Topics | How To | Related Topics
Over time, new mailboxes are created to accommodate new Exchange accounts and mailboxes. These new mailboxes can be manually discovered and (for some agents) auto-discovered to ensure that they are included in data protection operations on the agent.
For the Exchange Mailbox iDataAgent, the default subclient of each backup set performs a discovery process at the beginning of each backup. The auto-discovery process detects any new mailboxes and automatically assigns them to the default subclient (unless otherwise configured). While this feature ensures that all the new mailboxes will be automatically backed up, you may want to assign the new mailboxes to specific subclients.
To do this, you can conduct the discovery process and assign the mailboxes yourself. You can discover and assign mailboxes from the Discover button on the Add/Modify Mailbox dialog in the CommCell Console. Access to that dialog is available by either clicking the Configure button in the Subclient Properties (Content) or by right-clicking the backup set and selecting All Tasks -> Configure.
The Exchange Mailbox iDataAgent also allows you to specify the auto-discovery assignment method based on storage group affinity, Active Directory user group affinity, or wildcard pattern (for user-defined subclients only). Note that when using wildcard patterns for auto-discovery, if a mailbox qualifies for the affinity rules set on the default subclient, the system does not check for any other affinity rule on other subclients. For step-by-step instructions, see Configure Mailboxes for Auto-Discovery.
For the Exchange Mailbox Archiver Agent, the default subclient of each defaultArchiveSet set performs a discovery process at the beginning of each migration archiving operation. The auto-discovery process detects any new mailboxes and automatically assigns them to the default subclient (unless otherwise configured). While this feature ensures that all the new mailboxes will be automatically scanned for archiving, you may want to assign the new mailboxes to specific subclients.
To do this, you can conduct the discovery process and assign the mailboxes yourself from the Discover button on the Re-distribute Mailboxes among subclients dialog in the CommCell Console. Access to that dialog is available by either clicking the Configure button in the Subclient Properties (Content) or by right-clicking on the defaultArchiveSet and selecting All Tasks -> Configure.
The Exchange Mailbox Archiver Agent also allows you to specify the auto-discovery assignment method based on storage group affinity, Active Directory user group affinity, or wildcard pattern (for user-defined subclients only). Note that when using wildcard patterns for auto-discovery, if a mailbox qualifies for the affinity rules set on the default subclient, the system does not check for any other affinity rule on other subclients. For step-by-step instructions, see Configure Mailboxes for Auto-Discovery.
For the Exchange Compliance Archiver Agent, Exchange journal mailboxes must be added to a user-created subclient; otherwise, they will not be archived during a compliance archiving operation. Exchange journal mailboxes are not auto-discovered.
Furthermore, any mailbox that you want to designate as a target mailbox (the mailbox to which archived messages will be retrieved) must be discovered and added to the list of target mailboxes.
You conduct the discovery process and assign the Exchange journal mailboxes yourself using the Discover button on the Add/Modify Journaling Mailboxes dialog in the CommCell Console. Access to that dialog is available by clicking the Configure button in the Subclient Properties (Content) tab or by right-clicking the agent and selecting All Tasks -> Configure. To assign target mailboxes, use the Configure button located in the Agent Properties (Target Mailboxes) tab.
For the Online Content Indexing for Exchange Agent, the default subclient of each content index set performs a discovery process at the beginning of each content indexing operation. The auto-discovery process detects any new mailboxes and automatically assigns them to the default subclient (unless otherwise configured). While this feature ensures that all the new mailboxes will be automatically content indexed up, you may want to assign the new mailboxes to specific subclients.
To do this, you can conduct the discovery process and assign the mailboxes yourself. You can discover and assign mailboxes from the Discover button on the Add/Modify Mailbox dialog in the CommCell Console. Access to that dialog is available by clicking the Configure button in the Subclient Properties (Content).
The Online Content Indexing for Exchange Agent also allows you to specify the auto-discovery assignment method based on storage group affinity, Active Directory user group affinity, or wildcard pattern (for user-defined subclients only). Note that when using wildcard patterns for auto-discovery, if a mailbox qualifies for the affinity rules set on the default subclient, the system does not check for any other affinity rule on other subclients. For step-by-step instructions, see Configure Mailboxes for Auto-Discovery.
For the Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent, the default subclient of each ArchiveSet set performs a discovery process at the beginning of a migration archiving operation. The auto-discovery process detects any new mailbox databases and automatically assigns them to the default subclient (unless otherwise configured). While this feature ensures that all the new mailboxes will be automatically scanned for archiving, you may want to assign the new mailboxes to specific subclients.
To do this, you can conduct the discovery process and assign the mailboxes yourself from the Discover button on the Add/Modify Databases in Backup Set dialog in the CommCell Console. Access to that dialog is available by either clicking the Configure button in the Subclient Properties (Databases) or by right-clicking on the ArchiveSet and selecting All Tasks -> Configure.
Consider the following before performing assignment or discovery operations:
Including Disabled Mailboxes in Data Protection Operations
The Exchange 2000/2003 Mailbox iDataAgent, Exchange 2000/2003 Mailbox Archiver and Exchange 2000/2003 Compliance Archiver Agents do not back up or archive disabled mailboxes by default. However, if you would like to include disabled mailboxes in the data protection operations for these agents, you can add the nBackupDisabledMailBoxes registry key. Note that mailboxes marked as disabled in Exchange Server 2007 are disconnected by default and therefore cannot be archived or backed up.
A CSVDE filtering option is provided for administrators familiar with LDAP queries to increase performance for manual and auto-discovery operations in cases where the discovery process takes a long time to complete. Filtering objects in this way can reduce the number of objects returned from the query thereby speeding up the process of discovering new mailboxes for data protection. This feature is supported by Exchange Compliance Archiver, Exchange Mailbox Archiver and the Exchange Mailbox iDataAgent. A CSVDE filtering example is provided below, which will filter out system mailboxes residing on the SERVERNAME server from discovery operations for these agents:
"(&(msExchHomeServerName=*/cn=SERVERNAME)(!(CN=SystemMailbox{*)))"
CAUTION: Use of this option requires expert-level knowledge of CSVDE, which is a Microsoft tool used for extracting and filtering information from Active Directory. Incorrect use of the CSVDE filtering option can result in failed discovery and data protection operations for these agents. For more information on CSVDE, refer to documentation from Microsoft Corporation.
For step-by-step instructions, see Enable CSVDE Filtering for Discovery Operations.