Why is EV System mailbox requirement one per exchange server?

[Merv]

I have an admin who wants to know why we need 1 mailbox per exchange server / 1 mbx per DAG. Any standard reasons from symatec/documentation which gives reasons why? This is for an EV9.02 setup on Exchange 2010

[Mohawk_Marvin]

EV uses the system mailbox to make connections to the exchange server the ev system mailbox resides on. The system mailbox is "just" a bog standard mbx nothing fancy.

[Merv]

I know that already. The documentation tells your what the acct needs but no details as to why...I just need a more detailed answer i.e. along the lines of say opening up MAPI connections. Extract from EV intall & config Guide: The Enterprise Vault system mailbox is a mailbox that is used by the Exchange Mailbox, Exchange Journaling, and Exchange Public Folder tasks when connecting to the Exchange Server. You must create an Enterprise Vault system mailbox on each Exchange Server that you want Enterprise Vault to archive. Note: If you use database availability groups (DAGs) in your Exchange Server 2010 environment, you must create each Enterprise Vault system mailbox in a database that is replicated across the DAG. Note also the following requirements: ■ The Enterprise Vault tasks require exclusive use of this mailbox, so the mailbox must not be used for any other purpose. ■ The mailbox must not be hidden from address lists. ■ The account that the Enterprise Vault system mailbox is associated with must not be disabled.

[Rob_Wilcox1]

It's down to the way our product is designed.  I don't think you'll get much more of a detailed response, as it might lead to leakage of IP.  (intellectual property)

[Merv]

Hi Rob, Coming from you I guess that's probably as authoritative an answer as you can get. What the admin wants to know if just say we have 3 servers, why can't we just use 1 mailbox acct for all 3 servers? Is that info also leading to leakage of IP? Any layman's version of it without really going into the technical details on it's done. I know that the VSA has send as rights on these mailboxes. So my understanding is that the VSA uses these mailboxes to connect to the exchange server and then archives mail. Anything else which may be useful to add-on?

[Rob_Wilcox1 · Accepted solution]

Well the system mailbox is used as a kind of "hook" into/onto other mailboxes on the same system.  The Archiving Task first connects to that, and then "hops" over to the appropriate user mailbox.

In addition there might be performance benefits, since we are going to the "right" server.  Since we're using Outlook profiles under the covers for the archiving task, if we put in the name of a.n. other mailbox server, Outlook will need resolve that rather than going directly to the mailbox server.

[Merv]

thanks for the under the hood answer. I always wondered why there was so many darn temp profiles on the EV Server...i know there's a setting somewhere to even limit those temp profiles. Used to cause some issues on older EV versions if i rem correctly. Anyway back to the topic on hand. That answer is good enough for me. Performance is very important for my current implementation. Thanks for your prompt and frank responses! :)