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Title
Connecting Archive Manager to a EMC Centera system -
Description
Archive Manager 3.0.26 supports storing attachments and messages in an EMC Centera System. Archive Manager normally stores attachments on a file system, and messages in the SQL Server database; however, when using the EMC Centera, attachments are stored in the Centera (for normal Archive Manager use), as well as messages (which are for disaster recovery only).
Archive Manager uses the Centera API to store and retrieve attachments and messages. As the Centera is a real-time data store, there should be little or no delay retrieving attachments. Centera replication and single instance features can be fully exploited in conjunction with Archive Manager. -
Resolution
Note: All registry keys are located under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AfterMail.
1. The Centera system should be configured as per EMC best practices.
2. Stop all Archive Manager services, and the Archive Manager web site.
3. Create the DWORD registry key Storage Type and set it to 2.
4. Create the String registry key Centera Connection String and set it to the value of the Centera connection string. This can be as simple as the Centera cluster IP address (eg 10.0.0.1, or 10.0.0.1; 10.0.0.2). Please consult the EMC Centera documentation for possible values.
5. Start all services. All attachments will now be stored in the EMC Centera system.
Caveats:
- If an EMC Centera is brought online after Archive Manager is installed, there is no way to load files from the Archive Manager attachment store into the Centera system. This will be addressed in a future version of Archive Manager.
- There is no disaster recovery in place if the Archive Manager database is lost. Archive Manager uses the following Head Tag's to identify its items: AfterMailAttachmentObject and AfterMailMessageObject. This will be addressed in a future version of Archive Manager.
- Some temporary space is required on the Archive Manager server to store the files returned from the Centera system. These files are automatically cleaned up after 5 minutes. Files are stored in the system temporary directory.