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PST Flight Deck 9.1.2 - Administration Guide

Schedule Groups

Schedule groups allows an operator to schedule batches to be enable at a certain time/date, with a specific migration priority.  Settings are available that can limit the number of people and/or volume for a given batch.

At the specified date/time, the users in a given batch are set to the specified migration priority as long the following conditions are met:

1.Optionally, the user has an Office 365 mailbox

2.Optionally, the mailbox is licensed

3.Optionally, size of discovered PST’s is smaller than the free space in the mailbox

4.Optionally, uploads is not in a limited or stopped state.

 

Office 365 mailbox information is obtained from the Office 365 user synchronization task. The options on the home ribbon for the Schedule groups sub-menu are as follows:

Name

Description

Refresh

Refreshes the data

Add

Adds a scheduled batch configuration

Edit

Edits an existing scheduled batch configuration

Delete

Deletes an existing scheduled batch configuration

Import

Allows importing of a specifically formatted text file, or XLSX, to assign values to the fields associated with batch schedules

Set notifications

Allows setting an email address to receive notifications when scheduled group is not enabled

Reports

The Reports menu of the console is where an Operator or Administrator would go to get information related to the migration. Some of the content seen in this section is similar to data available through the Manage menu and is provided with alternate options in the ribbon. The following is a list of sub-menus for the Reports menu and a description of their functionality:

Sub-menu

Description

Summary

Provides data within the console showing the overall summary of the current migration status

Users

Grid showing information related to users with Active Directory and the PST files associated with them

Files

Grid showing details about PST files discovered on the system

Module Stats

Provides stats on a per file basis related to the number of items within a PST file that were processed by a module, how many came out, and what the difference between the figures is

Ingestion Stats

Provides stats on the number of items failed or migrated by the ingestion task

Workstations

Provides a listing of users and the workstations they were seen on throughout the discovery process

Comments

Provides a report of all comments made in any part of the product

Finalized Users

Provides a report of all completed users, the time of their first upload, time of their last successful ingestion, and a summer of the data migrated

Batches

Provides report showing migration statistics groups by the migration priority presently set

Failed Items

Reports on the items that failed ingestion. The list is generated when the Post-Processing – Items Details Report step in the workflow runs

Schedule Groups

Shows configured scheduled batch groups

 

Exporting

Many reports in this section can also be exported to an alternate format for distribution or use outside of the product. All exporting options are available in the home ribbon of the console window and includes the ability to export to a number of formats. Selection of an export format will prompt you for where to save the file and show you the progress of the export.

Discovery Collection

Discovery collection is an optional feature that provides legal personnel the ability to select files to be collected for a case.  PST files are collected with a six-step workflow.

 

1.Case is defined with legal and technical owners.

2.Select users the PSTs are to be collected from

3.Select the search criteria for the files

4.Confirm the files to be collected

5.Files are copied to the uploads directory

6.File are moved from the uploads directory to another repository

 

The options on the home ribbon for the Discovery Collection sub-menu are as follows:

Name

Description

Refresh

Refreshes the data

Add new case

Adds a case configuration

Delete case

Deletes an existing case

Reprocess case

Reprocesses the case after correcting failure

Settings

The Settings section is not available in the Management Console and can only be accessed by the Admin Console. The options under the Settings section are mostly designed to be configured prior to the start of a production migration and left unchanged through the migration. Changing settings in this section after Migration Agents have been deployed can negatively impact your environment. It is important to understand the impact of any change you make. If you are unfamiliar with the impact a change may have, please contact support for assistance.

The options on the home ribbon for Environment are as follows:

 

Name

Description

Refresh

Refreshes the data

Save

Saves all configuration data

Export configuration

Exports PST Flight Deck configuration to an XLSX file

 

Settings for the environment are grouped into several sub-menus, described as follows:

 

Sub-menu

Description

Environment

Contains global configuration settings for the PST Flight Deck system

Windows Migration Agent

Contains settings for configuration and customization of the Windows Migration Agent in the environment

Mac OS Migration Agent

Contains settings for configuration and customisation of Apple’s workstation operating system agent

Locations

Contains listing and configuration and options for management of locations

Modules

Permits location assignment and customizable configuration options for all modules

Workflow

Provides options to enable, disable, re-order and modify execution parameters for a module

Profiles

Contains listing and configuration options for management of user profiles

Module Editor

Module specific configuration options

Scheduled Tasks

Provides management of scheduled tasks used to facilitate a migration

Computers

Contains a grid showing all computers and their types identified during discovery, installation and use of the product. Permits assignment of central servers, content scanning targets, and locations for computers identified

Email

Provides user and team communication templates and configuration

Leavers

Configuration required to migrate users to Office 365 who have left the organization

 

Environment

The Environment sub-menu contains global parameters for the migration. Some of these values can be adjusted by more granular settings within the product. The Environment sub-menu consists of five sections: General, Advanced, Ownership, Groups, and Roles. These values are discussed in greater detail in the followings sections of this documentation.

