The Gaggle archiving solution pulls the email data off of your local mail server on a nightly or even hourly basis. Most customers choose to off load the mail during off-peak hours when bandwidth and servers are under-utilized.
The messages are pulled from your mail server every night and stored on Gaggle’s enterprise storage systems in both Los Angeles and Chicago. In fact, the data is stored on three separate systems. Two copies are stored on fast, disk-based storage in different states and a third copy is written to a non-editable tape drive system for full industry compliant archiving.
Once the messages are stored, the mail and attachments are indexed for fast searching and the meta data of each email is stored in a database. In addition, a check sum value is calculated on each message. The check sum values are hashed and can be used later to verify the authenticity of messages.
As part of the archiving process, new users on your local email system are automatically detected and shadow email accounts are created on Gaggle. This account provisioning happens each night as the new messages are archived. The system is completely automated and requires no intervention. Following each nightly archive a report is mailed to your on-site administrator detailing the number of messages archived, new users created and any possible error situations.
Each mail system uses a slightly different archiving mechanism, which may involve a different setup process. The most common methods utilize a message journaling feature or a store-before-delete function. Other mail systems require a pass-thru MX or may rely upon mail routing rules.
Microsoft Exchange
Exchange Archiving utilizes the internal message journaling feature. All inbound and outbound mail is blind cc-d to an account on your Exchange server. During the archive process mail is read from the journal account. The messages are parsed by the Gaggle Archive Server to determine the sender and recipients.
Each of your users will have a shadow email account on Gaggle. The parsed messages will be stored in the sent or Inbox folder of each user’s shadow account. Shadow accounts are automatically created for your new users as they are discovered during the archiving process.
GroupWise
Gaggle’s archiving for Novell Groupwise utilizes a store-before-delete feature. This feature prevents users from deleting messages until they have been archived at Gaggle. Gaggle's servers then retrieve the messages using the IMAP protocol.
Once the messages are retrieved by Gaggle’s servers, they are stored in each user’s shadow email account. Creation of the shadow email accounts is automated via an auto-discovery process. Gaggle can also preserve the user’s folder structure and message location just as it exists in Groupwise.
The retrieval of the messages by Gaggle can be scheduled late at night so that your Internet bandwidth is not affected. Using these methods all messages with envelope headers are archived including internal messages.
The Gaggle Archive Server runs in a multi-threaded mode so that large amounts of data can be pulled down quickly depending upon available bandwidth. In one typical example, 14,500 messages consisting of 856 Megabytes were archived in 27 minutes.
Google Apps
Gaggle is an official solution provider for the Google Apps mail system. All mail to and from your Google Apps accounts passes through the Gaggle servers. The mail is archived and can be filtered based upon your content rules.
To setup archiving, the MX record for your domain is pointed at Gaggle. Messages received by Gaggle are stored in the archive and delivered to Google as normal email. This process typically adds about 30 seconds to the delivery time.
To archice mail sent by your users, the Gaggle servers are configured as the "Outbound Mail Gateway." All internal and external mail sent by your users passes through Gaggle to be archived or filtered.
View our Google Apps Archiving Page
Lotus Notes
Archiving for Lotus Notes is based upon the built in Journaling feature. This feature is supported in Domino Release 6.0 and higher. All mail that passes through the Domino server is carbon copied to a journal account. Gaggle pulls off this mail each night via IMAP. The mail is parsed to determine the sender/receiver, it is indexed and then stored in shadow email accounts on the Gaggle system. These shadow accounts can be searched by each end user and key administrators can conduct system wide searches.
Gaggle recommends using the local journaling feature as opposed to the remote journaling feature. Local journaling puts less strain on the Domino server during peak hours. It is also a more robust solution and less prone to errors. Nevertheless, remote journaling can be supported.
NetMail
Gaggle archiving is supported for NetMail version 3.5 version on NetWare 6.5+. The archiving process is handled via a custom Java Archiving Agent that runs on your NetWare server. In addition to the Archiving Agent a small application is provided to monitor the Archiving Agent to ensure that it is functioning properly.
The Archiving Agent monitors the mail queue to capture both internal and external mail. The messages are stored in a local account and pulled off each night via IMAP. As the mail is archived new NetMail users are automatically detected and shadow email accounts are created on the Gaggle system.
FirstClass
Gaggle’s archiving with FirstClass version 8.2 and higher uses the mail rules feature. Each user has a mail rule that blind CCs all mail to an internal FirstClass account. An automated script is used to create and maintain these rules.
Gaggle’s servers retrieve the mail using the IMAP protocol. Once the mail is retrieved by Gaggle’s servers, it is parsed and stored in the Inbox or Sent folder of each user's shadow email account. Creation of the shadow email accounts is automated via an auto-discovery process.
Using these methods all mail is archived including internal mail.
Archiving for @Mail is accomplished using a custom routing application which monitors the mail queue. As mail enters the queue it is copied to an archive account on the system. The mail in the archive account is pulled off the system each night via IMAP and stored on the Gaggle servers.
IMail
IMail archiving with Gaggle makes use of the mail rules feature. Mail rules are created either at the domain or the user level. These rules carbon copy each message to an archive account on your server. The mail in the archive account is periodically pulled off the system each night via IMAP and stored in shadow accounts on Gaggle.
PostFix
To archive PostFix accounts, Gaggle will install a custom Mailter application. This application monitors the mail queue, making a copy of each message before it enters the queue. The messages are temporarily stored in a local archive account in your system. These messages are then removed periodically via IMAP and stored on the Gaggle system.
AppleMail
Archiving for the AppleMail server requires the installation of Gaggle's custom Mailter application. This application monitors the mail queue, making copies of each message before it enters the queue. The messages are temporarily stored in a local archive account in your system. These messages are removed nightly via IMAP and stored on the Gaggle system.
SendMail
Gaggle's archiving for SendMail makes use us a custom Mailter application. This application monitors the mail queue, making copies of each message before it enters the queue. The messages are temporarily stored in a local archive account in your system. The local messages are removed nightly via IMAP and stored on the Gaggle system.
qMail
Archiving for qMail is accomplished via a custom plugin that works with qmail-scanner. As messages pass through the mail queue, copies of the messages are temporarily stored in a local archive user account. These message copies are captured after the spam and virus filters are applied, but before delivery to the local user. The messages in the local archive user account are removed nightly via IMAP and stored on the Gaggle system.
Communigate
Archiving for Communigate Pro is supported via the "lawful interception" feature. A local archive user account is created, and Communigate Pro is configured to intercept the mail for the specified users. As the messages are intercepted, copies are stored in the local archive user account. Gaggle's nighty archive process connects to Communigate via IMAP to download the mail from the local archive user.
Exim
For Exim archiving a custom Mailter application is installed. This application monitors the mail queue, making a copy of each message before it enters the queue. The message are temporarily stored in a local archive account on your system. These messages are removed nightly via IMAP and stored on the Gaggle system.
