This is a third and the last post in my Mailbox Manager series. Please go here for Part 1 and here for Part 2!
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions that we have seen on Mailbox Manager:
Q: Does moving a user’s mailbox between servers affect the way Mailbox Manager works?
A: During a Move Mailbox Operation, the following three MAPI properties (PR_MESSAGE_DELIVERY_TIME, PR_CLIENT_SUBMIT_TIME, PR_LAST_MODIFICATION_TIME) are not changed, thus not affecting Mailbox Manager.
Q: Why does MM execute 3 times instead of just once especially since it only seems to delete only a few messages each pass? Is this by design?
A: There is a task (CMBCleanTask) within MAD.EXE that executes every 15 minutes. During this process, we check to see if it is now time to run the Mailbox Management Process. If we are ready to execute, we start the cleanup process. So if you select a 45 minute time period for this to run, that process will execute 3 times. If you select an entire hour, this will run 4 times. This is by design. MM was designed to only run within a single 15 minute time slot, anything more will cause the process to run that many more times.
Q: Why does the extension of the report have no extension on it? On some servers I receive the file with a .txt extension making it easer to open. Is there some setting that controls this?
A: This behavior occurs when the administrative report is sent to the administrator on a different server than the server in which MM is run on. The reason for this is that the PR_ATTACH_FILE_NAME and PR_ATTACH_LONG_FILENAME is not added to the MAPI properties of the message.
Q: Why does the RUS stamp the users with a Mailbox Manager policy when I have the check box "Automatically update e-mail addresses based on recipient policy" unchecked.
A: The stamping of Mailbox Manager Policies is not affected by that check box. MM policies will be stamped on a user that is within the LDAP scope of the policy regardless of whether that check box is there or not.
Q: Can I have more than one Mailbox Manager Policy apply to a user at any given time?
A: You can only have one Mailbox Manager Policy applied to a user at any given time. There was a problem in Exchange 2003 SP1 in which the RUS would stamp multiple MM policies for a single user. Apply the hotfix on the RUS server from KB:883351 to resolve this issue.
Q: The RUS is stamping the wrong Mailbox Manager policy for a user or set of users. Why?
A: The most common cause of this is that the user falls in to the LDAP scope of one or more Mailbox Manager Policies and the incorrect policy has a higher priority than the other. To resolve this problem, move the policy that you want applied to the user to a higher priority or exclude the users from that policy.
Q: How does Mailbox Manager calculate the age of messages within mailboxes?
A: See KB:289122 for more information regarding this.
Q: I setup Mailbox Manager to clean my Inbox. Why is it not cleaning any mail in the subfolders of the Inbox?
A: This is expected. Mailbox Manager was designed to only clean the folders in which is listed in the GUI and does not include subfolders. To include subfolders, you need to select the "All Other Mail Folders" option to clean subfolders. Note: This will clean all subfolders in all folders in your mailbox. If you need to exclude certain message classes, follow KB:319188.
Q: Can I modify how Mailbox Manager identifies and cleans messages within each mailbox?
A: You can modify the msExchMailboxManagerAgeLimit to control this. This requires a Post Exchange 2000 SP3 hotfix or later version of Exchange and is referenced here.
The msExchMailboxManagerAgeLimit attribute can have one of three values:
- 1 = The time of the last modification cannot stop the deletion of a message, but it may cause the message to be deleted. If the modification time is higher than the limit, Mailbox Manager deletes the item. This automatic deletion of items is performed by the Mailbox Manager process, not by Outlook. The results are visible in Outlook. If the modification time is not greater than the limit, Mailbox Manager does not delete the item, but it also does not stop the item from being deleted.
- 2 = The time that the message was submitted cannot stop the deletion of a message, but may cause the deletion of a message. If the submission time is greater than the limit, Mailbox Manager deletes the item. If the submission time is not greater than the limit, Mailbox Manager does not delete the item, but it also does not stop the item from being deleted.
- 3 = This value sets both bits 0x1 and 0x2, and thereby replicates the behavior that is exhibited in Exchange 5.5 Server.
Q: Why am I not getting my administrative reports on an Exchange 2000 SP2 server or earlier with no error in the logs?
A: Prior to Exchange 2000 SP3, these emails were sent via CDO, not MAPI. Sending the email through CDO requires that anonymous authentication be turned on for your Default SMTP Virtual Server. This was changed in SP3 to use MAPI so that the machine account can be authenticated when sending the report. This anonymous setting is no longer needed after applying SP3. See KB:322062 for more info on this.
Q: I set my Mailbox Manager policy to move items that are 90 days old to my system cleanup folder and then set my system cleanup folder to delete items that are 90 days old. Why does mailbox manager take another 90 days to delete the messages in the system cleanup folder instead of deleting the 90 day old messages?
A: When messages are moved to another folder using Mailbox Manager, the message after it moves gets stamped with a new MAPI property of PR_LAST_MODIFICATION_TIME. Mailbox Manager then uses this new time to base when messages get deleted from that folder. See KB:289122 for information regarding how we determine when to clean messages.
Q: I see that the System Cleanup appears and disappears in my mailbox. Why is that?
A: If Mailbox Manager is run twice within a short period of time, the first time it is run, mail is moved to the system cleanup folder. If the MM is run again and the same policy is applied and all items in the System cleanup folder have met the policy requirement, then all items are deleted in that folder as well as the folder itself. This is expected, but only if you modified the Mailbox Manager to emulate the behavior of Exchange 5.5 Mailbox Manager as described here.
Q: How can I tell what user or users have been stamped by the RUS with a Mailbox Manager Policy?
A: You can view this in LDP or ADSIEDIT and look at the MsExchPoliciesIncluded attribute. If you see a GUID value of {3B6813EC-CE89-42BA-9442-D87D4AA30DBC}, you have a Mailbox Manager Policy applied.
Q: I am noticing that the users in my "Last logged on by" column are showing NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM as the last user that logged on every 15 minutes. Why is that?
A: Mailbox Manager uses Local System (NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM) to logon to each of the users mailboxes. If the schedule is set to run for the entire day, then this symptom will occur.
Hope this was helpful!
- Mike Lagase