 

General

 

The General tab contains three configuration settings. Below is their description and if they are required in a migration:

 

Setting

Required

Description

Highest priority

Yes

Values used to set the highest migration priority that can be set and have a user still considered to be ‘enabled’ for migration

Convert Time to Local Server Time

No

PST Flight Deck maintains UTC time internally, and by default, displays all times in UTC. This option allows times to be displayed based on server time

Settings Mode

yes

Allows the changing of module settings based on mode of operation. The modes of operation are Demo, Default, and Self-Adjustment

 

Advanced

The Advanced tab contains general system configuration parameters required for a functional PST Flight Deck environment. The descriptions of the options available and the sections they are contained in are found below:

 

Setting

Section

Description

Scan Domains

Advanced Mode

Values to narrow scope of an environment to a single or a series of semi-colon separated domains

Concurrent Uploads

Advanced Mode

Number of concurrent uploads that can be performed by all Migration Agents

Maximum Upload Size

Advanced Mode

Total size of concurrent uploads that can be performed by all Migration Agents

Use Regular Expression

Advanced Mode

Option to enable regular expression in ‘Scan Domain’ value

Dedupe Timeout

Advanced Mode

Period of time in hours configured to have the Deduplication Module ignore the ‘Wait for All PSTs’ option

Discovery Expiration

Advanced Mode

Period of time in days prior to marking discovered PSTs in a ‘Discovery Expiration’ status

Failed Item Threshold Warning

Extraction

Number of items permitted to fail extraction prior to a warning being logged and the file status changed to ‘Partially Extracted’

Check owner before ingestion

Ingestion

Option to block the ingestion of PST files that have failed to meet the configured ownership threshold criteria but are otherwise prepared for ingestion into the target

Failed Item Threshold

Ingestion

Number of items permitted to fail ingestion prior to warning being logged and the file status being changed to ‘Partially ingested’

Failback Subject

Ingestion

The subject used for messages created by the Failback feature

Failback Body

Ingestion

The body used for messages created by the Failback feature

Disable Failback ingest

Ingestion

Option to disable failback messages

EV SQL instance

Ingestion

The SQL Server or instance containing the Enterprise Vault Directory database

Enable Central Upload

Migration Agent Behaviour

Option to enable the use of the Central Upload Agent

Force Migration Status

Migration Agent Behaviour

Optional status that permits central upload

Reset Hanging Uploads

Migration Agent Behaviour

Time in hours prior to retrying a file reported to be getting uploaded by BITS

Upload PSTs marked for deletion

Migration Agent Behaviour

Option to permit centralisation of files marked as ‘Deleted’

Upload PSTs marked ‘Not Owner’

Migration Agent Behaviour

Option to permit centralisation of files with no owner

Upload PSTs marked as shared

Migration Agent Behaviour

Option to permite centalization of files marked as shared

Re-Queue Deletions

Migration Agent Behaviour

Setting for time delay to delete files when current set user is not logged into a computer but another user is

Disk Space Threshold (On, Limited, Off)

Uploads Monitor

Setting a range of options to lessen the risk of an upload directory running out of space

Migration Priority

Active Directory Provisioning

The AD group distinguished name of the AD group that controls migration priority when AD provisioning is used

Email Priority

Active Directory Provisioning

The AD group distinguished name of the AD group that controls email priority when AD provisioning is used

Value

Active Directory Provisioning

Priority assigned to each group

Allow self enable

Self Enablement

Option to allow self enablement via the web portal

Check mailbox exists

Self Enablement

Option to check if a user has a mailbox

Check Size

Self Enablement

Option to check if a user’s mailbox is big enough for the PST data

Check License

Self Enablement

Option to check if a user has an Office 365 license

Check uploads

Self Enablement

Option to check if uploads is healthy

Enabled users count

Self Enablement

Setting that limits the number of users that can be enabled

Queue Size

Self Enablement

Setting that limits the number of users that can be queued for enablement

Batch Size

Batch migration scheduling

Setting that limits the number of users that can be enabled in a given scheduled batch

