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Exchange Server Journaling to Office 365 for Transitioning EHA Customers

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Does Not Apply To Exchange 2007/2010

If you are using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 or 2010 and you are already configured to journal mail to EHA (Exchange Hosted Archive) then you may ignore this information because by default the Exchange 2007/2010 format is supported by Office 365. Also, this information applies only to customers that are using the EHA service and are transitioning to the Office 365 Exchange Online service. For all other journaling purposes please refer to the original documentation you used for those specific business requirements.

Applies To Exchange 2003 SP2

This document explains requirements for journaling mail to the Office 365 Exchange Online Advanced Archive. You should read this document if you are a Microsoft EHA customer that is transitioning to the Office 365 Exchange Online archive service and you are using Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. Exchange Server 2003 may be configured in ways that Office 365 does not support. Specifically, Office 365 requires Envelope journaling and does not support Message-only or BCC formatted journaling. Also, Office 365 does not support journaling directly to the copy address contact, meaning you cannot bypass journaling to a local mailbox. 

Requirements for Journaling to Office 365’s Exchange Online Service        

  1. On Exchange Server 2003 there are three journaling formats that can be configured: Message-only, BCC and Envelope. Office 365 requires Envelope journaling and does not support the Message-only or BCC format. Instructions for confirming which method you are using are included below.
  2. The Office 365 Archive requires that journaled email pass through a local journal mailbox before being forwarded to the EHA copy address contact – this contact is the one you created in Active Directory when first configuring journaling for EHA. Passing through a local mailbox is required because this preserves envelope journaling headers that Office 365 uses to identify the journaled messages – specifically Content-Identifier: ExJournalReport. This is not preserved when journaling is configured to send directly to the copy address contact. Instructions on forwarding through a local journal mailbox are included below.
  3. Exchange Server 2003 licensing has two versions: Standard and Enterprise. The standard version allows only one mailbox store database. Turning on journaling for a store database and then journaling to a mailbox on that same database causes a message loop. The Enterprise version is allowed multiple databases and a second database could be used to avoid this looping. Since the standard version only allowed one database, Microsoft’s configuration instructions required that you set up a separate Exchange server and journal to a mailbox on the second server. Instructions below will show you how to avoid this step of configuring a second server by using an Outlook rule that stops the message loop.

Summarizing these concepts, the expense and complexity of configuring Exchange Server 2003 to journal to EHA may have compelled some customers to shortcut the configuration, such as sending a journaled e-mail directly to the copy address contact instead of a local journal mailbox; or to not configure Envelope journaling in lieu of the default Standard journaling. EHA would accept these configurations, even sacrificing the full fidelity of envelope journaling (for example BCC recipients are captured in Envelope journaling but not in Standard). Office 365 is strict in requiring full Envelope journaling with all headers which maintain the highest fidelity when capturing messaging content. This document describes how to configure your Exchange 2003 server so it is supported by Office 365 and it does so without requiring an additional Exchange 2003 server, even if you are using the Standard version.

Your Current Journaling Configuration

When you subscribed to the EHA service and configured journaling for the first time using the copy address Microsoft gave you (example: copy.0000@archive.messaging.microsoft.com), if you followed the Envelope Journaling instructions exactly as shown in the EHA guide to configuring Journaling, than you are configured correctly for Office 365. This means you enabled Envelope journaling, then set up a separate store database (separate server if using Standard) upon which you created a journal mailbox to which you routed your journal messages and forwarded them from this mailbox to the EHA copy address contact using an Outlook rule. However, if you did not follow those instructions exactly, the following information will help you fill in the gaps in your journaling configuration.

Confirm Envelope Journaling is Enabled

You should be on Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Exchange Server 2003. The tool to run on your Exchange server to enable envelope journaling is named EXEJCFG.EXE and it can be downloaded from the Microsoft Exchange Server Email Journaling Advanced Configuration download page. The download is a self-extracting zip file that includes instructions you should follow to enable and verify Envelope journaling. The instructions that come with the executable are comprehensive, however, if you prefer to simply complete this step without reading about it, then simply unzip the download into a folder, open a command prompt in the same folder, and run exejcfg.exe -e.

Journaling to a Local Journal Mailbox

If your information store is configured to send a journaled e-mail directly to your copy address contact, then this must be changed so that you first journal to a local mailbox, then use Outlook rules to forward to the copy address contact. If you need to create a new mailbox follow the instructions found on the TechNet Create an Active Directory Domain Services User page.

