Recently, a client of ours with Exchange 2010 asked a question. “How does Autonomy iManage’s Email Management work with Exchange 2010 Archive Mailboxes?” A great question. Kraft Kennedy has implemented the WorkSite Communication Server (WCS) and Email Filing Service (EFS) at several Exchange 2010 sites over the past year, but to this point, hadn’t come across a firm looking to leverage the built-in mail archiving functionality of Exchange 2010. So we asked Autonomy how their EFS would handle it. There was no mention of this functionality in any Release Notes, Install Guide, Admin Guide, or knowledge base tech note. After being escalated to a product manager, we were informed that this functionality had not been part of any testing or QA for the 8.5 line of EFS.
Taking advantage of our Kraft Kennedy research lab, within a day I was able to connect our research iManage 8.5 system to our Exchange 2010 environment, and enabled the Archive Mailbox for my test account. And for the first time in the history of mankind (I can only assume), tested the functionality. Below you will find a brief summary of the environment and tests performed.
Environment
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- Exchange 2010 SP1 with multiple mailbox servers behind a dedicated CAS array
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- iManage WCS 8.5 SP1 Update 1
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- iManage WorkSite Server 8.5 Sp1 Update 3
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- Outlook 2010 with FileSite 8.5 SP2 Update 2 and EMM for FileSite 8.5 SP2 Update 2
Tests and Results
The first thing to know about the Archive Mailbox is that by default, there are no folders within (besides a Deleted Items folder). If retention or archive rules are configured in the environment, a folder structure could be copied from the Active Mailbox to the Archive Mailbox. For the purpose of my testing, I used a variety of folder types and drag/drop filing operations.
My first test was simply creating a folder within the Archive Mailbox, and placing an email into that folder. I then dragged this to a Workspace folder, and the EFS back-end successfully filed the email. 1 for 1.
My next test was to create a folder in the archive, and then link that folder to a Workspace folder. I then dragged an email from the Archive mail folder into the linked Archive Folder, and EFS successfully filed the email. 2 for 2. I then took an email from my Active Mailbox inbox and dragged into the Linked Archive Folder. 3 for 3. Hey, things are looking pretty good.
My last test of the day is when I started feeling a little brave. It was time to put on the “What would an attorney do?” hat, and tried the following: I created a Linked folder in my Active Mailbox. I then dragged this entire folder into the Archive Mailbox. I then tried dragging an email into this folder. No go. Here’s what I noticed: although the folder icon still appeared to be a “Linked” folder, the Properties -> File to WorkSite tab had lost the association. After re-configuring the folder to file to the proper Workspace, functionality was restored.
This behavior could also be mimicked by a backend archive rule as it archives an active mailbox folder. Even if the link to iManage was reconfigured, the Exchange message-class should still indicate that the email has been successfully filed into WorkSite, so there shouldn’t be any duplicates. I think the action item for Autonomy would be to see if it’s possible to change the folder icon back to a regular Outlook folder if the link to iManage is broken.
All in all, I must admit I was rather surprised at how much worked. Part of why it works can be explained by Microsoft’s TechNet:
In Exchange 2010 SP1, when you assign Full Access permissions to a mailbox, the delegate to which you assign the permissions can also access the user’s personal archive.
So, as long as your EFS service account has the proper permissions to the user’s Active Mailbox, it will also have permissions to the Archive. Thank you, Microsoft! This whole experience also demonstrates the value of a well-maintained research sandbox in your environment.