Check mailbox

Batch migration scheduling

Option to check if a user has a mailbox

Batch volume

Batch migration scheduling

Setting that limits the total size of PSTs in a given batch

Check uploads

Batch migration scheduling

Option to check if uploads is healthy

Default Language

Languages

The default language to be used for all mail communication sent from the product

Override Language

Languages

Override all languages regardless of the language specified on the workstation

Enable Mailing

Mail

Selection to enable SMTP server to be used for project based user communication, notifications, alerts and any other automatically generated email communication

SMTP Server

Mail

Name of the SMTP server

Port Number

Mail

Port of the SMTP server

Sender

Mail

SMTP Address used to send all messages

User Name

Mail

Optional user name filed for authentication to SMTP server

Password

Mail

Optional password for authentication

Migration Priority and Value

Active Directory Provisioning

Configuration options to enable users through AD group membership

Email Priority and Value

Active Directory Provisioning

Configuration options to enable user communication through AD group membership

 

Shared Scanner

The shared scanner tab provides for the management of multiple central file scanner servers.  This allows from a centralized location for the management of the file scanner configurations and scheduling. The options on the home ribbon for the shared scanner sub-menu are as follows:

 

Name

Description

Refresh

Refreshes the data

Save

Save all configuration data

Add shared scanner

Presents a list of discovered computers and allow the selection of a shared file scanner

Deleted shared scanner

Deletes a configured shared file scanner

Export configuration

Exports the shared scanner configuration to a XLSX file

 

Ownership

The Ownership tab is used to define criteria for file ownership determination. There are two main components to the Ownership tab: Weight Table and User In Path.

 

The Weight Table defines the weights and threshold used in determining PST file ownership. The descriptions of the criteria available and their descriptions are seen below:

 

Weight criteria

Description

File Owner

The value populating the Owner attribute of the file on disk

Scanned Owner

The user running the Discovery Agent at the point(s) of file identification

User Name in Path

The sAMAccountName identified in the path where the file is located

Most Common Sender

The sAMAccountName seen most commonly as the sender of messages within the PST file

Most Common Receiver

The sAMAccountName seen most commonly as the receiver of messages within the PST file

Attached to Outlook Profile

The user associated with the Outlook. instance where the PST file was at one point attached

Operator Override

Used to define the percentage assigned to manual assignment of ownership within the product

Threshold

The percentage value required for a PST file to avoid being blocked prior to ingestion

Computer Owner

The owner of a computer where the PST file was identified

Custom Owner Property

An attribute that can be associated to an owner and is also present in the metadata returned by the product

 

Computer Owner and Custom Owner Property are values that are able to be manually imported so they may be able to be taken into consideration in determining the ownership of a file. As every organization is different, the threshold and weight of the criteria are suggested to be tuned to meet the needs of an organization and project. Generally speaking, a file should require a minimum of three criteria matching a single user until ingesting into that user’s account.

 

The User in Path section of the tab allows creation of a Regular Expression used to identify a common location of user account names in discovered file paths. Default values are common. Identification of a user’s name in a path can be a good indication of file ownership.

 

Bandwidth limitations

 

The Bandwidth limitations tab provides for the management of upload bandwidth limitations, which are defined by IP address.  If a workstation has an IP address within a range that has a limitation, the BITS bandwidth utilization is limited to the set bandwidth.  The constraint can also be limited to certain times of the day.  For example, an office may require low speed BITS uploads during the day but can have higher speeds at night.  The options on the home ribbon for the Bandwidth limitations sub-menu are as follows:

Name

Description

Refresh

Refreshes the data

Save

Saves all configuration data

Add limitation

Adds a bandwidth limitation configuration

Delete limitation

Deletes a configured bandwidth limitation

Role Based Web Portal

Groups and Roles enable role based configuration for access to the PST Flight Deck Portal (Portal).

The Roles tab contains two main panes: the Role settings and Current Roles.

Current Roles shows a listing of the currently configured roles in a grid showing its name, the priority assigned to that role, and a description of the role. It includes the ability to edit or delete an existing role as well as to Add a new role.

