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Exchange 2003’s Mailbox Manager is a
rules-based tool that helps administrators control the size of
their information store. For example, you can use this tool to
limit the age of messages in a specific folder.

To use Mailbox Manager to limit the age of
messages in the Deleted Items folder to 60 days and the age of
messages in Sent Items to 90 days, follow these steps.

  1. Open the Exchange System Manager, and expand
    the Recipients container.
  2. Right-click Recipient Policies, select New,
    and select Recipient Policy.
  3. In the New Policy dialog box, select the
    Mailbox Manager Settings check box, and click OK.
  4. In the Properties dialog box, enter a name
    for the new policy, and click the Modify button.
  5. In the Find Exchange Recipients dialog box,
    deselect all check boxes except for the Exchange one since this
    example policy only applies to Exchange mailboxes.
  6. On the Storage tab, you can decide whether
    the recipient policy will apply to mailboxes on all the Exchange
    servers in your organization, to only one server, or only to a
    storage group on a specific server. For this example, select
    Mailboxes On Any Server.
  7. On the Advanced tab, select User from the
    Field drop-down list.
  8. Choose the E-mail Address field from the
    resulting list of Exchange mailbox properties to apply the policy
    to everyone, and select Present in the Condition field.
  9. Click the Find Now button, and it should
    return all of the users with Exchange mailboxes in your Exchange
    organization.
  10. Click OK, read the resulting message about
    proxy addresses, and click OK again.

These steps involve defining where you want to
apply the Mailbox Manager recipient policy.

Now, let’s look
at how to create the policy rules.

Follow these steps:

  1. In the policy’s Properties dialog box, select
    the Mailbox Manager Settings (Policy) tab.
  2. Select Generate Report Only from the When
    Processing A Mailbox drop-down list. While this list includes three
    other options (Move Items To Deleted Items Folder, Move To System
    Cleanup Folder, and Delete Immediately), it’s a good idea to choose
    Generate Report Only when you first create a policy. That way, you
    can make sure your policy actually does what you want before you
    start deleting items. Always take care before choosing the Delete
    Immediately option.
  3. The default setting selects all folders for
    processing. For this example, deselect all of the folders except
    for the Deleted Items and Sent Items folders.
  4. Select each item, and click the Edit button.
    Change the Age Of Items parameter to 60 days for the Deleted Items
    folder and 90 days for the Sent Items folder; deselect the Message
    Size check box since you’re not creating a size limit, and click
    OK.
  5. For our example, leave the Send Notification
    Mail To User After Processing check box unselected. (This option
    enables sending a message to users once the Mailbox Manager
    recipient policy has processed their mailbox, and it includes the
    option of editing the message.)
  6. Leave the Exclude Specific Message Classes
    check box unselected as well. (This option allows you to omit
    processing messages such as notes, contacts, etc. within the
    folders you selected.)
  7. Click OK, and you’re finished.

The new policy should now display in the right
pane of the Exchange System Manager.