for/investigate/do:

1 - What is your retention policy on archived mails? (if indefinite, you will keep the mails, if set (3/4/5 years), older mails will start expiring from the archive in due time.

2 - Do you perform expiry? (if not, mails won't be removed..)

As for manageability. Open a new partition, close the old one, set up collections/migrations.

In my environment, the mailbox archiving servers have a store disk of 300 GB. After 8 weeks, we collect files, which are in turn migrated to cheap storage after a week. We now have 25 TB on cheap storage...

(no retention/no deletion) Collections are described in the manuals. DVS files go into CAB-files, the CAB-files are migrated. When an old mail is needed, the cabfile is restored, the dvs extracted, the mail shown to user. The restored cab-file will get removed after a week (orso)

I think you might want to check your retention etc, possibly setup collections.

Good luck,

Gertjan

[Jeremy_Roberts]

Thanks for that, it as bad as I thought then. Can't believe there is not a proper mechanisim for managing stuff in the Vault. Despite the Admin manual having 500 pages it doesn't seem to cover the ongoing management of stuff stored in the vault. It must be nice to work in a company where your only job is to learn and manage just this.

[beta_dodo]

Hi,

You can set up collector migrator which can move older data(which has been collected)  onto another disk location if that helps...

[Jeremy_Roberts]

Where is the documentation on this? The only mention in the Admin manual relates to PST migration.

[EV_Guru]

You can use here a special tool for that or doing it like opening a new partition. Also it is possible to building cab files to collect the dvs files in your partitions and make the level 2 storage management with ev. You can then move cab files older than x to cheaper storage like sata disks etc..With standard mechanism you only have the choice to get all of you data moved in the partitions not specific ones.

Look at the admin guide for cab files and level 2 storage management functions, this helps you or contact us for further help.

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www.longerich.com

[pclarke]

have had a look in the Admin guide and cannot find any info on cab files and Level 2 Storage?

Currently using Ev8.0 with Domino we have Journaling setup and also Archiving mailbox's. Only have one Domino Store Partition that includes both of these items. Because of the journalling I need to find a way of archiving the archive if you see what I mean other wise we will run out of disk space. Interesting to read this thread as It looks to be relevant to my needs.

[Jeremy_Roberts]

The 2007 (v7.5) Admin Guide contains no information on this subject at all. There is some info in the online help but it isn't very in depth or particularly helpful other than saying you can do it.

Does anyone know which page of which manual any info on this appears?

[EV_Guru]

you will also find it in the installation and configuration manual, by creating vault stores:

On the partition properties you can configure and schedule the collection and migration of archived data files. Collection involves collecting multiple small files into CAB files. Migration involves moving the collected files onto longer term storage devices. See online help for details on setting these options.

it's the setting at the partitions properties to move older archive data to a second location.

_________________

www.longerich.com

[Jeremy_Roberts]

I've found a reference to it in the Install and Config but it is not really very helpful.

I will have to see if i can find something usefull in the knowledge base.

"On the partition properties you can configure and schedule the collection and
migration of archived data files. Collection involves collecting multiple small files
into CAB files. Migration involves moving the collected files onto longer term
storage devices. See online help for details on setting these options.
Other storage applications have been integrated with Enterprise Vault to enable
the collection and migration of data files. Supported applications are listed in the
Enterprise Vault Compatibility Charts.
For instructions on how to configure collection and migration using other
applications, see collection and migration articles on the Symantec support
knowledge base."

[pclarke]

Jeremy,

I was wondering if you had any luck on finding more information on Collections? I have had

a look but want to be 100% sure about the process before trying it out for Real.

Thanks

[Jeremy_Roberts]

I haven't found any further information as of yet. There is the sugestion that to fully manage this you will need to buy some software such as Netbackup, but I can't find anything specific that deals with the whole data management process as overview or specifics, probally looking at the wrong website, is there a juice site for EV like there is for Altiris?

It would seem that you can creat a new Vault partition every year and manage these in some way but nothing concrete.

It seems to be one of those things you either know or don't and if you don't no one will tell you.

