Note: This article is based on Exchange 2007 Beta 2. Some of the discussed functionality may change in the final release.

The Exchange 2003 Mailbox Manager is primarily concerned with automatic mailbox cleanup. It allows the enforcement of policies that delete content based on message size and age. In an earlier article we showed how this could be employed to automatically cleanup the Junk Email Folder.

Exchange 2007 introduces Messaging Record Management (MRM), broadening the scope of automated mailbox processing. Mailbox cleanup is now coupled with more functionality facilitating legal compliancy. Some of the improvements that will become evident from this discussion include journaling integration, improved support for custom folders and a new policy configuration.

MRM is part of the Exchange 2007 messaging policy and compliancy features. This also includes Message Classification, Rights Management and Transport Policies. Thus today we are only looking at one peace of a bigger puzzle.

For those not yet accustomed to the Exchange 2007 terminology, note the use of the term Messaging Record. This underlies the Unified Messaging environment where different messaging data sits side-by-side. Apart for the classic email messaging elements this also includes faxes, voice messages, RSS items etc.

As we shall see, MRM configuration involves the following steps:

1. Identify each folder either as a Managed Default Folder or as a Managed Custom Folder
2. Configure record handling for each folder
3. Group managed folders within a policy
4. Associate policies to user mailboxes
5. Set the schedule for the Managed Folder Assistant to enforce the policy

Identify Each Folder either as a Managed Default Folder or as a Managed Custom Folder

Managed Folders are located under Organization | Mailbox. These are organized in two pages. The Managed Default Folders page lists the standard folders.

The Managed Custom Folders page allows for identifying new folders.

To define a new folder, select New Managed Custom Folder from the Actions pane. This will launch a wizard where the folder name, folder storage limit and a description may be specified.

This completes the custom folder configuration. Exchange will later create and maintain the folder content as per our policy.

Configure Record Handling for Each Folder

From the folder context menu select New Managed Content Settings to configure how each of the folders is to be handled.

The first wizard step allows you to identify the type of messages to which these settings apply. Multiple content handling configurations could be created managing different message types. For example, faxes could be handled differently from email messages.

Next specify the number of days messages are to be retained within the folder. Once this elapses an action is applied. The action list that follows provides a number of options for removing or marking these messages.

The next wizard step provides the journaling configuration options.

This completes the Managed Content Settings for one of the folders. The same procedure should be applied to all other folders being managed.