Hello I notice that Exchange 2010 SP1, just released, has the ability to host archive mailboxes on different databases to the production mailbox? Perfect for us, since we were looking into some sort of archiving solution and now have a reason to move to Exchange 2010! I'm not entirely sure how this would work though and had some questions I was hoping an expert could answer. 1. When the user account is created and mail-enabled, the archive mailbox location is set. But what about existing mailboxes, how do we deal with them? 2. From a user's perspective, will they actually have 2 mailboxes they can see in their Outlook profile, and we have rules set up to move items from one location to the other? 3. Or, is this true archiving in that that the original item "appears" to be in the original mailbox, but it's really just a pointer to the location of the archive mailbox? 4. Does this feature require any sort of plug-in to Outlook, or client we need to install?

Hi, Here are you answers. 1. When a user is mailbox enabled, it is not necessary to be archive enabled, it can be done seperately. It is avaialable in the MMC as an seperate option. so exisiting mailboxes can also be enabled for archiving. 2. Yes, 2 mailbox will show up in the outlook. check my link on how to enable this feature and how it works. http://www.myexchangeworld.com/2010/07/how-to-configure-personal-archive-in-exchange-2010-part-1/ you can move items to archive manually, you can setup archiving retention tags to move items to archive. 3. item itself is moved to this seperate archive. 4. it doesnt need any plugin. just outlook 2010 will work just fine.Thiyagu | MCTS/MCITP - Exchange 2007 | MCSE 2003[Messaging] | http://www.myExchangeWorld.com. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Thanks! Just a couple of follow up questions if that's ok. 3. Or, is this true archiving in that that the original item "appears" to be in the original mailbox, but it's really just a pointer to the location of the archive mailbox? >>item itself is moved to this seperate archive. I assume you can set up rules such as "if item is older than 20 days, then archive". Let's say that an email message was archived (and therefore moved to the archive mailbox). Is there any reference to that email left in the main mailbox? Or is it just the same as, say, moving to a PST folder? 4. Does this feature require any sort of plug-in to Outlook, or client we need to install? >it doesnt need any plugin. just outlook 2010 will work just fine. Cool. Is there absolutely no compatability with pre-2010 Outlook? Also, a question I'd forgotten :) 5. We use ActiveSync for mobile messaging. Do you know how this feature would work with AS? Will our Windows Mobile/iPhone devices be able to view the archived messages? I assume not.

3. Retention policies can be setup to achive this. 4. Outlook 2010 is required. 5. You can NOT use Active Sync to access personal archive. More details here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd979795.aspx Thiyagu | MCTS/MCITP - Exchange 2007 | MCSE 2003[Messaging] | http://www.myExchangeWorld.com. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Thanks again. Sorry, regarding point 3, the question was whether there is reference to an archived email (e.g. a stub, pointer etc) in the original mailbox, or is it completely moved out and the user can only see it if they access their archive mailbox? Essentially, is the situation pretty much that there is a completely seperate mailbox involved here, and Exchange basically sets rules to move items from the original to secondary? Even the user sees two mailboxes?

There is no stub email. The email gets moved to the archive mailbox, there is no stub or shortcut left in the original mailbox. The user can only see it by navigating to their archive mailbox. You have essientally two mailboxes with rules to move items from your "live" mailbox to your "archive" mailbox. Note that the archive mailbox is "online" only. Meaning that if your Outlook is in cached mode and you are not connected to the network/internet, you will not have access to your archive mailbox. The archive mailbox will not cache.Tim Harrington - Catapult Systems - http://HowDoUC.blogspot.com