Messaging Record Management
 
Messaging Record Management (MRM) helps us to keep the messages that are need to comply with company policy, government regulation or legal needs and to remove those messages which are not required by the organization as per their policies. This is achieved by the mode of one folder which is being created under users mailbox called as "Managed Folder " which work as per the content setting applied on it. Messages under Messaging Record Management are processed as per the policy applied on it when it reaches to retention period either it can be moved to the deleted items folders, or to a managed custom folder, permanently deleted, marked as past retention limit or delete and allow recovery.

Activities which can be achieved by MRM Process

• Mark the past retention limit: the item will be grayed out in Outlook
• Move to the Deleted Items folde -  the item will be moved to the Deleted Items folder
• Move to a Managed Custom Folder:  the item will be moved to a Managed Folder
• Delete and allow recovery: Excluding the item and allows the recovery through the Deleted Items Recovery option
• Permanently delete: permanently delete the item

Messaging Record Management majorly  focused on the following:

1. Users classify their own messages: Users can sort their messages into the appropriate folders which has been created as per the company compliance\ law. This will help the users to eliminate the mishandling of the messages.
2. Obsolete messages are removed: Messages which are not required anymore as per the company policy can be removed.
3. Required messages are retained: It is nothing but whatever the action taken while processing the MRM, those messages still can be forwarded to special mailbox called as Journaling.

Messaging Record Management is applied on the following folders

1) Default Folders: Default Folders are those folder which are already in place on the messaging client application i.e Inbox, Delete Items, Drafts, Sent, Calendar etc…

2) Custom Folders : Custom Folders are those folder which is being created by administrator i.e others folders which are not managed by default folders.

How to view the default folder\ Custom Folder:
    • Logon to Exchange 2007 Server
    • Open the Exchange Management Console
    • Expand organization => Click on Mailbox => Then Click on “Managed Default Folders” or "Managed Custom Folders"
    Figure 1:
    
 

How to view the managed folder from the powershell:
    • Open Exchange Management shell
    • Type the following command “get-managedfolders”
    Figure 2:
    
 

Messaging Record Management Process:

1. Administrator either can select a managed default folder or can create custom folder
2. Set the retention time period for the manage folder like XX days. In this retention setting either you can set to delete or archive.
3. Create a mailbox policy for those managed folder
4. Apply the managed folder policies to user's mailbox
5. Schedule a time for running the above policy which is nothing but schedule managed folder assistant.
6. Managed folder assistant provision and enforces content settings.

MRM Creation:

1. Creation of Managed Folder
2. Creation of Managed Content Settings
3. Creation of  a Managed Folder Mailbox Policyy
4.  Applying managed folder policy to user’s mailboxes
5. Schedule the managed folder assistant

Now we will see a scenario to have more better concept on MRM Creation. 

My requirement :

• System Cleanup folder – All the mails under this folder should be Permanently Deleted from the users mailbox.

• Junk E-mail – All the mail under this folder should be marked for the past retention item.

• Inbox – Inbox mail should be deleted and also we should get recover option. 

• My company’s E-mail should be moved to one custom folder

If you see the above requirement Junk E-mail & Inbox are already in-place under default managed folder. Others aspects like System Cleanup, Company E-mail folder and one more folder for moving the content from company e-mail folder  which I call it as “confidential mail” needs to be created . This is nothing but a  Custom Folders. So I will create those three folders:

• System Clean-Up
• Company’s E-mail
• Confidential Email Folder (This company folder is the destination folder for my company’s E-mail Folder)

1) Creation of Managed Folder:

a. Open the Exchange Management Console
b. Expand Organization
c. Click on Mailbox => From the Action Menu click on “New Managed Custom Folder”
Figure 3:

 

d. You will get “New Managed Custom Folder” Wizard
        Name : System Cleanup
        Display Name : System Cleanup
        Storage Limit : here you can define the storage limit for each custom folders
        Display the following comment : Type the comment for the user’s information.
        Click on New to create this custom folder
Figure 4:

