GFi MailArchiver for Exchange

GFi MailArchiver promises to be an easy to use corporate journal archiving solution for use with Microsoft Exchange server.  Most likely you will be surprised by how quick and easy this product is to configure and use.  I have spent time with a number of compliance and archiving products for Exchange and this is definitely one of the easiest to install.  This is due in-part because of the “don’t assume I know anything” install guide.  The writers did a wonderful job walking through each and every step as well as provide bits of realistic guidance along the way.  It is strange to say but I found the documentation refreshing.

MailArchiver provides several options for storing data.  For storing e-mail metadata you can either store it in a Firebird or Microsoft SQL database.  The actual compressed e-mail messages can either be stored in a Microsoft SQL database or on a NTFS partition.  These options  provide flexibility in monetary, administrative, and server resource cost.  If you have a smaller office Exchange server, NTFS with the Firebird database is probably the best solution for you.  If you have a larger Exchange environment you may want or need to cluster the archive database using SQL Enterprise Server. 

If MailArchiver is running on your target Exchange server you may choose to employ ExOLEDB for connectivity; however for remote servers MailArchiver relies on IMAP rather than a traditional MAPI connection.

Continuing with the flexible theme MailArchiver allows you to be very flexible in what you archive.  What you archive can included or excluded by mailbox, by sender or by keyword.  This both a blessing and a curse since you can really make a complicated thing out of something that is pretty simple if you don’t have a proper plan in place before you start your deployment.  Overall the filtering options available should fit most environments that I have seen.

Another feature is the ability to automatically create new archive databases based on a schedule.  You would do this to keep archives manageable.  This allows you to have MailArchiver create a new archive every month, quarter, year, or on a schedule that you define.  This could allow you to move the older databases to slower media (i.e. SATA, or other nearline media) so to help reduce storage costs.  Moving the databases between storage types automatically is not built into the product.

The Web Interface

All management and user tasks are done from a web console.  Users with appropriate permissions are able to restore or search e-mail.   (You can install a SSL certificate for security…)  All of the tasks are pretty straightforward with a lot of AJAX dropdown lists for ease of selection.  Users shouldn’t need much training to get started with this console.  You can use the administrator console to set permissions for groups and individual mailboxes so that managers can search

Any improvements?

Being a critical person of course there are a couple of things that I think could be changed.  Although this product is called MailArchiver it doesn’t actually remove any mail from any mailboxes.  This means this product is not for companies that are trying to manage mailbox sizes.  Rather it fits the needs of companies that need to store all mail for compliance or litigation support.  One of the other features that I have seen in other products as a nice to have is a litigation portal.  This allows the appropriate legal-types to login and see open cases and review and export saved searches from those cases.

The Verdict

MailArchiver should definitely be considered if your company is looking for an Exchange journal archiving product.  The ease of configuration, ease of use far outweigh the missing features of more expensive and complicated products.

More information: 

• http://www.gfi.com/MailArchiver