The Role settings page is where a selected role is configured. Options to configure all that is displayed for the Current role section are available as well as a list of actions that can be associated with a Role. Each action corresponds to a section within the Portal. The Actions presently available, their corresponding section in the Portal, and a description are as follows:

Action

Section

Description

AccessHelpdeskSection

User Search

Permits the ability to search for a user and returns the details of the current status of their migration

AccessReportsSection

Project Status

Provides high level information in several reports summarising the project, the progress over the past day, and the progress of total users

AccessProjectManagersSection

Enabled Users

List of enabled users, their name, and the status of their migration

AccessIncidentSecftion

Support Tickets

Interface for non-operators to identify, update, and review issues related to the migration

AccessBusinessOperationsSection

File Action

Outstanding actions required for the progress of one or more PST files

AccessImportUsersSection

Import

Interface for non-operators to import lists of users for association to groups

 

Any number of Roles can be created to accommodate an organization’s needs.

Groups are used to associate AD groups to roles and locations. The Groups tab contains two main sections: Group settings and Current groups.

Current groups display a grid showing the currently configured AD Group Name, the Role type associated to that group, and a description for the entry. There are options Edit or delete an existing group, or to add a new group.

The Group Settings section of the tab permits you to configure the entry under Current groups. In addition to the values displayed in the Current groups pane, you can also associate a configured group with a location, and an email for notifications.

Changing the settings in any Role or Group requires the changes to be confirmed and the appropriate section to be saved. Settings will be applied after restarting IIS.

 

Console Access

 

The Admin console has two levels of access – Expert and non-expert.  Users are given access via this feature.

Windows Migration Agent

 

The Windows Migration Agent sub-menu provides configuration options for the settings sent out to all the workstation’s running the Migration Agent for Windows in an environment. Configuration settings are able to be applied to all Windows based Agents or can be customized to suit the needs of an organization by creating several specialized configurations. There are three tabbed menus within the Migration Agent sub menu, all containing a drop down permitting the editing of specific configurations.

 

File Scanner

 

The File Scanner tab controls the behavior of the Discovery Agent portion of the Migration Agent. This section is where you will configure the locations you wish an agent to scan, as well as what you want it to skip. The options available in this tab are as follows:

Option

Description

Scan Delay

Period of time in hours establishing a range used to determine a random time that a Migration Agent will wait prior to scanning a system

Last Scan

Period of time in minutes that must pass prior to initiating another discovery scan on a specific workstation

Resident Discovery

Option to enable the Discovery Agent to stay in memory after a scan completes

Scan Attached

Enabled attached files, outside of the configuration locations for scanning, to be included in the discovery results

Folder Excludes

List of locations where Discovery results should ignored

File Name Excludes

List of files where Discovery results should be ignored

Path

List of locations configured for scanning by Migration Agents

Additional configuration options are available when creating or editing a location for scanning. Scanning location specific folder and file exclusions are available to enable a granular level of exclusions. Options to scan removable media and substituted Paths are also available on a per location basis.

Agent

 

The Agent tab contains configuration options related to the Agent portion of Migration Agent running on Windows workstations. This component of the Migration Agent is responsible for querying the PST Flight Deck Core service and getting information back from it. It is also responsible for managing the user experience during a migration by providing pop-up menus to engage a user in their data’s migration. The Agent also reports attached PST files that are not in a configured scanning location to the server and disconnecting PST files from profiles when appropriate.

The “General” section of this tab permits you to choose if a migration will be performed in Snapshot or in Disconnect Mode. Also in this section is the configuration for the “Polling Interval”. This value should be set as is appropriate for the number of Migration Agents deployed in an environment. The larger number of agents reporting to a server, the longer a polling interval should be set to.

The “System Tray” section contains customization on how you would like the Agent to be represented on a user’s workstation. The options available for selection/deselection are as follows:

Option

Section

Description

Disconnect / Snapshot mode

General

Select disconnect or snapshot mode

Silent Migration

General

Option to enable silent mode for the migration. Silent migrations allow automatic uploading and processing of files without user interaction.