Inorder to create the same folder from the powershell, type the following command
New-ManagedFolder -Name 'System Cleanup' -FolderName 'System Cleanup' -StorageQuota 'unlimited' -Comment 'This is customize system clean-up folder.' -MustDisplayComment $true

Created other  2 custom folder following the above steps:
Figure 5:

2) Creation of Managed Content Settings:

We have created custom folder and even we have default folders inplace, now we need to configure the desired setting for each folders.
Inbox:
a. Open the Exchange Management Console
b. Click on Mailbox under Organization level
c. Click on “Managed Default Folders”
d. Select Inbox and click on “New Managed Content Setting” from the action menu
Figure 6:

 

e. Under Managed content Setting, give the desire name, retion period & specific action which should be done after the retention period pass. As per my scenario : I need to delete and allow recovery for the deleted item
Figure 7:
 

f. When you

click on NEXT as per the figure 7, you will get Journaling option, here you can select any mailbox to which you want to forward the copy of the email which is processed by MRM
Figure 8:

 
g. Click on Next and then finish this content setting

From Exchange Management Shell command :
new-ManagedContentSettings -Name 'Deleting and allowing recovery for inbox mail older 1 day' -FolderName 'Inbox' -RetentionAction 'DeleteAndAllowRecovery' -AddressForJournaling 'happy.com/Users/journal' -AgeLimitForRetention '1.00:00:00' -JournalingEnabled $true -MessageFormatForJournaling 'UseTnef' -RetentionEnabled $true -LabelForJournaling 'Message arrived by MRM process' -MessageClass '*' -MoveToDestinationFolder $null -TriggerForRetention 'WhenDelivered'

Like this create managed folder content setting for
• Junk E-mail – Mark as past retention limit
• System Cleanup – Permanently Delete
• Company’s E-mail – Move to managed custom folder (selected Confidential Mail)

Note : If you expand the respective folder you can see the content setting is linked with the folder
Figure 9:

 

3. Create a managed folder mailbox policy:

a. Open Exchange Management Console
b. Expand Exchange Organization
c. Click on Mailbox and from the action menu click on “New Managed Folder Mailbox Policy”
Figure 10:
 

d. It will open a wizard for mailbox policy, give a name for it and add all the respective managing folder
Figure 11:

 

From the Exchange Management Shell command :
new-ManagedFolderMailboxPolicy -Name 'Mailbox Policy' -ManagedFolderLinks 'Company''s E-mail','Confidential Mail','Inbox','Junk E-mail','System Cleanup'

Note: For me the policy need to updated on System Cleanup, Junk E-mail, Inbox & Company’s E-mail.

4. Applying managed folder policy to users mailboxes
    • Open the Exchange management console
    • Expand Recipient Configuration
    • Select the respective users for whom you want to add this policy then click on properties.
    • Click on “Mailbox Setting Tab”
    • Select “Messaging Record Management”
    • Click on Properties
    • Select “ Managed folder mailbox policy”
    • Browse the new policy which is being created
Figure 12:

 
5. Schedule the managed folder assistant
    • Open the Exchange Management Console
    • Expand Server Configuration
    • Click on Mailbox
    • Right Click Mailbox Server and click on Properties
    • Click on Messaging Record Management Tab
    • Under “Schedule the Managed Folder Assistant” select  “use custom schedule” and then click on customize and set the customize time.

Figure 13:



If you start the managed folder process immediately then you run the following command from the exchange powershell : start-managedfolderassistants

Once you start it you will the managed folder option for that specific user

Figure 14:

 

The above folder can’t be deleted by user.

