As well as processing messages in mailboxes and public folders, ArchiveOne can process messages in Personal Storage Files, or PSTs. This can be done against PSTs that are attached to a user’s profile, but also against PSTs that are ‘uncoupled’ – that is, PSTs not necessarily connected to an Outlook profile, by specifying base directories to search.
If you are intending to use the PST Processor to process uncoupled PSTS (that is, PSTs not connected to Outlook) associated with mailboxes hosted on Exchange Online, please contact C2C Support.
There are two different kinds of operations that can be performed on a PST file once it has been found. Which you choose will depend on your requirements, but typically the more data the operation gathers, the longer it will take.
• Simple discovery – this records the PST filename, path and size, for review later.
• Policy – as well as the data recorded by simple discovery, this also applies any policy criteria and actions, in order, for instance, to find messages containing a given word, or copy messages with attachment with a given file extension to a public folder.
PST archiving makes use of a temporary area, within the “Server data” area configured by running the Configuration Wizard (select ‘Run Configuration Wizard’ from the Status node’s menu) to store messages to be archived. PST data will rest in this area between being found by PST processing and being archived, but this will typically be only a few hours at most.
You should ensure that there is enough space in the disk area indicated by this path to hold temporary copies of all the mails in PSTs you are going to archive that have not yet completed archiving. Ideally you should monitor the size of this area as you introduce new PSTs for archiving, to ensure it is never flooded.
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If you change this path and you have already done PST archiving that has not completed, you must ensure that you move all the data in the old location to the new location.
The PST Processor sends data through the Search and Retrieval Website to the ArchiveOne Service to be added to the archive. You must ensure that any PCs who will be running the PST Processor have all configuration required to get access to the Search and Retrieval Website without prompting – for instance, if your Search and Retrieval Website is access through HTTPS, the PC running the PST Processor must have the necessary certificates installed and trusted so that users aren’t prompted for authentication or for certificate acceptance.
When the ArchiveOne service was installed, a subdirectory of its installation directory was created and shared containing all the files required for PST processing. This includes 32bit and 64bit versions of the PST processor, and supporting components for running IFiltering when necessary. You can copy the PST processor from this folder (it doesn’t need to be installed on any server on which it’s run) but if you do so, you should copy all the other files in the folder as well.
If you want to run PST Processing, you must first arrange for the program AOnePolPSTProc.EXE to be run on the client machine:
• If running in ‘coupled’ mode, this would typically be done when your users log into their PCs – typically this would be done through a login script.
• If running in ‘uncoupled’ mode, this can be run as any user but the user who runs the PST Processor must have rights to log into the mailboxes which are going to be associated with the PSTs found. If a PST is going to be associated with mailbox X then the user running the PST Processor has to have rights to log into mailbox X because, for instance, the policy action may be to move data from the PST into the mailbox. Processing in ‘uncoupled’ mode would typically be done by an administrator from the command line, not by login script for every user.
• In versions of ArchiveOne prior to 6.3, the PST Processor was configured using command line options. With version 6.3 and later, the only command line option required for the PST Processor is the URL of a service, AOnePstManagement.asmx, which will provide its configuration.
• Launch PST Processor with a command line such as this:
\\myarchiveserver\PSTProcessor\AOnePolPSTProc.EXE
http://mywebserver/AOnePstManagement/AOnePstManagement.asmx
• On this command line:
• Replace ‘myarchiveserver’ with the archive server name (or copy all the files from that share into another convenient shared location and use the path to that)
• Replace ‘mywebserver with the server name of the server hosting the Search and Retrieval website
• Use ‘https’ rather than ‘http’ if appropriate for the web server
• In the shared directory there are executables for 32bit and 64bit, however you should always launch the 32bit and it will transfer control to the 64bit one if appropriate
• An example of this command line with values from your configuration is given in ArchiveOne Admin, see later
To configure the behavior of PST Processor, use the ‘PST Processor Configuration’ dialog in ArchiveOne Admin – see Section Coupled and Uncoupled PSTs Nodes on page 63 in Chapter 6 Using ArchiveOne.
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Other notes about PST Processor operation:
• If run only in ‘coupled’ mode (looking for PSTs in Outlook), the program will wait until Outlook has started and logged in, then check to see if any policies are configured and process accordingly.
• If run in ‘uncoupled’ mode (looking for PSTs on local hard drives), the program will check to see if any policies are configured and if so search the specified path for PSTs and process accordingly.
However, uncoupled PSTs won’t be processed until they have been associated with a mailbox.
This is an option on the “Uncoupled PSTs” node – see Section Coupled and Uncoupled PSTs Nodes on page 63 in Chapter 6 Using ArchiveOne.
• If you want to run a policy, create a policy as normal in ArchiveOne Admin, and on the "Where to search" page select “PST folders”. Configure the range of dates through which you want the search to be performed. Subsequently, any user that logs in (which starts up AOnePolPSTProc.EXE) and then logs into Outlook will run any configured policies, as long as the current date is between the policy's start and end dates, and as long as the user is enabled to archive.
