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Configure Skype for Business Server to use Exchange Server archiving

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Summary: Configure IM transcripts for Exchange Server 2016 or Exchange Server 2013 and Skype for Business Server.

Skype for Business Server gives administrators the option of having instant messaging and Web conferencing transcripts archived to a user's Exchange Server 2016 or Exchange Server 2013 mailbox rather than a SQL Server database. If you enable this option, transcripts are written to the Purges folder in the user's mailbox. The Purges folder is a hidden folder found in the Recoverable Items folder. Although this folder isn't visible to end users, the folder is indexed by the Exchange search engine and can be discovered by using Exchange mailbox search and/or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013. Because information is stored in the same folder used by the Exchange In-Place Hold feature (responsible for archiving email and other Exchange communications), administrators can use a single tool to search for all the electronic communications archived for a user.

Important

To completely disable conversation archiving, you must also disable conversation history. For more information, see the following topics: Managing the Archiving of internal and external communications in Skype for Business Server, New-CsClientPolicy, and Set-CsClientPolicy.

In order to archive transcripts to Exchange Server, you must begin by configuring server-to-server authentication between Skype for Business Server and Exchange Server. After server-to-server authentication is in place, you can then carry out the following tasks in Skype for Business Server (note that, depending on your setup and configuration, you might not need to complete all of these tasks):

  1. Enable Exchange archiving by modifying your Skype for Business Server archiving configuration settings. This step is required for all deployments.

  2. Enable archiving for internal and/or external communications for your users. This step is required for all deployments.

  3. Configure the ExchangeArchivingPolicy property for each user. This step is only required if Skype for Business Server and Exchange Server are located in different forests.

Step 1: Enabling Exchange Archiving

Archiving in Skype for Business Server is primarily managed by using the archiving configuration settings. When you install Skype for Business Server you're automatically given a single, global collection of these settings. (Administrators can optionally create new collections of archiving settings at the site scope.) By default, archiving isn't enabled in the global settings, nor is Exchange archiving enabled in these settings. In order to use Exchange archiving, administrators must configure both the EnableArchiving and the EnableExchangeArchiving properties in these configuration settings. The EnableArchiving property can be set to one of three possible values:

  • None. Archiving is disabled. This is the default value. If EnableArchiving is set to None, then nothing is archived in either your Skype for Business Server archiving database or in Exchange Server.

  • ImOnly. Only instant message transcripts are archived. If Exchange archiving is enabled, these transcripts will be archived in Exchange Server. If Exchange archiving is disabled, then these transcripts is archived to Skype for Business Server.

  • ImAndWebConf. Both instant message transcripts and Web conferencing transcripts are archived. If Exchange archiving is enabled these transcripts are archived in Exchange Server. If Exchange archiving is disabled, then these transcripts are archived to Skype for Business Server.

The EnableExchangeArchiving property is a Boolean value: set EnableExchangeArchiving to True ($True) to enable Exchange archiving or set EnableExchangeArchiving to False ($False) to disable Exchange archiving. For example, this command enables the archiving of instant messaging transcripts and also enables Exchange archiving:

Set-CsArchivingConfiguration -Identity "global" -EnableArchiving ImOnly -EnableExchangeArchiving $True

To disable Exchange archiving, use a command similar to the following, which enables instant messaging archiving but disables archiving to Exchange (in other words, transcripts are archived to Skype for Business Server):

Set-CsArchivingConfiguration -Identity "global" -EnableArchiving ImOnly -EnableExchangeArchiving $False

Note

If the EnableArchiving property is set to None, then Skype for Business Server will not archive instant messaging and Web conferencing transcripts at all. In that case, the server will simply ignore the value configured for EnableExchangeArchiving.

Exchange archiving can also be enabled (or disabled) by using the Skype for Business Server. To do that, complete the following procedure:

  1. In Control Panel, select Monitoring and Archiving, and then select Archiving Configuration.

  2. On the Archiving Configuration tab, double-click the collection of archiving settings to be modified (for example, the Global collection).

  3. In the Edit Archiving Setting pane, select the Archiving setting dropdown list and select either Archive IM sessions (to archive instant messaging sessions) or Archive IM and web conferencing sessions (to archive both instant messaging and Web conferencing sessions).

  4. After choosing the items to be archived, select the Exchange Server integration checkbox to enable Exchange archiving. To disable Exchange archiving, clear this checkbox.

Note

The Exchange Server integration checkbox will not be available if the Archiving setting is set to Disable archiving. You must enable archiving first and then enable Exchange archiving.

If Skype for Business Server and Exchange Server are located in the same forest, then archiving for individual users (or at least for users who have email accounts on Exchange Server) is managed by using Exchange In-Place Hold policies. If you have users who are homed on a previous version of Exchange then archiving for those users is managed by using Skype for Business Server archiving policies. Only users with accounts on Exchange Server 2016 or Exchange Server 2013 can have their Skype for Business transcripts archived to Exchange.