Note : If you know some of the constant email which is coming to users mailbox and you want this email to move to the specific folder suggest them to create a rules to move those email to the managed folders after the creation and configuration of managed folders. In my example I have created the following rules.
• The mail which has a subject message “Microsoft Exchange Server Mailbox Manager Report” should be moved to System Cleanup folder
• The mail which has subject called as Account-12 should be moved to Company’s E-mail

Handoff Testing:

• Send some test email to all the respective folders
Figure 15:

 

Output after the retention period passed:
1) System Cleanup
    • MRM Setting - – All the mails under this folder should be Permanently Deleted from the users mailbox.
Figure 16:

 

2) Junk E-mail
MRM Setting – All the mail under this folder should be marked for the past retention item.
Open the Junk E-mail folder from outlook 2007, from owa you won’t difference
Figure 17:

 

3) Inbox – Inbox mail should be deleted and also we should get recover option.
Figure 18: 

4) Company’s Email should be moved to Confidential Email Folder:
Figure 19:

 

Turning off MRM:

Removing the managed folder policy from the mailboxes
    • Open Exchange Management console
    • Expand Recipient Configuration
    • Click on Mailbox
    • From the workpane select that specific users and click on properties
    • Click on Mailbox Setting tab
    • Select “Messaging Records Management” and then click on Properties
    • Uncheck “Managed Folder Mailbox Policy”

    From the powershell : Set-Mailbox -Identity useraliasname  -RemoveManagedFolderAndPolicy

To check the status of the managed folderpolicy after removing it:
    • Open Exchange management shell
    • Type the following command : get-Mailbox -Identity useralias | FL
Figure 20:

 

Temporarily turning off MRM policy for the specific user:
    • Open Exchange Management console
    •  Expand Recipient Configuration
    • Click on Mailbox
    • From the workpane select that specific users and click on properties
    • Click on Mailbox Setting tab
    • Select “Messaging Records Management” and then click on Properties
    • Select “Enable retention hold for items in this mailbox and then select the start & end date
Figure 21:

 

To use the Exchange Management Shell to put a mailbox on retention hold 
    1. Start the Exchange Management Shell.
    2. Type the following command:
 
Set-Mailbox -Identity useralias -RetentionHoldEnabled $true -StartDateForRetentionHold 01-11-2009 –EndDateForRetentionHold 01-12-1-2009

Permanently removing the MRM:
1. Delete the managed folders
2. Delete the custom settings if it is existing in any default folder
3. Delete the mailbox policy
        1) Open Exchange management console
        2) Expand Organization
        3) Click on Mailbox 
        4) Click on Managed Default folder, search for any content settings if it is existing then you delete those
        5) Click on Managed Custom folder tab, delete the custom folder (this will take care of custom setting as well)
        6) Click on Managed Folder Mailbox Policies and delete the policy which you don’t want in the organization

Monitoring Messaging Records Management

Messaging records management (MRM) can be resource-intensive process that benefits from regular monitoring. To learn about the status information that is available for MRM in Exchange 2007, see the following topics:

• How to View Performance Counters for Messaging Records Management 
    This topic explains how to use Performance Monitor (Perfmon.exe) to select and view performance counters for messaging records management (MRM). By using performance counters, you can monitor the managed folder assistant while it runs resource-intensive MRM processes.

• Performance Counters for Messaging Records Management
This topic lists the performance counters that are used to monitor the managed folder assistant as it implements messaging records management (MRM) for Exchange 2007.

• How to Configure Messaging Records Management Logging
This topic explains how to use the Exchange Management Shell to configure messaging records management (MRM) logging in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Regularly monitoring log files is good practice because it helps you to track system performance, correct any problems that may arise, anticipate issues before they occur, and plan for improvements to your Exchange organization.

• Messaging Records Management Errors and Events
This topic describes the events that you can use to troubleshoot MRM.

Source : Microsoft Technet

Note : The content of this article is to have concept on what is MRM, how it will work and how can we deploy MRM. The above one are assumed example for understanding the concept.

Reference Article:

Exchange 2007 Messaging Records Management 

Deploying Messaging Records Management
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123548.aspx