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Imprint
Doc. version: 1.0
Author: IXOS SOFTWARE AG Date: June 29, 2000
Nr: WP-GROUEX-EN-G-0600
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Table of Contents
1 Archiving instead of deleting ... 2
2 Archiving reduces the server load... 3
3 One work environment... 4
4 Archive and retrieve documents in the familiar work environment ... 5
4.1 Interactive archiving ... 5
4.2 Automatic archiving ... 5
5 Reliable
long-term
archiving ... 7
6 IXOS-ExchangeARCHIVE and system administration... 8
6.1 Easy administration... 8
6.2 Distributed environment ... 8
6.3 No additional software ... 9
7 IXOS-ExchangeARCHIVE at a glance... 10
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Archiving Versus Deleting
Groupware plays an important role in the area of business process optimization. Once used as simple communication tools to send and receive e-mail, these applications are now being used to exchange information between business partners. Quotes, orders, and invoices are now sent via e-mail and stored in groupware systems.
However, the Exchange server’s storage capacity is limited and mailboxes quickly reach their maximum capacity. Users must then delete items in order to send e-mail messages again.
Figure 1: The problem
One solution to the Microsoft Exchange capacity problem is to buy additional disk space, an additional server, or install a RAID system. This would invariably increase the cost of new hardware due to increased system administration. Microsoft recommends creating Personal Stores. This enables e-mail messages to be stored on a local hard disk or a file server. Implementing this solution, however, entails performing all of the search queries over the network, which increases its load considerably. In addition, daily backups are required.
Archiving Exchange messages in IXOS-ExchangeARCHIVE provides a long-term solution to the storage capacity problem. One click of the mouse is all it takes to automatically archive e-mail messages, attachments, or even entire folders. All that remains of the archived e-mail is its header text. A CD icon marks archived items. Items and folders that previously required megabytes of space are reduced to a few kilobytes.
Actions such as "Reply" and "Forward" retain their functionality, as does the original directory structure. In fact, the whole functionality of Outlook remains the same. Therefore, there is no need for users to print archived e-mail messages. In addition, users need not attend special training classes because there is no difference in the functionality.
During the development of IXOS-ExchangeARCHIVE, a major objective was to reduce system administration tasks. By externally archiving groupware data the server’s load is reduced, the products are easy to configure, and documents can be automatically archived.
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2 Reduction of Server Load
The higher the e-mail traffic, the faster the Exchange database grows. Attachments, which are usually much larger than the message itself, are generally the source of the problem.
IXOS-ExchangeARCHIVE maintains e-mail messages on inexpensive optical media. The text message, the embedded objects, and the attachments are securely stored in a number of formats such as Microsoft Word (.doc), Portable Document Format (.pdf), Tagged Image File Format (.tif), and Microsoft Excel (.xls). Objects can be archived from private mailboxes or public folders. Archiving the attachments alone can reduce the load on the Exchange server by up to 90 percent. And, since this load reduction is an automatic function of ExchangeARCHIVE, the routine is thereby eliminated from the administrator’s duties
Once messages and attachments have been archived, only their links— usually 0.5 to 1 KB in size—are left on the server. This is why mailboxes that have a relatively small storage capacity (for example, 15 MB) can handle large volumes of data. Moreover, reducing the amount of data allows for more mailboxes per server. IXOS-ExchangeARCHIVE also reduces the number of Exchange servers required. And, if PST files were once used, the number of file servers can also be reduced. Even restoring backups and recovering data is faster and less costly.
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Original Work Environment
Microsoft Outlook users do not have to restructure their work habits. Reformatting and retraining are not necessary because the original directory structure remains unchanged.
The mail icon flags messages that have not been archived, whereas the CD icon flags those that have been archived. Double-clicking on the CD icon retrieves the desired mail message and its attachments from the archive within seconds.
The original directory structure of the archived inbox and other folders remain intact; users can directly access the original folder. Actions such as "Reply" and "Forward" also retain their functionality.
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4 Archive and Retrieve Documents
Users continue to use their Outlook clients (or Outlook Web Access in the Internet) to access archived e-mail messages. They do not have to learn how to use a new system or navigate through a new user interface.
Figure 3: Access via Outlook Web Access
Archived objects can also be accessed via IXOS-ARCHIVE if the Exchange system is no longer available or the links to the archived objects have been accidentally deleted.