Pop Postpone Delay

General

The time in days before a user who postponed their migration will natively wait before being prompted for action by the agent again

Max Postpone

General

The maximum number of days a user can postpone

Polling Interval

General

The number of minutes for polling

Suppress Complete Pop Up

General

Option to prohibit Migration Agents from reporting when PST files have completed processing

Complete Pop Up Once Finished

General

Option to report a final pop-up once all identified PST files for a user have completed processing

Show Password Protected Info

General

Shows password protection information in the agent pop-up

Show in System Tray

System Tray

Enable display of Migration Agent in a system’s notification area

Progress

System Tray

Shows upload progress of PST files

Manual Select

System Tray

Permits a user to manually select and start the upload of PST files

Send Log

System Tray

Enables option to permit users to initiate a request to send local log files to the server for review

Mail Log

System Tray

Enables options to permit users to create a new mail message with log files attached to it

Show Log

System Tray

Enables option to open the Migration Agent log file

Exit

System Tray

Enabled option to exit from Migration Agent via the icon in the notification tray.

The Advanced section of the Agent tab has additional options governing some functionality within the Migration Agent. Some of these settings aid to manage the user experience during a migration. The options available under the advanced section and a description of their function are as follows:

Option

Description

Auto Update

Enable push of updated Migration Agent to workstations

Update Version

Specification of the version to be pushed to the Migration Agent

Snapshot Speed

Enables the ability to limit the speed a snapshot is created on a workstation

Initial Sleep

Value representing the delay of time for Agent actions to be initiated after user log on

Agent Sets Registry Keys

Enables the ability to set required registry keys for a user on a workstation once they are enabled for migration

Disable users using PST files

Enables the ability to disable the use of PST files for a user on a workstation once they are enabled for migration

Disable Completed Users using PST files

Enables the ability to disable the use of PST files for a user on a workstation once they have completed migration

Display User Action for Initial Status Only

Display user action only for files that are discovered

The Duplicate Files section of the Agent tab has settings that control processing for duplicate files.  Likely duplicate files are defined as files that have the same last modified date and the same name.  Options available under the advanced section and a description of their function are as follows:

Option

Description

Resolved Likely Duplicate Files

Process only one file if duplicates are found

Delete Duplicates without Uploading

By default, duplicate files are uploaded and deleted from the source. This option prevents the uploading

 

The Upload Limitations section of the Agent tab has settings that aid in determining if uploads are being attempted over a slow network connection, eg, a VPN.  Options available under the advanced section and a description of their function are as follows:

 

Option

Description

Minimum Adapter Speed

Uploads pause if the adapter speed is lower than the set value

Minimum Upload Speed

Uploads pause if the uploads speed is lower than the set value

VPN adapter description

Uploads will pause if the VPN adapter description contains the text in the setting

 

Mac OS Migration Agent

The Mac OS Migration Agent sub-menu provides configuration options for the settings sent out to all the workstation’s running the Migration Agent for Mac in an environment. Configuration settings are able to be applied to all Mac based Agents or can be customized to suit the needs of an organization by creating several specialized configurations.

 

The options on the home ribbon for the Mac OS Migration Agent sub-menu are as follows:

Name

Description

Refresh

Refreshes the data

Save

Save all configuration data

Create Config

Creates a new configuration file

Edit XML

Edits existing configuration file

User Licenses

Display the status of the workstation license

Manage Users

Wizard to allow matching Mac users with AD users

 

Option

Description

Work item interval

How often in minutes the agent will look for work to do

Config Interval

How often in minutes the agent will look for configuration changes

Scan Files Interval

How often in minutes the agent will scan for new data to process

Silent Migration

Option to enable silent mode for the migration. Silent migrations allow automatic uploading and processing of files without user interaction.

Max Postponement

The maximum number of days a user can postpone once they are enabled for migration

AllowExit

Option to show Exit option on workstation

Registration Key

Unique key required to process Mac data

Path Excludes

Includes the paths to exclude from file scanning

Search Paths

Includes the path to scan for files

 

Locations

The Locations sub-menu offers the ability to manage complicated migration environments. They permit work to be assigned into geographically appropriate groupings.

 

The options on the home ribbon for the Locations sub-menu are as follows:

Name

Description

Refresh

Refreshes the data

Add

Adds a new location

Edit

Edits an existing location

Transparent Central Upload

Configures transparent central upload

Options available during Location creation or modification are as follows:

Option

Description

Name

Desired name of location

Description

Brief description of the location

BITS Upload URL

URL path, including port number, used by agents to centralise PST files over BITS

Upload Location

UNC path used by modules to access content from the share associated with the BITS upload URL

Re-ingest Location

Path or Azure storage connection string specified for the Re-ingest process to obtain content for consecutive modules

Unpark Location

Path where ownerless PST files are located when parked

Concurrent Uploads

The number of simultaneous uploads that can be performed by all Migration Agents

Maximum Upload Size

The total size of concurrent uploads that can be performed by all Migration Agents

 

Each location can be configured to specify a peak and limited rate for Concurrent Uploads based on disk availability. These values are designed to reduce the risk of consuming all available space on the upload location.