Create two Outlook rules on the local journal mailbox

  1. Setup an Outlook forwarding rule on the local mailbox using the instructions found on the TechNet Create a Server-Side Rule page.
  2. Create one more rule to stop a message loop caused by journaling to a mailbox that is on the same store database. Here are the steps to create this additional rule:
    • From an Internet browser sign in to the new mailbox using Outlook Web Access (OWA). 
    • In the navigation pane of the Outlook Web Access inbox, click Rules.
    • In the Rules area toolbar to the right side of the navigation pane, click New. The Edit Rule dialog box opens.
    • In the Rule Name box, type Stop Journal Loop.
    • In the When a message arrives section, look up this mailbox and add it to the field called From Field Contains.
    • In the Then section uncheck the Keep a copy in my Inbox checkbox and enable the Delete it radio button so that any message from this mailbox will be deleted and not forwarded.
    • Click Save and Close. You should now see both rules.

Important: Be sure that the Stop Journal Loop rule is listed first, meaning above the Forward to Journal Remote Contact rule. If it does not then highlight the Stop Journal Loop rule and click the up-arrow on the toolbar to move it up so it is first and topmost in the list. It is recommended after you Save and Close the rules list that you re-open the rules list and confirm that the two new rules are listed in the proper order, with the **Stop Journal Loop **rule positioned above the Forward to Journal Remote Contact rule. If the correct order is not in place the message loop is not prevented.

Confirm that you are not using the Forward to: setting on the local user mailbox

If you created the local journal mailbox user a moment ago, you can skip this step. However, if the local journal mailbox user was created long ago please confirm that the following configuration is not in place: In Active Directory Users and Computers, open the properties of the local journal user, go to the Exchange General tab, then click the Delivery Options button. Confirm the Forwarding address setting is set to None. Some customers have set this to forward to the EHA copy address contact. This does not capture the full journaling headers required by Office 365. The method to forward is by using the Outlook forwarding rules already created in the previous steps.

Confirm that your Global Settings do not prevent Allow Automatic Forward

Exchange server has a global setting that prevents the automatic forwarding of messages. This will allow messages to arrive in your local journal mailbox that you created, but then they will not forward to EHA or Office 365. To confirm this global setting is not enabled do the following:

  1. Launch ESM (Exchange System Manager) 
  2. Navigate to <your organization>, Global Settings, Internet Message Formats, then right-click the Default object in the right pane and choose Properties. 
  3. On the Advanced tab look for the Allow Automatic Forward checkbox. If it is unchecked, then messages will not be auto-forwarded to your Microsoft archive.

If your company policies allow it you may simply enable this checkbox, but understand that this will allow all people to automatically forward e-mail to external Internet addresses should they set up Outlook rules to do so. Alternatively, if your company policies restrict automatic forwarding then you can use the following instructions to allow only messages auto-forwarded to the Microsoft copy address domain, and all other Internet domains will remain restricted: 

  1. Launch ESM (Exchange System Manager)
  2. Navigate to <your organization>, Global Settings, and right click Internet Message Formats, select New, then Domain… 
  3. In the Name box type a name of your choice, for example, Auto Forward Microsoft Archive Allowed.
  4. In the SMTP domain field enter the domain part of your copy address. For example, if your copy address is copy.1234@archive.messaging.microsoft.com, then type archive.messaging.microsoft.com in this field.
  5. Click the Advanced tab and be sure the Allow automatic forward checkbox is checked/enabled.
  6. Click OK. You will see your new Internet Message Formats object in the list. You can exit ESM.

Configure your Mailbox Store to journal to the new journal mailbox

  1. Launch ESM (Exchange System Manager)
  2. Navigate to <your organization>, Administrative Groups, <your AG>, Servers, <your server>, First Storage Group, and right-click Mailbox Store (<your server>), then choose Properties.
  3. On the General tab, enable (if not already) the Archive all messages sent or received by mailboxes on this store checkbox.
  4. Next, click the Browse button and enter the name of the local journal mailbox.
  5. Select OK, then OK.

Configure Mailbox Box Manager to keep the new journaling mailbox from overflowing

Finally, configure Exchange Mailbox Manager to manage the size of the local journal mailbox, otherwise, it will continue to collect all messages and eventually run out of storage space. For instructions visit the Technet Configure Mailbox Manager to Manage the Journal Mailbox Size page.