Virtual Vault/Vault Cache Question

[Joe_Davies]

Hello,

I apologize if some of these questions are covered elsewhere.  I've tried searching for my question about checking available space in Outlook, but maybe am not looking in the right places.

I have installed a trial copy of Enterprise Vault 9 and am hoping to roll it out for our employees soon.  I plan to use it as an extra storage space for email to offload some of the resource needs from our Exchange 2010 server.  We have no intention of setting up automatic archiving at all, but instead want to allow employees full control to manage by moving email to/from their vault mailbox within Outlook 2010.  A few questions I had regarding the terminology and Vault behavior from my limited experience with the product:

1. The Vault Cache is a term used for the local cached copy of the Vault mailbox, which is then synchronized to the Vault mailbox server at a given interval (I have read it is a default of 1 day)?

2. The Virtual Vault is a term used for the user's Vault mailbox stored on the EV server?

3. I would like users to have the option to see how much free space they are using in their Vault.  I've found where that can be viewed for the Vault Cache(File -> Enterprise Vault -> Configure Vault Cache -> Details tab).  If 1 and 2 above are true, then are my assumptions correct that the "Current Cache Size" value will only accurately reflect the space available in their Virtual Vault if the two are synchronized?

4. Are the steps describe in #3 the only place that users can accurately see how much space they are using in both Vault Cache and Virtual Vault, assuming the two are synchronized?  Or is there somewhere else in Outlook that I'm missing?

We have a few users have 10+ years worth and never delete anything, and are insistent on keeping it all for "legal" reasons.  If I had my way it would be different, but unfortunately I don't make the rules and only follow them.  I want to make sure when we initially move mail from their PST files to the server that the Vault Cache and Virtual Vault show correct space available.  Also I would like to give users the ability to see how much space is available in their vault to assist in managing their email.

Help is much appreciated in clearing up my possible confusion and questions!

[Rob_Wilcox1 · Accepted solution]

Vault Cache is really a local copy of some/all of the archived content.  What's in the users Archive.. not really anything relating to a mailbox or contents as such.

By default it will synchronise once per day, but if you like at your Desktop Policy and then the Advanced section under Virtual Vault you'll see all sorts of trigger based options, such as synch when X Mb of data has been dragged and dropped in to Virtual Vault.

Virtual Vault (whilst we're here) is an additional node added to Outlook, and consists of a metadata cache file, with metadata in about the whole of the users archive, and the content cache, containing some/all of the data cached locally.  The additional node shows you the folder structure and so on, and allows you to drag and drop things in from the mailbox.

By default the size of a users archive can grow without limit.

The size of the data in the Vault Cache, as you see it in the properties sheet is only what is stored locally... the server may have more for a variety of reasons :

* Size restrictions on the client might mean only X Gb of data is cached locally

* Date/Time restrictions on the client might mean only X Gb of data is cached locally (eg when you set it up on the client you can say "just the last 2 months worth").

Also remember that the server has Optimised Single Instance Storage, meaning essentially that two users with the same email will only result in one copy on the EV server [That's a bit of a simplification, but you get the idea]

Other useful stuff :

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/virtual-vault-best-practice-overview-white-papers

I'd strongly advice reading the Virtual Vault whitepaper, and working with one of our many partners with your implementation, so that you get best results in terms of roll-out, acceptance, and usage.

[Joe_Davies]

Hi Rob,

Thank you for the quick response.

So the accepted way for a user to view how much space they are using in their Vault (at least in Outlook 2010) is to go to File -> Enterprise Vault -> Configure Vault Cache -> Details tab?

Also on the "Options" tab in the same window, the user can change the maximum disk space to use setting.  If that same setting is configured in the desktop policy on the server, does the client ignore changes made to that setting?  I'm concerned about my users increasing the amount of data that can be stoerd in their Vault.

[Rob_Wilcox1]

There isn't REALLY an end user way to see how much data they have in their vault/archive.

The options in the client indicate how much there is locally.  The option to increase the space is only the amount that is cached locally.  An end user has no ability to change their archive quota.

[Joe_Davies]

Okay great, thanks again for your help.. it is much appreciated.

[Rob_Wilcox1]

Glad to help.