Have a good read of this and the links within. Once you have created the managed folder and content settings, and created a policy, add to the mailboxes http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123507(EXCHG.80).aspx "Running the managed folder assistant is a resource-intensive process. You should only run the managed folder assistant when your server can tolerate the extra load. This is usually during off-peak hours. You should make that sure you run the mailbox assistant often enough to meet your legal needs with regard to messaging records resource management. " The assistant will run as per schedule set, you can tweak this to meet your needs, if mailboxes aren't processing within that schedule, it will resume an the next interval where it left. So you can apply to all mailboxes, key here is the schedule so you dont have an impact on users, if youre a 24x7 env, then maube add users on batches with the schedule. The retension period for deletion is a good idea, may start with x 1st then let this run against all mailboxes then do 30 days, but if it's sceduled then yur goail will be met anyway. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123958(EXCHG.80).aspxSukh

We are running Exchange 2007. I am in the process of setting up a policy to empty deleted items. I believe I have it working as I have tested it on a few mailboxes and it seems to work. We currently have nothing setup for this and I am sure many users have A TON of stuff in their deleted items. (Thinking years worth of stuff) Does anyone have any experience implementing this? We have around 5,000 mailboxes. I am sure I can't apply this to everyone at once. Does anyone have any recommendations on how many mailboxes at a time I might be able to apply this policy to? What is the best way to do this? Also is there a certain time I should have the policy run? Do I need to a wait a few days before applying it to additional users? I am just looking for some guidance on the best way to get this policy implemented. One thought was maybe to set the policy to keep a years worth of stuff first and apply it to all users, and then every few days or once a week take that down until we get to our goal of 30 days or whatever we decide? Is that doable or even at a year is that too much to apply to all 5,000+ mailboxes at once? Does this make sense or is it better to just start at 30 days and slowly roll it out? Again what would be the best way to roll it out?

Have a good read of this and the links within. Once you have created the managed folder and content settings, and created a policy, add to the mailboxes http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123507(EXCHG.80).aspx "Running the managed folder assistant is a resource-intensive process. You should only run the managed folder assistant when your server can tolerate the extra load. This is usually during off-peak hours. You should make that sure you run the mailbox assistant often enough to meet your legal needs with regard to messaging records resource management. " The assistant will run as per schedule set, you can tweak this to meet your needs, if mailboxes aren't processing within that schedule, it will resume an the next interval where it left. So you can apply to all mailboxes, key here is the schedule so you dont have an impact on users, if youre a 24x7 env, then maube add users on batches with the schedule. The retension period for deletion is a good idea, may start with x 1st then let this run against all mailboxes then do 30 days, but if it's sceduled then yur goail will be met anyway. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123958(EXCHG.80).aspxSukh

Thank you for the information. That helps to get an idea of where to begin. I think one of my concerns is this: I assume when implementing this if some users have thousands of deleted items that are removed, when they are removed, transaction logs would be created? I am concerned if I apply this to all mailboxes at once the transaction logs may fill up? I am curious if anyone has dealt with this before and is this a concern? If I am understanding it correctly implementing this will process one mailbox at a time during the time periods I specify until all are processed? One thought is to only have records management run for like 12 hours Saturday evening to Sunday morning, thinking that is a good time for us with low activity on the mail server. Does anyone know in a 12 hour period how much will be processed? Another thought is also to run it every night for a few hours from say midnight to 4am. If transaction logs would not be a concern then if it takes several weeks to get every ones mailbox processed initially I am okay with this. However if this is something to be mindful of I assume I will need to gradually add mailboxes waiting to make sure all are initially processed before adding more?

There may be some transaction logs, but they will be very minimal from my experience, not at a rate where you would have for normal activity. Your understanding is right. Your ideas are good too, if this has never been done, maybe add mailboxes to the policy in small increments and at the time when the server is least used.Sukh

One other question. Is there something in performance monitor to watch and see how many mailboxes have been processed when the records management starts to run? This would allow me to monitor and make sure all mailboxes I add are processed at least once before adding more if I add them in increments.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb310790(EXCHG.80).aspx There should be info the event viwer too. (app log)Sukh