how to delete archived messages not having shortcuts

[Al_Dunbar]

running ev8sp5 on three virtual 2003 servers with ev9 client on XP systems for about 22,000 mailboxes.

We implemented EV to offload message storage from Exchange. No message expiry and client is configured such that deleting a shortcut deletes the archived message as well. Since there is still a perception that email occupies too much storage, our Information Management people have been promoting the idea of deleting messages no longer having significance. Since block deletion is so slow, users are being told how to just get rid of their shortcuts (move to deleted items, empty deleted items) on the expectation that some way will be found to delete the archived messages orphaned by this process.

I have been unable to find anything in the way of a script or other utility that will do that. Has anyone here every done something like that? And, if not, how feasible do you think it would be for a script to be developed to find all messages whose shortcut no longer exists in the related mailbox?

Any and all comments will be greatly appreciated.

[AndrewB]

Would this be a one time thing or is it something that you would be looking to do on a regular basis?

[Al_Dunbar]

Thanks for the response.

Ideally we'd need to be able to do this periodically, although i wouldn't rule out the possibility of a one-time thing if that were somehow more feasible. The trouble is we have no control over when our users might decide it is time to do some cleanup.

The thinking here is that this would just run as a scheduled task, and we would configure the client to delete only the shortcuts.

But if done in a script outside of EV I suspect that all EV processes would have to be stopped to avoid contention with collections and extractions from CAB files, etc. I further suspect that it would be a very time consuming process, so would need to be run incrementally, as there would be complaints if archived messages were unavailable for a noticeable timeframe.

[JesusWept3 · Accepted solution]

I'm really confused.
So why just because the shortcuts get deleted from the mailbox would you want to delete it from the archive?
So if your Exchange management tasks delete items that are 30 days or older, then you would just be keeping archived items also for 30 days maximum.

Would there be any way for users to keep their shortcuts for longer than that period?
So if they have really important emails they want to keep, they can just put it in to a different folder and then the EMM skips over that folder?

If its just a simple case of get rid of all email older than 60 days etc, then just configure your retention categories to also delete items older than 60 days, it would be a waste of EV in the environment but you could do that quite easily

But users should still be able to view items from Archive Explorer etc, and if you have users that are used to Browser Search and Archive Explorer, they may be quite happy having their old email accessible via those interfaces and not having shortcuts

And then if you come along and delete them, then all their old email goes with it too.

Your best bet may be to looking in to Vault Cache and Virtual Vault and get rid of shortcuts altogether, then users can access their items via Virtual Vault, just like a PST file connected to their profile, they can move items, delete them in bulk etc and no shortcuts will be taking up exchange mailbox space

Other than that, it would be quite a painful process
You would have to go through each item in the database, connect to the mailbox, see if you can find an item that matches the SavesetID, and if you have a match then dont do anything, but if you dont have a match then delete the item.

There are no tools out there that I am aware of
but you can reach out to Quadrotech or Globanet that will create custom tools, scripts and utilities etc at a cost, its not something personally I would ever do though as there is too much risk of deleting legitimate data that end users wish to keep etc

Oh and also, the deletion wouldn't touch anything on the CAB file side or extract any items, it would simply get rid of the index and database entries if its collected, if its not collected then it will go one step further and delete the DVS files from disk, if its in a CAB file, it will remain in the CAB until sparse collections run

[AndrewB]

we can offer a one-time solution to "clean up" like you say. it is very time consuming, as you identified, but would be with a proven process, not a custom script. we would stop archiving and cabbing temporarily but your environment would stay available throughout the process so users could access their shortcuts the entire time. you're welcome to shoot me your contact info in a PM i can provide some more detailed information about the solution outside the forum.

[Al_Dunbar]

I expected to cause confusion with my question, as our particular approach to the use of EV is quite at odds with the typical use.

we'd want the archived email deleted when the shortcut is deleted, because we are not applying any retention. Users are fully responsible for keeping what they need to keep. Where they have fallen down is in failing to delete what they do not need to keep. we implemented EV *ONLY* to offload message storage, not to apply any principles of record management.

I know, I know, we could have done a better job of it in a number of ways. But I had no decision-making authority in this...

We do not run Exchange management tasks - all messages remain until deleted by the user, whether in their mailbox or their archive.

We had thought of a short retention category, but that would not mesh with our email culture ;)

In terms of old emails users want to keep, well... within a year we will be migrating to a new, government wide email system, and are not expecting to be able to carry any older email across (perhaps anything sent/received in the last 90 days, policy TBA). The plan has been to retain EV for historical access, however, there are concerns that a large proportion of the terabytes of messages have no business value. And, beyond that, there is an expectation that any data kept would remain subject to access to information requirements...

All that said, I really appreciate your comments regarding the complexity of and risks inherent in the process, as this pretty much confirms how I already understood it. Others in my organization seem to be of the opinion that "if we can contemplate something as simple and easy to understand as deleting archived messages (hey, EV already deletes orphaned shortcuts), then surely someone with a bit more EV expertise than Mr. Dunbar would be able to develop the script for us...".

As an interim solution I had suggested using EVPM to set a zero-day retention policy on a special custom folder, and directing users to move their unwanted messages there and just leave them there. It was pointed out to me that this would only work if the users would actually remember to do that, and that is not likely. And, from my point of view, I expect it would have or create its own problems.