Error Message

No errors are generated as this is expected behavior

This is expected behavior..

This behavior is a side effect that occurs when either of the Microsoft Exchange features Single Item Recovery or In-Place Hold are enabled.

Within the users mailbox, either of those features will create versioned copies of e-mails modified in the Recoverable Items\Version hidden folder. This increases the overall size of the mailbox.

For further details under which circumstances a modification creates an entry refer to Microsoft's documentation on the Single Item Recovery feature (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/library/ee364755.aspx)

For further details on In-Place Hold refer to the following article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff637980%28v=exchg.150%29.aspx

For more details of how copy-on-write works, see the 'Properties that trigger copy on write' section at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee861123.aspx. 

When EV archives messages, the process called "copy-on-write" is triggered and it generates versioned copies in the "Versions" subfolder of the "Recoverable Items folder". As indicated in the screenshot above 4 messages are added per item which are explained as follows:

1. Copy-on-write creates the original IPM.Note as the original version.

2.     Copy-on-write creates another copy when EV changes the message class to IPM.Note.EnterpriseVault.PendingArchive.

3. Copy-on-write creates a third copy when EV changes the message class to IPM.Note.EnterpriseVault.Shortcut.

4. Finally copy-on-write creates a fourth copy when EV strips the body of the shortcut and reduces it down in size.

This may also limit any saving in the size of the mailbox database expected from EV.

One of the following options in the solution section can be used to alleviate the impact of enabling the feature.

Solution 1:

Disable Single Item Recovery or In-Place Hold. 

• For Single Item Recovery this can be achieved by running the following command within the Exchange Powershell console:

Get-Mailbox -Server 'SERVERNAME' -RecipientTypeDetails:UserMailbox  | ForEach-Object {Set-Mailbox -Identity $_.Name -SingleItemRecoveryEnabled $False } 

This example will disable all users on the server specified ('SERVERNAME'). Reference: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123798.aspx

• For In-Place Hold this can be achieved by running the following command within the Exchange Powershell console:

Set-MailboxSearch "HeldUser" -InPlaceHoldEnabled $false Remove-MailboxSearch "HeldUser"

This example disables In-Place Hold for the one user called HeldUser. Reference: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd979797%28v=exchg.150%29.aspx

Verify that the Exchange hotfix referenced in the related article below is installed and check the following Microsoft article: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2700544 

Solution 2:

If solution 1 is not an option then to reduce the addition of items to the Versions folder during the EV archiving process shortcuts must not be created. Instead of 4 messages being added to the Versions folder only 2 messages will be added. There are still 2 messages as the item is still turned into a pending archive item but is not changed into a full EV shortcut.

To configure this the option 'Create shortcut to archived item after archiving' in the Exchange Mailbox Policy below must be deselected as shown below:

This will mean that the original item will be left in the users mailbox and if this is not desired the option 'Delete original item after archiving' must be selected. EV items will then have to be retrieved via other methods, such as Virtual Vault or EV search applications.

Solution 3:

If the user is temporarily on In-Place Hold an option would be to temporarily disable the user from archiving via any supported method. This is a valid solution as generally In-Place Hold is a temporary situation and once the hold has been disabled within Exchange archiving of the mailbox can be re-enabled.

****Note **** This would not be a recommended solution if Single Item Recovery were enabled as that is a more permanent configuration.

 

Applies To

MS Exchange 2010 and 2013 with all supported EV versions.

EV has been configured to create shortcuts.

As part of archiving messages with Enterprise Vault (EV), e-mails are changed into shortcuts to save space within the mailbox. Since Exchange 2010, MS Exchange has offered features called Single Item Recovery and In-Place (Litigation) Hold. These features, when enabled, create hidden folders within the mailbox. The effect when these users are then processed by Enterprise Vault is that each message archived is duplicated multiple times in the versions folder. This can be demonstrated by looking at these folders via MFCMAPI as shown below: After opening the Versions folder the differing versions of the same mail can be viewed. Note the message class differences of the duplicated items which are created as part of the EV shortcut creation process:- This can create an undesired effect of the mailbox growing larger than before archiving took place.

ETrack: 3588308