Domino Mailbox Archiver: Agents
ram1: Instances (Partitions)
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The Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent is a software module that periodically moves unused or infrequently used Lotus Notes Mailbox messages on a host computer to secondary storage. The Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent provides support for two distinct archiving scenarios:
These archiving scenarios are further contrasted in the following table:
Migration Archiving(Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent with Migration-only configurations set) |
Compliance Archiving(Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent with Migration and Compliance configurations set) |
| Message content is moved from the source mailbox to the designated secondary storage location, leaving only the message header and a corresponding stub icon. Users can later recover the original message contents by double-clicking the stub icon. | Messages copied to the Domino Server journaling mailbox are moved to the designated secondary storage location. Only authorized users may retrieve messages archived from the journaling mailbox. Client mailbox copies of archived messages remain intact within their respective client mailboxes. |
| Primary storage resources and data protection operation time used by the Lotus Notes/Domino Server iDataAgent are reduced. | Messages are archived securely with no impact on the source mailboxes or databases. |
| Messages may be recovered in-place (i.e., to the source mailbox) or out-of-place (i.e., to another mailbox). | Messages are retrieved out-of-place (i.e., to a secure mailbox created exclusively for compliance purposes). |
The Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent provides data protection support for all .nsf mail databases visible to the Domino Server.
| Only databases with alphanumeric names are supported. |
Data Protection Operations for all other data types not mentioned above are not supported by the Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent.
The Domino Mailbox cluster configuration is supported only if:
When the Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent is installed, the following levels are automatically created in the CommCell Browser.
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Client Domino Mailbox Archiver: Agents ram1: Instances (Partitions) |
<user_defined_subclient>: User-defined Subclients |
Besides the CommServe and MediaAgent, there is one component to be installed for the Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent:
For the procedures on installing this component, refer to Deployment - Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent.
After installing the Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent, the Lotus Notes Mailbox master template should be configured to display a stub icon for each message archived. When this configuration is performed, the Lotus Notes client mailbox will automatically display archived messages with a stub icon. Users can then recall the archived message by opening the message in the Lotus Notes client mailbox.
See Configure Stub Icons for Lotus Notes Mailboxes for step-by-step instructions.
The archive operation is based on subclients, so the following configuration is on a per subclient basis. Most of the following options are located in the subclient properties dialog box.
The configuration of the archiving rules is central to customizing migration archiving operations to meet the needs of your organization. For more information, see Migration and Compliance Archiving - Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent.
| Archiving Rules are initially disabled by default. After creating a subclient, you must clear the Disable All Rules option and configure archiving rules before Archive Operations are possible. Otherwise, the system will ignore all archiving rules (except for the Do Not Create Stub rule) for the subclient. |
The Domino Mailbox Archiver Agents provides three modes which further direct how archive and recovery operations behave for each subclient. These modes can be selected using the General tab of the Subclient Properties dialog box and should be configured prior to running the first archive operation.
See Operation Modes for more information.
To keep the index within a manageable size, a new index will be created every certain number of migration archiving operations. This value can be entered in the Create new index every n Archive Operations field on the subclient properties Archiving Rules tab. This setting will apply only when the messages are recovered using browse and recovery from the CommCell Console (stand-alone application). The CommCell Console also allows you to specify a point-in-time to find a message/item archived before the last creation of a new index. Note that the new index creation interval setting established in the subclient properties can be overridden during the running of a migration archiving operation by selecting the Create New Index option from the Advanced Archive Options (Data) tab.
Note that this setting does not affect recovering messages/items from Lotus Notes client mailboxes.
The retention criteria for preserving archived data through Storage Policies associated with Archiver Agents is based only on time, not cycles. For more information on Storage Policies, see Storage Policies.
By default, stub retention length is decided by the retention of the archived messages/items associated with the stub. After the messages/items on the media (all the copies) have expired, the stub will be pruned in next migration archiving operation.
Users can also specify a value in days for stub retention time, from the subclient properties Archiving Rules tab. Keep in mind that the stub could be pruned before this value, if the storage policy retention time is smaller than this value.
Often archive operation will take sizable amount of resource from Domino server. To avoid the resource contention between production Domino server functions and archive operation, archive operation can be offloaded
Once the Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent is installed and the Domino Server has been configured to display stub icons, the administrator can schedule migration archiving jobs similar to scheduling backup jobs for the Lotus Notes/Domino Server iDataAgent.
