Arcmail Frequently Asked Questions

A. Most email servers have a journaling option that sends copies of all email received by the email server to the Defender appliance.

Q. What email servers does Defender support?

A. Defender is completely compatible with MS Exchange. It also works with Lotus Notes but does not support Lotus LDAP for user account management.

Q. Does Defender use data compression?

A. Yes, the data is compressed when it is stored in the Defender archive.

Q. Does Defender do "single instance storage"?

A. Yes. Defender stores only one copy of all internal email and any attachments. For example, if one employee sends an email and attachment to 100 other employees, Defender will store only one copy of the email and attachment.

Q. Does Defender use data encryption?

A. Stored email records are not encrypted, but imbedded security checks in backup and restore files are encrypted to ensure that no restored data has been altered or deleted.

Q. How does Defender support backups?

A. Backups are set up through the Defender web interface. You can schedule Defender to create regular full or incremental backup files as well as create a full backup at any time.

Q. What are the different security levels?

A. There are 4 security levels:

1. Administrator: Access to global searh functions and all configuration and user account management functions.
2. Configuration: Access to all configuration options but no access to global searches or user account management.
3. Manager: Access to search all email messages but no access to configuration options.
4. End User: Access only to mail sent to or from their own mailbox.

Q. Does Defender support "role based" queries?

A. Yes. Multiple email accounts can be identified for a single user, giving that user access to search and retrieve mail from all designated accounts. Role based permissions are managed within Defender. Defender does not support role based permissions from Active Directory.

Q. Is there any way to know if anyone is doing global searches?

A. Yes. Defender has the option to send an email each time a global search is done, telling the receiver who did the global search and what criteria was entered.

Q. What fields can I search on?

A. Search is possible on both common display names and email addresses in the to, from, and cc fields, message dates, messages subject line, message body text and attachment names and extensions.

Q. Does Defender support full text search?

A. Yes. Defender indexes on all text from both the body of the email as well as all attachments.

Q. Does Defender support number search?

A. No. Indexing the almost endless combinations of numbers would result in unmanageable database index files.

Q. How do I find and retrieve an attachment?

A. Finding and retrieving attachments is easy. Use the Defender Archive Search to locate the email message containing the attachment and then either restore that email with attachment to your email account or simply view the message and open the attachment and save to your computer.

Q. Can Defender be connected to more than one mail server?

A. Yes. Since the Defender is a standalone appliance, it does not physically attach to an email server. This allows you to point as many email servers as you desire at the Defender.

Q. Can Defender be connected to more than one domain?

A. Yes, the Defender is capable of archiving email messages for more than one domain. However, it can work with only one Active Directory, so user access for multiple domains would have to be handled manually.

Q. Does Defender work with Active Directory?

A. Yes, Defender works with Active Directory. It can be set up to auto-generate user accounts on Defender as well as provide authentication with AD. Defender cannot work with multiple AD farms.

Q. Are there one or two copies of every e-mail (one on the server, one on Defender)?

A. Defender receives a copy of each message from the email server, indexes that message and stores it in its own internal storage. The original message, still residing on the email server, can be edited or deleted, but the archived message is always secure and unchanged in the archive.

Q. Why don't you move e-mail from the server to Defender rather than making a duplicate copy?

A. Defender is designed to be both comprehensive and easy to use at the same time. With a single user likely to get and send over 10,000 emails each year, there are simply too many emails to manage individually. Unlike archive solutions that require IT or end users to manually intervene to move mail to the archive, Defender automatically captures and stores every email record. Users simply delete mail from their mailbox when they are done with it and rely on Defender if they need to view the information again.

Q. Can you convert PST files?

A. Yes, PST files can be converted to a format that Defender uses and then imported using the mbox import function. Emails can also be imported by using the IMAP import function.

Q. Can you archive existing emails from the server?

A. Yes, existing emails can be extracted from the server and archived to Defender. For MS Exchange, a utility called ExMerge is used to convert Exchange files into PST files. These files can then be converted into mbox formats and imported into Defender.

Q. How does RAID 5 & 6 work?

A. RAID (redundant array of independent disks) combines multiple hard drives into a single logical unit. Instead of seeing several different hard drives, the operating system sees only one. RAID 5 is a fault tolerant array of disks that uses parity data than can be used to reconstruct a single disk in the event of a disk failure. If one disk fails, it can be replaced by a new drive and the RAID management software automatically redistributes the data.

Q. Do you support web mail?

A. No. Defender does not support archiving from a webmail server.

Q. How many emails can Defender hold?

A. The exact quantity of emails a Defender can hold varies greatly depending on email size. Companies that send large attachments will store fewer emails than companies with small email sizes. Based on an average message size of 75kb per message, Defender and hold approximately 1 million to 140 million messages depending on model and email size.

Q. How do I decide which size Defender to buy?

A. Determining the appropriate Defender to purchase depends on the volume and size of emails particular to your company and the length of time you want to keep your email records. The Defender Sizing Chart (located on archmailtech.com) can help you determine which Defender is right for you.

Q. Is configuration required on my email server?

A. Yes, some configuration is required on the email server to turn the journaling feature on and point mail to Defender. Complete instructions can be found in the Defender Installation Guide.

Q. Does Defender support wildcard searches?

A. Yes, Defender supports wildcard searches in every field.