4.1 Interactive Archiving
Messages and folders are archived by dragging them to the ExchangeARCHIVE Archive Form. The user then determines if only the e-mail attachments and/or the text body is to be extracted and archived in IXOS-ARCHIVE. If only the attachments are archived, the text body remains on the Exchange server where it continues to be available for full-text searches. If the text body is also extracted, only the document reference and the header—such as sender, title, and send date— remain on the Exchange server. The object’s original icon—such as an envelope or a folder— changes to a CD icon to confirm that the archiving was successful.
4.2 Automatic Archiving
ExchangeARCHIVE has an archiving feature that enables users to automatically archive items based on the size and age of the item. This makes archiving even easier. The archiving criteria are saved as additional mailbox attributes in the Exchange directory. Creating and deleting users does not require synchronizing externally saved archiving criteria with the directory information. Administrators can control automatic archiving processes from a centralized location without having to involve users in the archive maintenance process. Archiving rules can be set at the user, the group, or the company level. Rules are set once, but can be modified at any time. Options for these rules include the following:
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Ability to archive only those objects that have not been modified for a specified number of days•
Ability to archive objects designated by a minimum size•
Scan mailboxes at a designated time for archiving. This activity is best scheduled during evenings or weekends•
Define the intervals at which a mailbox is to be archived•
Designate if the message only, the message and attachments, or the attachments only are to be archived•
Specify a directory for exclusion from archivingThe automatic archiving feature greatly assists the administrator in ensuring the Exchange server has available space, and that Exchange objects are archived at regular intervals.
To optimize archiving, the system analyzes the expected archiving volume before running the automatic archiving routine. The ExchangeARCHIVE administration program is basically the same as the Exchange administration program, making it easy to learn and use.
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5 Reliable Long-Term Archiving
E-mail messages are often accompanied by business documents such as orders and invoices. In general, these documents require further processing before they are archived on a long-term basis.
With IXOS-ExchangeARCHIVE, Exchange objects are archived on inexpensive optical media where they are protected from alteration, but accessible for authorized users. E-mail messages can also be archived to a hard disk. A 20 MB online mailbox can manage up to 1 GB of data.
IXOS-ExchangeARCHIVE is based on the proven IXOS-ARCHIVE technology. 650,000 users in various industry sectors are currently using a business document system from IXOS.
IXOS-ARCHIVE is a highly scaleable, stable, and reliable system. Some of IXOS’ customers manage hundreds of millions of documents that are accessed by more than 10,000 users at a time.
6 IXOS-ExchangeARCHIVE and System Administration
6.1 Easy Administration
Archiving e-mail with ExchangeARCHIVE is based on a seamless integration between IXOS-ARCHIVE and the Exchange server. The main component on the server side is the ExchangeARCHIVE Archiving Service. This service monitors a request mailbox on the Exchange server called “IXOS-ExchangeARCHIVE for R/3,” which handles all of the ExchangeARCHIVE Archiving Service activities. All of the client-generated requests to archive, display, and recover objects are sent as special e-mail messages (requests) to this request mailbox.
When a user generates a request to archive an item the system sends an archiving request to the request mailbox. Here, in the request mailbox, the item is automatically processed by the ExchangeARCHIVE Archiving Service. The service copies the item from the user’s mailbox to the IXOS-ARCHIVE server. It replaces the original item on the Exchange server with an item that contains the archived document’s header information (and optionally the text body). When the item is linked to an R/3 document, the system passes the document ID for the archived item to the R/3 System. IXOS - ARCHIVE SERVER Microsoft Exchange Server ExchangeARCHIVE for R/3 Archiving Service ExchangeARCHIVE for R/3 Microsoft Exchange or Outlook User IXOS - ARCHIVE SERVER Microsoft Exchange Server Archiving Service
Request Mailbox Microsoft Exchange
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An item is displayed in a similar manner: the request is sent to the ExchangeARCHIVE Archiving Service via the request mailbox. The service uses the reference to find the required item and immediately sends the item to the requestor’s mailbox.
ExchangeARCHIVE’s architecture streamlines system administration. Administrative tasks, such as monitoring request processing, can be performed from an Outlook client.
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6.3 No Additional Software
ExchangeARCHIVE is very easy to configure. There is no need to install additional software on either the client or the Exchange server. Installing the software on the Exchange server consists of copying two Exchange forms to the global form library and configuring the request mailbox for the ExchangeARCHIVE user. The ExchangeARCHIVE Archiving Service can be installed on a separate NT computer or on an NT archive server.