When mailbox messages are archived in a migration archiving scenario, the content of the messages, including any attachments, are automatically removed from the source mailbox as they are copied to secondary storage. However, the source mailbox will retain the original message header, as well as a corresponding stub icon, both which can be used to recover the message at a later time.
See Compliance and Migration Archiving - Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent for more information on these archiving scenarios.
The migration archive process allows two methods for recovering an archived message:
Refer to Recover and Retrieve Data - Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent for more information.
Once the Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent is installed and the Domino Server has been configured to display stub icons, the administrator can schedule compliance archiving jobs similar to scheduling backup jobs for the Lotus Notes/Domino Server iDataAgent.
The Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent works in conjunction with the message journaling feature of the Domino Server software to archive all incoming and outgoing messages and attachments. As incoming or outgoing messages pass through the Domino Server, they are instantly captured and recorded in the Domino Server Journal Mailbox. The Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent can then archive the journal mailbox to secondary storage, where the messages will remain readily available for access and retrieval by authorized users. Once archived, all messages are protected from any editing or alteration.
See Compliance and Migration Archiving - Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent for more information on these archiving scenarios.
To retrieve archived messages, you can simply search or scan the secondary storage to which the journaling mailbox messages were archived using certain criteria, such as the contents of the subject, the original sender (from) and the original intended recipient (to). Additionally, if Content Indexing is enabled you can also search for messages by their content and attachments.
See Recover and Retrieve Data - Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent for more information on retrieving messages archived for compliance.
A Lotus Domino server can be set up and organized in a number of ways. It is important to understand this organization to create an effective archive plan.
The following sections describe the main components that comprise a typical Lotus Domino Server. Note that the Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent is only supported for Notes mailboxes.
A Notes partition is an instance of Lotus Domino Server running on a given computer. Lotus Domino Server may be installed multiple times on the same computer, each instance, or partition, acting as an individual server.
For example, computer A is running a simple Notes database. It is decided that computer A will also host a Domino web server database. The Domino administrator could add this data to the existing Domino partition, or install another partition of Domino Server for this new database. Installing a new partition would allow the administrator to tune the performance characteristics of each partition individually while offering a simpler organizational scheme.
Each partition of Lotus Domino Server will have a data path which describes the location of the database files. Databases existing outside of the data path are linked to the primary data path (see below).
A Notes link is a pointer to a database outside of the data path for a given partition. A Notes link file is a text file that contains the path or paths of those databases. There are two types of Notes link files, database link files and folder link files. A database link is a .nsf file containing the path of a single database. A folder link is a .dir file containing a path or paths to multiple databases.
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Data documents are the primary data storage component within Lotus Notes. They are comparable to records in other database programs. Each data document contains several data objects, including but not limited to, user input, mail messages and other data.
A transaction log is a file containing a record of changes to all databases on a Domino Server partition. It is used to:
Lotus Domino Server offers many styles of transaction logging:
Enabling archive logging should not cause the transaction log to grow excessively, since the Domino Server automatically prunes the transaction logs. If you allocate a reasonable amount of space on your Domino server for transaction logs and back up the server regularly, under normal operating conditions the transaction logs will not exceed the disk space allotted to them.
| The Domino Mailbox Archiver Agent can archive messages with or without archive style transaction logging enabled on the Domino Server. If transaction logging is used, however, it is recommended that you increase the backup schedules of the truncation logs to accommodate the logged transaction created during the archive process. |
The Domino Server ID should not have an associated password. Having one assigned does not hinder future backups, but does prevent a complete unconditional overwrite of a database if you have not selected the option to share the password with Notes addins.
If the Domino Server ID has a password associated with it, you must enable the option on the ID called Don’t prompt for password from other Notes based programs (Share this user ID password with these Notes addins). This option can be found in the Domino Administrator, on the Configuration tab, under Tools/Certification/ID Properties for the SERVER ID file. A server restart is required after setting this option. In addition to this, the Domino Server ID must be running during the restore operation.
To perform a data protection operation using this Agent a specific Product License must be available in the CommServe® Server.
Review general license requirements included in License Administration. Also, View All Licenses provides step-by-step instructions on how to view the license information.
The Domino Mailbox Archiver product does not provide the ability to restore the entire system in the event of a disaster. Systems using an Archiver Agent should also be protected using the corresponding backup and recovery agent. Domino Mailbox Archiver relies upon the Lotus Domino Server iDataAgents to perform a full system restore of application data, and the Windows File System iDataAgent to restore the operating system. For more information, see Full System Restore - Lotus Domino Server iDataAgents.