[pclarke]

Since posting my message I have done some more digging and as you have suggested you do seem to require some sort of third part archiving solution to manage the collections.

I notice in the Compatibility PDF it Mentions Window Storage Server as being supported for Storage dont dont if this means for Collections etc though. Think I may have to try looking for some onsite training for managing the Vault before it grows to BIG

[Jeremy_Roberts]

There are around 1000 pages in the documentation for version 8 and yet there appears to be no coverage of this subject other than I pasted in my earlier post.

[Michael_Bilsbor]

Hi,

what does the online say, any help?

What other questions do you have exactly (I'm from EV engineering)

[Jeremy_Roberts]

Online help does really say anything. What I am after is an overview, some kind of best practices guide and some options as to the best way to make this managable on an ongoing basis as it would seem to be a one way step and not one I would like to get wrong. The Admin manual does not even cover why you may wish to create a new partition or the ongoing management of the vault and the data in it.

Online help on Migration and Collections below. Vault Store Partition Properties: Migration

Vault Store Partition Properties: Migration

Migrate collection files. Enterprise Vault can automatically migrate collection files from an NTFS or network share vault store partition to a secondary storage location. The migration can help reduce storage costs by moving collection files to cheaper secondary storage devices. The drawback is that retrieval times increase.

Note that this functionality requires a separate license.

• Migrate files older than. Specify the age at which each collection file is to be moved to secondary storage.

• Remove collection files from primary storage. Files that have been copied to a secondary location can remain in their primary location for the period of time you specify here. This means that you can, if necessary, allow time for the secondary storage to be backed up before deleting the files from the primary location.

• Secondary storage location. Shows the location to which this partition's collection files are migrated. When you have selected a secondary location and applied the new setting, you cannot change to use a different location.

Vault Store Partition Properties: Collections

Vault Store Partition Properties: Collections

Enterprise Vault Collector combines multiple small files on the partition into much larger, collection files, which may give you a significant improvement in backup times. The collection files are standard Windows CAB files.

You can configure the maximum size of the collection files to suit your backup device, but there are several other rules that Enterprise Vault Collector uses that you may want to be aware of.

These rules are as follows:

• All files of the appropriate age are collected.

• A collection file never contains more than 25,000 files.

• Files are collected provided that they are no bigger than the maximum collection file size.

• Enterprise Vault Collector does not add to a collection file when the file has been created. Thus, you may find that you have collection files that are less than the maximum size.

Use Collection files. (Not shown for Centera partitions.) If you want to use file management software, select this and then choose the collector software you want to use from the list and customize the collection behavior as required.

Note that, when you have enabled file management software for a partition, you cannot go back to None.

Daily file collection times:

• Start at. Enter the local time at which you want collecting to start.

• End at. Enter the local time at which you want collecting to finish. Enterprise Vault stops collecting at this time or when it has no more files to collect, whichever comes first.

• Run Now. Click this to run Enterprise Vault Collector on this partition immediately.

Limit collection files to <number> megabytes. Enter the maximum size for collection files. The default size is 10 MB; you may want to change this to optimize the use of your backup media.

Note that increasing the size of collection files means it takes longer to restore archived items because Enterprise Vault must recall complete collection files before extracting the files to be restored.

Collect files older than. Enter the amount of time that must elapse since files were last modified before they are eligible for collection.

If you have chosen to share duplicate archived items you must leave a longer time than if you have chosen not to share items. This is because items that are eligible for sharing may not all be archived at the same time. By leaving the files on disk for several days you allow time for sharing to occur.

 

[EV_Guru]

One option is also to migrate to EV 8.0 and use the better vault store, partition model. With this you are able to manage your data in the EV archives more better than the older versions....

Also you can use the migration tab on the older versions to migrate data from T1 to T2 Storage, lets say cheaper disks or tape devices. For this it is required that you have Cab Collections enabled...

________________

www.longerich.com

[Jeremy_Roberts]

Yes, but where is the documentation that explains this whole process? I don't want to do something like this and then find I've irriversably made a duff choice. There are 41 pages in the Admin Guide about PST files but nothing about managing your data.