Question

Mailbox Manager Issue with Exchange 2003 - Recipient Policy not deleting ALL messages older than 90 days as we set it

Asked by: djmichaelmaxim

I recently setup a recipient policy for Mailbox Management on our Exchange 2003 SP2 Server.

In Recipients > Recipient Policies we had serveral listed.
 - Policy 1 - Policy that was setup when our email server was setup
 - Default - The default policy
 - New 90 Day Email Policy - This is the one I created last week.
I set the new "90 Day Email Policy" to only be a Mailbox Management Policy that will Delete Items Immediately that are older than 90 days and ANY size.

I left the default for the filter when I clicked which items or mailboxes to filter. This is the LDAP query or filter that I am using...

(&(&(& (mailnickname=*) (| (&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(!(homeMDB=*))(!(msExchHomeServerName=*)))(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(|(homeMDB=*)(msExchHomeServerName=*)))(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=contact))(objectCategory=group)(objectCategory=publicFolder)(objectCategory=msExchDynamicDistributionList) ))))

I ran the policy on the server manually and there are still users on the server who have messages older than 90 days in their inboxes. I made sure I selected every single check box from Inbox, Subfolders Deleted Items, Sent Items, etc and told it to only keep messages newer than 90 days.

What would cause the server to keep some messages older than 90 days but delete other messages. When the policy ran it did delete almost 1 GB of old email from a handful of mailboxes but left some messages untouched.

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2007-05-03 at 12:13:13ID22551286
Tags

mailbox

,

exchange

,

manager

,

recipient

,

2003

Topics

Exchange Email Server

,

Email Servers

,

Email Software

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
15

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. "Unknown Recipient" Mailbox
    Hi, Is there a way to designate an existing mailbox as the default for incoming mail that would normally get rejected because the recipient is not known? Here's my situation: I have Exch5.5, current SP, running on an NT4 server, current SP. A few of my users are experiencin...
  2. Recipient Policy Single Mailbox Exclusion in Exchange 20…
    I have a recipient policy setup to delete items in the deleted items folder for all users that are older than 2 weeks. This has been working out great but a new CEO came onboard the doesn't want to have her stuff deleted automatically. The policy is currently applied to Use...
  3. the recipient's mailbox is full
    In our domain we have a domain controller Windows 2003 server , and exchange server 2003 is working as mail server. For one user cannot sent and receive mails. Error- The message could not be delivered because the recipient's mailbox is full. <server2.tctc.com #5.2.2> ...
  4. how to exclude mailboxes from being affected by recipient …
    we will be applying a mailbox recipient policy in exchange 2003 to delete all items older than 30 days. we would like to exclude some of the mailboxes. how can i accomplish this? thanks
  5. exchange mailbox management and LDAP
    Hi All, I have a problem with an exchange mailbox management process on SBS 2003. My LDAP query isn't returning anything, i am trying to get all the users in a group and run the process basically on that group. the group is called ExchangeCleanupTest It's a Security Group ...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: aissimPosted on 2007-05-03 at 12:31:54ID: 19026113

The mailbox manager checks 3 different fields which must all meet the criteria (delivery, sent, and modified). The last being the important one - if the end user has recently read, copied, moved, etc. a message - even if the message is a year old, the modified date will make the management process skip that particular email.

 

by: djmichaelmaximPosted on 2007-05-03 at 12:33:44ID: 19026131

Is there a way to change that so that it only checks the delivery and sent fields?

 

by: aissimPosted on 2007-05-03 at 12:39:26ID: 19026177

Yes, there's an attribute (msExchMailboxManagerAgeLimit) that can be set to ignore modified date, submitted date, or both.

Here are two articles that discuss it:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=326397
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2004/08/17/215807.aspx

 

by: djmichaelmaximPosted on 2007-05-03 at 12:50:50ID: 19026289

Great! I am changing that attribute now with ADSI Edit. I will post back when the Mailbox Manager Process has completed.

 

by: djmichaelmaximPosted on 2007-05-03 at 12:52:55ID: 19026312

Ok the that attribute has been set. Do I need to restart any services in order for the process to recognize it? I set it to 1 then ran the Mailbox Management Process. It completed but still didn't remove the older items.

The Microsoft Exchange Server Mailbox Manager has completed processing mailboxes
Started at:      2007-05-03 15:46:58
Completed at:      2007-05-03 15:48:29
Mailboxes processed:      197
Messages moved:      0
Size of moved messages:      0.00 KB
Deleted messages:      0
Size of deleted messages:      0.00 KB

 

by: aissimPosted on 2007-05-03 at 13:22:23ID: 19026563

Have you done the right-clicked the policy and chosen 'apply this policy now' ?

Also, just to verify, I see there are two management policies in place - depending on the higher priority policy you may have some conflicting settings that are preventing the deletion?

 

by: djmichaelmaximPosted on 2007-05-03 at 13:28:56ID: 19026635

I did right click and Apply the Policy Now. I actually set the others to have the exact same settings as the 90 Day Policy that I created. Delete Immediately after 90 Days - Any Size.

 

by: aissimPosted on 2007-05-03 at 13:32:24ID: 19026667

Gotcha - I'm not certain on a need to restart services or not. My initial response would be 'no, you shouldn't have to' - but if it's not working......it's definitely an option (although i know restarting exchange isn't always an option!)

I'll keep looking for a solid answer on that and let ya know...

 

by: djmichaelmaximPosted on 2007-05-03 at 13:35:29ID: 19026692

I just went in and applied all the policies again and restarted the MM process. It was taking about 1 minute to complete when it was not deleting anything. After I reapplied all the policies and restarted the MM process... its still running after about 5 minutes. If I right click to start the MM process, it asks if I want to "Stop" it instead. I'm guessing it's probably deleting messages now. We'll wait and see when the report is emailed to me.

 

by: aissimPosted on 2007-05-03 at 14:23:49ID: 19027025

Definitely sounds like it's doing something it didn't do before...I'll wait to hear.

 

by: aissimPosted on 2007-06-15 at 14:40:56ID: 19295659

Based on djmichaelmaxim's final post my impression was that things were working how he wanted them to, and his issue was finally resolved. (also assuming he would've posted back if things didn't work). Just my two cents!

 

by: Computer101Posted on 2008-01-01 at 08:18:55ID: 20560478

Forced accept.

Computer101
EE Admin

 

by: djmichaelmaximPosted on 2010-04-02 at 11:21:49ID: 29479901

It did work. Sorry for taking so long to post back!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...