If Skype for Business Server and Exchange Server are located in different forests, then archiving for individual users is managed by configuring the ExchangeArchivingPolicy property for each individual user account. For more information, see Step 3.

Step 2: Enabling the Archiving of Internal and/or External Communications

After you enable archiving (and Exchange archiving), you must then modify the appropriate archiving policies to ensure that user sessions are archived. Enabling archiving (Step 1) doesn't cause Skype for Business Server to begin archiving instant messaging and Web conferencing transcripts. Instead, you must use archiving policies to enable internal and/or external archiving. When you install Skype for Business Server you also install a single, global archiving policy that contains two properties:

  • ArchiveInternal. When set to True ($True) indicates that internal communication sessions involving only users who have Active Directory accounts in your organization are archived.

  • ArchiveExternal. When set to True ($True) indicates that internal communication sessions (sessions involving at least one user who doesn't have an Active Directory account in your organization) are archived.

By default, both of these property values are set to False, meaning that neither internal nor external communication sessions are archived. To modify the global policy, you can use the Skype for Business Server Management Shell and the Set-CsArchivingPolicy cmdlet. This command enables the archiving of both internal and external communication sessions:

Set-CsArchivingPolicy -Identity "global" -ArchiveInternal $True -ArchiveExternal $True

Alternatively, you can use the New-CsArchivingPolicy to create a new policy at either the site scope or the per-user scope. For example, this command creates a new per-user archiving policy named RedmondArchivingPolicy:

New-CsArchivingPolicy -Identity "RedmondArchivingPolicy" -ArchiveInternal $True -ArchiveExternal $True

If you create a per-user policy you need to assign that policy to the appropriate users. For example:

Grant-CsArchivingPolicy -Identity "Ken Myer" -PolicyName  "RedmondArchivingPolicy"

Archiving policies can also be managed by using the Skype for Business Server Control Panel. Within the Control Panel, select Monitoring and Archiving and then select Archiving Policy. To modify an existing policy, double-click the policy (for example, Global) and then, in the Edit Archiving Policy pane, select or clear the Archive internal communications and the Archive external communications checkboxes as needed. To create a new archiving policy, select New and then select either Site policy or User policy. If you create a new user policy, you must access the appropriate user accounts (from the Users tab) and assign those users the new policy.

Step 3: Configuring the ExchangeArchivingPolicy Property

If Skype for Business Server and Exchange Server are located in different forests, then it isn't enough to enable Exchange archiving in the archiving configuration settings; that won't result in instant messaging and Web conferencing transcripts being archived in Exchange. Instead, you must also configure the ExchangeArchivingPolicy property on each of the relevant Skype for Business Server user accounts. This property can be set to one of four possible values:

  1. Uninitialized. Indicates that archiving will be based on the In-Place Hold settings configured for the user's Exchange mailbox; if In-Place Hold hasn't been enabled on the user's mailbox then the user has their messaging and Web conferencing transcripts archived in Skype for Business Server.

  2. UseLyncArchivingPolicy. Indicates that the user's instant messaging and Web conferencing transcripts should be archived in Skype for Business Server rather than in Exchange.

  3. NoArchiving. Indicates that the user's instant messaging and Web conferencing transcripts should not be archived at all. Note that this setting overrides any Skype for Business Server archiving policies assigned to the user.

  4. ArchivingToExchange. Indicates that the user's instant messaging and Web conferencing transcripts should be archived to Exchange regardless of the In-Place Hold settings that have (or have not) been assigned to the user's mailbox.

For example, to configure a user account so that instant messaging and Web conferencing transcripts are always archived to Exchange you can use a command similar to this from the Skype for Business Server Management Shell:

Set-CsUser -Identity "Ken Myer" -ExchangeArchivingPolicy ArchivingToExchange

If you want to set the same archiving policy for a group of users (for example, all the users homed on a specified Registrar pool) you can use a command similar to this:

Get-CsUser -Filter {RegistrarPool -eq "atl-cs-001.litwareinc.com"} | Set-CsUser -ExchangeArchivingPolicy ArchivingToExchange

You must use the Skype for Business Server Management Shell (and Windows PowerShell) in order to configure value of the ExchangeArchivingPolicy property. This property isn't exposed to administrators in the Skype for Business Server.

If you would like to view a list of all the users who have been assigned a specific archiving policy then you can use a command similar to the following, which returns the Active Directory display name of all the users who have had the ExchangeArchivingPolicy property set to Uninitialized:

Get-CsUser | Where-Object {$_.ExchangeArchivingPolicy -eq "Uninitialized"} | Select-Object DisplayName

Likewise, this command returns the display name of the users who haven't have the ExchangeArchivingPolicy property set to UseLyncArchivingPolicy:

Get-CsUser | Where-Object {$_.ExchangeArchivingPolicy -ne "UseLyncArchivingPolicy"} | Select-Object DisplayName