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Schedule the Managed Folder Assistant

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Applies to: Exchange Server 2010

The Managed Folder Assistant is a Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistant that applies message retention settings configured in retention policies or managed folder mailbox policies. If a mailbox uses a managed folder mailbox policy, it also creates any managed folders and applies managed content settings to them.

Important

In Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, the Managed Folder Assistant is scheduled to run from 01:00 (1:00 A.M.) to 09:00 (9:00 A.M.) daily. You can modify the schedule to suit your requirements.

Note

The Managed Folder Assistant stops as soon as all mailboxes are processed. It doesn't run continuously until the end of the scheduled period.

When the Managed Folder Assistant is running, it processes all the mailboxes on a server. If the Managed Folder Assistant doesn't finish processing the mailboxes on the server during the time that you've scheduled, it automatically resumes processing where it left off the next time it runs. There is one Managed Folder Assistant for each server.

Running the Managed Folder Assistant is a resource-intensive process, especially when it's run for the first time. The first time the Managed Folder Assistant runs, it typically processes a large number of items. This can be a resource-intensive process for the Mailbox server and the network. It can also result in Microsoft Outlook clients consuming large amounts of time and network resources while synchronizing with the server. Administrators should plan carefully to avoid overloading resources.

You should only run the Managed Folder Assistant when your server can tolerate the extra load. This is usually during off-peak hours. You should make sure that you run the Managed Folder Assistant often enough to meet your legal needs with regard to messaging records management.

Prerequisites

For the Managed Folder Assistant to process mailboxes, a retention policy or a managed folder mailbox policy must be applied to them.

Use the EMC to schedule the Managed Folder Assistant

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Messaging records management" entry in the Messaging Policy and Compliance Permissions topic.

  1. In the console tree, navigate to Server Configuration > Mailbox.
  2. In the result pane, right-click the Mailbox server for which you want to schedule the Managed Folder Assistant, and then click Properties.
  3. Click the Messaging Records Management tab.
  4. In the Schedule the Managed Folder Assistant box, select Use Custom Schedule, and then click Customize.
  5. In Schedule, select the times and days during which you want the Managed Folder Assistant to run.
  6. Click OK.

Use the Shell to schedule the Managed Folder Assistant

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Messaging records management" entry in the Messaging Policy and Compliance Permissions topic.

This example sets the Managed Folder Assistant schedule to start running at 14:00 (2:00 P.M.) Sunday and continue running until all mailboxes are processed or until 13:00 (1:00 P.M.) the following Sunday, whichever comes first.

Set-MailboxServer -Identity MyMailboxServer -ManagedFolderAssistantSchedule "Sun.14:00-Sun.13:00"

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-MailboxServer.

Use the Shell to start the Managed Folder Assistant

You can use the Start-ManagedFolderAssistant cmdlet to manually start the Managed Folder Assistant. You may need to manually start the assistant during testing, troubleshooting, or to process mailboxes immediately during a period when the assistant isn't scheduled to run. Every time the Start-ManagedFolderAssistant cmdlet is run, processing of mailboxes stops and then restarts, reprocessing all the mailboxes on the server from the beginning.

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Messaging records management" entry in the Messaging Policy and Compliance Permissions topic.

Note

You can't use the EMC to manually start the Managed Folder Assistant.

This example manually starts the Managed Folder Assistant. When you manually start the Managed Folder Assistant, it continues running until all mailboxes on the Mailbox server are processed or until the assistant is stopped manually.

Start-ManagedFolderAssistant

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Start-ManagedFolderAssistant.