Locations enable an organization to centralize and process PST files in data centres close to the users, their data, and their target system.

Transparent Central Upload

Transparent Central Upload is a feature to enable better integration for the Central Upload Agent (CUA) with transparent migrations. Unlike an Agent running locally, the CUA has no ability to detach and snapshot files presently accessed by a user.

Enabling Transparent Central Upload ensures that all active Agents on the user’s workstations have validated the existence of the required registry keys or has set them prior to permitting the CUA to upload data on a remote resource. Transparent Central Upload also has the capability to schedule the period of time where it will attempt to centralize targeted files. This enables an administrator to schedule centralization of these files during a time when they will be less likely to be accessed.

Modules

Provides a list of all registered modules in the environment and the last time they checked into the server. Data is returned in a grid format with selectable and filterable results. Where appropriate, location specific configurations can be used to accommodate the needs of that location.

The options on the home ribbon for the Modules sub-menu are as follows:

 

Option

Description

Refresh

Refreshes the data

Set Location

Permits assignment of a module to a location

Add Server

Permits the ability to add and configure the type of Central Upload Agent identified

Delete Server

Permits the ability to remove the configuration of Central Upload Agents identified

Log Level

Changes the logging details

 

Workflow

The Workflow sub-menu permits the enablement and order that the PST Flight Deck modules will be processed. The configurations can be made per location, selectable by the drop down at the top of the grid. This area permits you to enable or disable modules, permit certain modules to be skipped if a file fails successful processing by that module, how long to wait prior a file being eligible for processing by that module, or if processing should begin after all the files have been successfully queued for that task.

The options on the home ribbon for the Workflow sub-menu are as follows:

Option

Description

Refresh

Refreshes the data

Up

Moves a workflow step up

Down

Moves a workflow step down

Edit

Edit the settings for a given step in the workflow

Clone

Clones an existing workflow

When Edit is selected a popup will appear that has the following options/settings:

 

Option

Description

Skip if Failed

Option to allow the workflow to continue if a given step fails

Enabled

Enables the workflow step

Wait for All Files

Option to wait for all files to complete a certain step before moving on to the next step in the workflow. This is used mostly for deduplication

Don’t check for Location

Option to ignore location information for a given step. Used mostly for source file remover

Delay in minutes

How long the step waits before it is executed. Used mostly for the source file remover

Timeout in minutes

Length of time the steps waits for completion for a given file. The step is restarted for a given file after this timeout.

File is attached

Option to process a file if it is attached to Outlook or not

File types to process

Options to select the types of files to process in a given step

 

Profiles

The Profiles sub-menu offers the ability to add and configure assignable user profiles. They are used to permit an alternate configuration for users associated with them and enable the assignment of unique File Scanner, Agent, Language, and Location configurations. Not all migrations require additional profiles but they are provided to enable support of complex environments where a migration project is taking place.

The options on the home ribbon for the Profiles sub-menu are as follows:

Option

Description

Refresh

Refreshes the data

Add

Creates a new profile

Edit

Edits an existing profile

Delete

Deletes an existing profile

Options available during profile creation are as follows:

 

Option

Description

Name

Desired name of profile

Description

Brief description of the profile

File Config

File scanner configuration associated with the profile

Windows Agent Config

Windows agent configuration associated with the profile

Agent Language

Language configuration associated with the profile

Location Name

Location associated with the profile

Workflow

Workflow associated with the profile

Mac OS Agent Config

Mac agent configuration associated with the profile

 

Module Editor

The Module Editor permits module specific configuration to be set down to a location level. Locations are specified by a drop box at the top of a tabbed interface. All modules enabled have configuration options exposed in each of the tabs. Configuration settings assigned here can be overridden using the Custom Settings option in the Module Settings sub-menu.

Common Options

There are several settings which are seen over most or all of the modules within PST Flight Deck. The following table provides a description of these configuration options:

 

Option

Description

Location

Drop-down at the top permitting selection of location for the site specific module configuration defaults

Number of Threads

Number of instances of the modules functionality which are configured to run simultaneously

Update Interval

Time the module waits between queries to the core for more work items

Number of work items

The total number of requests for work a service will queue at a time

Storage Locations

Specification of the storage area used by the module

Some modules also permit the ability to assign a cloud connection string for a storage location to support Azure nodes.

