As part of our investigations into hosting mail online using Microsoft Exchange Hosted services I have spent several hours on the phone with several companies to obtain prices and quotes. A couple of companies are out of the running as they didn’t bother to return my calls and although Microsoft were helpful, they just did not get it.
One of their offerings is email archiving. Every email sent and received, both internally and internally is copied to the archive service which is then searchable for ediscovery or just in case you can’t find that one email you know you received way back when. The only downside with this is the old email currently sitting on the exchange server that would not be searchable. However according to the Buy Microsoft Exchange hosted Services, “”You may bring historical data into the archive for a one-time charge, which is priced per GB”
As you can purchase the standard archive service from Microsoft and the same page contains prices for this service, it makes sense that Microsoft would be able to provide costs for this data import. About 2 hours on the phone later I realised that Microsoft unfortunately do not have a clue and nobody was able to give me a straight answer or even a ballpark figure. I was bounced around to several departments until eventually someone said that this service is purchased through the reseller channel. This doesn’t really make sense as the BPOS service itself can basically be purchased direct so why not the data import?
Our reseller is Ingram Micro, but their price list is only available to people with an account – useless for a tech like me who is trying to get some data together. However, CDW came to the rescue and this service is available by purchasing the “Microsoft Exchange Hosted Archive Historical Data Load at a cost of $60 per user (not per GB as in the original Microsoft documentation). The part number is 74P-00053. If you have an Enterprise Select agreement the part number is 74P-0059 but the price is still the same.
I’m not sure why Microsoft can’t give this price in the original web page and say to contact your normal reseller for more information.
Once the order has been placed there are more hoops to go through to get the data sent to Microsoft. The data can apparently be ftp’d to Microsoft – I’m hoping this is actually secure ftp – but as most users are going to have many Mb’s or Gb’s of data the normal scenario is to put the data onto a USB drive. I was pleased and also surprised to see they support Truecrypt. For more details of the process, continue to read the rest of the entry.
1. After the SKU is purchased, provide the customer the instruction/information below.
2. Exchange Hosted Archive Historical Data Load, R9.2:
3. Message Types: Email messages, with or without attachments can be loaded. Calendar items, Notes, Tasks, and Contacts are not supported at this time. Calendar items (meeting invites, accepts, declines) can be present within the PST files, but they will not be loaded unless they are in email message format.
4. Instant messages which are not in email message format will also not be loaded. Bloomberg messages which are in email format will typically load, as will Blackberry messages sent through your mail server.
5. File Format: All historical mail should be in PST format. The recommended maximum size per PST is 2GB. The folder structure within the PST file is not important. Please do not password-protect the PST files (see encryption, below).
Multiple Archive Customers:
If your organization has multiple hosted archives, the data within each PST should pertain to a single archive. You can submit data for multiple archives so long as the PST files are segregated into clearly identified parent folders, with a mapping file for each.
Media:
Data to be loaded should be copied to a desk-top style USB hard drive. For small amounts of data, USB memory sticks may be used. Use of pocket USB media is discouraged, as some types do not mount properly to our servers. We can also set up a secure FTP site for small amounts of data. Once you have a ticket created with support, email [email protected] with the ticket number, asking for this to be set up.
Data Encryption:
If you wish to encrypt your data, please use TrueCrypt (www.truecrypt.org). It is freeware, and a good tutorial is available on their website.
Mapping file:
In order to map internal Exchange addresses to SMTP addresses, a mapping file is needed. This can easily be created using the ‘csvde.exe’ utility.
To generate a mapping file:
Open a command prompt. (Click Start, click Run, type Cmd, and then click OK.) At the command prompt, type or copy and paste the following and press enter (please substitute your primary domain name for ‘customer_name-map-file’: C:\> csvde -l “mail,legacyExchangeDN” -r “(objectClass=user)” -f customer_name-map-file.csv
• The resulting file should look like this, one user per line:
• DN,legacyExchangeDN,mail “CN=Courtney Carson,OU=USERS,OU=REDMOND,DC=contoso,DC=com”,/o=contoso/ou=First Administrative Group/cn=Recipients/cn=CCarson,[email protected]
• “CN=CarmelMcNulty,OU=USERS,OU=REDMOND,DC=contoso,DC=com”,/o=contoso/ou=First AdministrativeGroup/cn=Recipients/cn=COReilly,[email protected]
• “CN=Chris Reddy,OU=USERS,OU=REDMOND,DC=contoso,DC=com”,/o=contoso/ou=First AdministrativeGroup/cn=Recipients/cn=CReddy,[email protected]
• “CN=Chris Manz,OU=USERS,OU=REDMOND,DC=contoso,DC=com”,/o=contoso/ou=First AdministrativeGroup/cn=Recipients/cn=CManz,[email protected]
Please include the mapping file on the USB media, along with the PST files.
Licensing Requirements for Historical Data Load:
HDL SKUs must have been purchased to cover the amount of data being loaded. See your Microsoft
Account or Partner Account representative for information and pricing. Once the HDL order is processed, a support request (ticket) for the HDL will be generated. The order activations team will assign the ticket to our Bulk Data Services group. You will be contacted by a Bulk Data Services team member to discuss your HDL.
Your best resource for further information around this will be to reach out to our Online Services Team at 866-676-6546.
