Is there a way in exchange server 2003 to enforce a policy to delete email older than 30 days, this includes all folders in outlook.. Outlook has the auto-archive feature,but that is done at the client level.. we want to implement this at the server level and globally push the policy out and not give users an option to change this..

The feature you want to use is the Mailbox Manager. First, you must add a Mailbox Manager policy to one of your recipient policies (probably the Default Policy). This is found in Exchange System Manager under Recipients -> Recipient Policies. Right click on the Default Policy and choose Change Property Pages so that it includes the Mailbox Manager settings. Then, on the Mailbox Manager settings, make sure that the policy for all the folders and subfolders is to retain mail for no more than 30 days. You probably want to either move the data to a System Cleanup folder for some period of time or delete immediately. After you have defined the policy, on the properties of each of your Exchange servers that has a mailbox database, make sure you schedule the process to run. Finally, just a friendly piece of advice, give your users lots of warning that this will be happening and when. Otherwise, they may be holding a "burn the Exchange administrator festival". I know one admin that just wanted to clean up the user's Deleted Items folders, but she did not warn her users (after all, the stuff *is* deleted). well, some of her users were using Deleted Items to store things that the wanted to delete but might not REALLY want to delete. Here is a KB that introduces the feature: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278024 and here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319188 HTH

thanks, this is what I was looking for.. but I neglected to add, can specific users be excluded from the recipient policy, ie, most users have 30 days and a special groupsuch as execs have a different aging policy.. thanks

anyone? with info re: my 2nd post on exclusions to the global policy with mailbox manager?