• By default, PST Processor will not process a PST unless the PST is enabled on the “Coupled PSTs” or “Uncoupled PSTs” node (it will not appear until the PST Processor has found the PST at least once). To enable processing of selected PSTs, you should select each PST you want to process on this node and click the “Enable processing of PST” toolbar button to enable processing for it. This can be used to prevent flooding Exchange with data if the PST Processor discovers more PSTs than you anticipated. If you are using the “Uncoupled PSTs” node then the
“Enable processing of PST” option will not be available until the PST has been associated with a mailbox – see Section Coupled and Uncoupled PSTs Nodes on page 63 in Chapter 6 Using ArchiveOne.
• As an alternative to this, you can configure PST Processor to process all PSTs without waiting for them to be enabled. To do this, right-click on the “Coupled PSTs” or “Uncoupled PSTs” node and choose “Process all PSTs”. To change back to the previous system, choose “Process enabled PSTs only”.
• In addition to this, if processing uncoupled PSTs, they must be associated with a mailbox. This is needed for policy actions such as ‘archive’, so that when the PST items are archived, they are stored as though they were from the specified mailbox, and this means that any user allowed to search into the archive of that mailbox is also allowed to search these PST items. If there is no mailbox associated with a PST (which is the default state when a PST is first discovered) then the PST will not be processed. To configure a mailbox for a PST, find the PST listed in the
“Uncoupled PSTs” node, right-click on it and choose “Set Mailbox”.
• One of the operations that can be done on PSTs is to migrate them, which involves archiving the data and then moving the remaining items from the PST into the owner’s mailbox. If the mailbox has a storage limit, this runs a risk of exceeding that limit. To warn you of this problem, when you view the “Coupled PSTs” or “Uncoupled PSTs” node, the size of the mailbox and the ‘warn’ limit size will be shown. If a PST is enabled and the mailbox size plus the size of the PST exceeds 90% of the ‘warn’ limit, you will be alerted and an icon will be shown next to the PST. This is an
‘over-cautious’ test, and you can choose to ignore it and process the PST anyway, but you should be aware of the issue. If you are not planning to migrate the PST data (if, for instance, you are only searching into PSTs) you can ignore the warning.
• As you are introducing PST processing to your organization, you should keep an eye on the temporary store for PST data – see the comments above about the ‘Server Data’ area.
• PST processing is configured with a “PST migration warning limit”, which by default is 1000Mb.
This is to prevent flooding the PST temporary store. If the total size of the total number of enabled PSTs exceeds this figure, you will be warned. If you know you are not archiving the PST data, you
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can ignore the warning. You can raise the limit by changing the limit on the ‘PST Finalize’ page on the Status node configuration page.
• If you are running a policy that copies or moves messages to a public folder, you will have to ensure that any user who is going to run AOnePolPSTProc.EXE has permissions to write to the destination public folder, or the attempt to copy or move the message will fail.
• To view the results of the policy run, go to the ‘Policies’ node in ArchiveOne Admin, right click on the policy and click “View results – PST runs”. The results displayed may be up to an hour out of date, but will show all results found so far if the search is still running. You can speed up this process by choosing the “Update PST results” menu option from the “Coupled PSTs” or
“Uncoupled PSTs” node’s menu.
• If a user has encrypted PST files, then running AOnePolPSTProc.EXE may cause them to be prompted for the password for the PST file at a time when they don't expect it. If they don't give the password, then only simple discovery will happen for the PST file.
• The duration between the start and end dates should be long enough to ensure that each user will log in at least once over the period. If you specify an end date far into the future, then the policy will keep running, and the results will be continually updated.
• To see how processing of an individual PST is progressing, you can right-click on the PST icon in the tool tray and click ‘show’ to see a dialog detailing the current activity, or you can hover the mouse over the tool tray icon to see a summary of progress.
• At any time, you can see what PST files have been found so far. Go to the "Coupled PSTs" or
“Uncoupled PSTs” node in ArchiveOne Admin. These may be up to an hour out of date, but will show the details of all PST files found so far.
• As a part of the definition of the policy, you can also request the PST Processor to compact the PST on a regular basis. To do so, check the “PST Compaction” box on the policy “Where to Search” page and specify a time of the day or night (24 hour clock) to do the compaction. The PST Processor must be running at this time.
• PST files may be found and processed by either coupled or uncoupled PST processing. The same PST may appear on both the “Coupled PSTs” node and the “Uncoupled PSTs” node.
If you are using PST processing for archiving, there are things you should be aware of:
• You should ensure that the date range that you have specified for your processing to run is wide enough to cover all processing.
• Policies that have ‘Unarchive’ as their actions will be ignored for PSTs.
• By default, PST Processor will not process a PST unless the PST is enabled on the “Coupled PSTs” or “Uncoupled PSTs” node (it will not appear until the PST Processor has found the PST at least once). To enable processing of selected PSTs, you should select each PST you want to process on this node and click the “Enable processing of PST” toolbar button to enable processing for it. If you are using the “Uncoupled PSTs” node then the “Enable processing of PST” option will not be available until the PST has been associated with a mailbox.
• PST Processor will not process an uncoupled PST until it has been assigned a mailbox. To configure a mailbox for a PST, find the PST listed in the “Uncoupled PSTs” node, right-click on it and choose “Set Mailbox”. You won’t be able to mark the PST as ‘enabled’ until it has a mailbox assigned.
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Further details of PST Migration can be found in Section PST Migration on page 73 in Chapter 6 Using ArchiveOne.