Exchange 2000 Server SP1 Mailbox Manager

Mailbox Manager in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server has the same functionality as the add-in component of the same name that is provided with Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 3 (SP3) and Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 4 (SP4). Mailbox Manager was originally included as part of the Microsoft BackOffice Resource Kit. You can use this tool to help enforce corporate message retention policies, manage information store size, and to help recover from junk e-mail message (spam) attacks. Administrators can use this tool to clean up user mailboxes based on message size, message age, message type, and other parameters.

The Mailbox Manager service runs as part of the Exchange 2000 system attendant. Unlike the Mailbox Manager in Exchange Server 5.5, Mailbox Manager in Exchange 2000 only processes mailboxes on the local computer, to minimize the overall performance impact and to make sure that services have access to all the mailboxes. A set of configuration options is exposed on the Exchange 2000 computer to specify when the service will start and, optionally, to whom a report is sent.

Properties

Recipient Policies

You can define and apply user settings in Recipient Policies. To locate these options, open the properties of the applicable recipient policy, and then click the Mailbox Manager Settings (Policy) tab. An administrator can use these settings to define a set of options based on a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) filter. If you cannot view these properties after you apply Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 1 (SP1), right-click the recipient policy, click Change Property Pages, and then click to select the Mailbox Manager Settings check box.

You can specify the following set of options:

• Action to be taken (when processing a mailbox):
  • Generate report only (default)
    
    Note When you configure Mailbox Manager to generate reports, the reports do not account for single instancing of messages. The reported size of messages may be larger than the size of the private information store.
  • Move to Deleted Items folder
  • Move to System Cleanup folders
  • Delete Immediately
• Folder to process. The administrator can use this option to define the set of folders to be processed (such as Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, and Journal), in addition to the age limit of items and the size of the messages in a folder.
  
  Additional folders can be added based on the users' mailbox root folders. Mailbox Manager can operate against folders that users have added, provided that the folders match exactly. The additional folders can be nested, but the nesting path must be listed exactly in the folder definition, separated by forward slashes. For example, in this option Inbox/Subfolder1/Subfolder2/Subfolder3 causes Mailbox Manager to apply the folder retention settings that are specified only to Subfolder3; the settings do not affect the Inbox, Subfolder1, or Subfolder2.
• Notification to be sent to User. This option sends a customizable message to the user after the mailbox has been processed.
• Exclude special message classes. The administrator can use this option to exclude any special message classes (for example, ipm.expense.report).

Server Properties

To locate scheduling options, administrator reports, and to determine who is designated as the Mailbox Manager administrator, open the properties of the server in the Exchange System Manager Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in, and then click the Mailbox Management tab.

Performance Issues

When all the mailboxes on a server are processed, overall server performance is impacted. By default, the time to run the service is during off-peak hours. This is also the recommended time.

Note Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 2 (SP2) offers the option to stop the Mailbox Manager process. This may be required if the process is not completed overnight, or if the process is manually started during business hours and must be stopped. To manually stop (or start) Mailbox Manager, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager to open the Exchange System Manager.
2. Expand Your Exchange Organization, expand Administrative Groups, expand Your Administrative Group, expand Servers, and then click ServerName.
3. Right-click the applicable server object. A menu appears that displays either the Start Mailbox Management Process option or the Stop Mailbox Management Process option, depending on whether the process is already running.