Some modules have configuration options that are specific to them. The following section discusses these options.

 

Repair

 

To ensure maximum efficiency of the Repair module, it is recommended that it be installed on the same machine as the Extraction module and the BITS upload location. When the Repair module is on a location local to the BITS upload location, there is special configuration required to enable the repair request to use the local path rather than a UNC path. Enabling this configuration has shown to produce a substantial performance gain for the repair module.

 

Extraction

 

The extraction module is a powerful module that performs several tasks during the extraction process. This functionality requires many additional configuration options that are specific to it. The following table provides a description of these options:

 

Option

Description

Generic Filter

Enables filter criteria to be provided that applies to all items in the PST file

Notes Filter

Enables filter criteria to be provided that applies to email based message classes

Appointment Filter

Enables filter criteria to be provided that applies to appointment based message classes

Filter Deleted Items

Option to filter items in the Deleted Items folder

Enable Replace

Permits the ability to convert message classes of an item during extraction

Keep Items only in IPM Root

Enabled ability to remove items in an area of the PST which is inaccessible in target systems

Source Type

Original message class desired for conversion

Destination Type

Message class intended for the value specified in ‘Source Type’ to be converted into

Enable Content Scanning

Enables the ability to identify most common sender and recipient in extracted PST files for better owner recognition

Encoding for ANSI files

Selects regional ANSI encoding

Skip Password Protected

Option to skip extraction for password protected files

The Extraction module is also able to filter data from PST files when that content is not desired or known to be unsupported in a target system. Filtering items will remove items based on how they match the specified criteria and these items will not be migrated to the target system. Filters will be applied to the scope of the area they are placed. For example, filters placed in the “Appointment Filter” filed will only apply to message classes associated with Appointments.

 

Filtered content is written to the specified “Filter Location”. The following is a list and description of properties PST files can be filtered by:

Filter

Description

MessageClass

Property of a message which identifies the type of message it is

Created

The creation date of a message

Subject

The subject of a message

ReceivedBy

The name, email address, or distinguished name of the user who received the message

Sender

The name, email address, or distinguished name of the sender of a message

ModificationDate

The last modified date of a message

Size

The size of a message

Filters are case sensitive when applied. Its syntax can be built using the properties above and standard C# string methods. These methods are appended to a property and applied against the value of that property. If you wanted to find a property containing the value of “xyz” you would append .Contains(“xyz”) to the name of the property.

 

For more information on C# string methods and the options available for filtering, please refer to the MSDN site on the topic.#

 

Filtering Examples

 

The following example on how to filter messages types by message class can be used if Enterprise Vault shortcuts are desired to be excluded from a migration:

item.MessageClass.ToLower().StartsWith(“ipm.note.enterprisevault”)

The following example shows how to exclude all items older than a year from being migrated:

item.Created < DateTime.UtcNow.AddMonths(-13)

This final example shows a filter designed to remove items larger than 25 MB from being migrated:

item.Size>26214400

 

Dedup

This tab contains configuration settings for the duplication function.  By default, Dedup examines, and dedupes, mails items within a PST and mail items between multiple PSTs. The settings unique to this tab are described as follows:

 

Option

Description

Hash Storage Location

The drive path of where the calculated hash values are stored

Limit to other Files only

Allow deduplication only between files

 

Office 365 Exchange

This tab contains configuration settings for the ingestion into Microsoft targets such as Office 365 and Exchange servers. PST Flight Deck uses the Advanced Ingestion Protocol (AIP) as a primary ingestion method into Microsoft targets. The settings in this tab control the behavior of this module and permit the ability to tune these settings to get the best performance possible. The settings unique to this tab are described as follows:

Option

Description

User Sync

Permits Office 365 user synchronisation in multi-tenant environments

Subfolder name

The location created or used in the target mailbox where all content migrated is placed into

Unique subfolder names

Enables files with the same display name to have unique folders created for each PST file ingested

Ingest by Age Filter

Set a date filter for ingestion

Autodiscover Override

The URL that should be resolved by a proper functioning Audodiscover system

Exchange Version

Enables specification of the version of Exchange the EWS API is expecting to communicate with, as required in early API versions

Disable Certificate Validation

Permits use of unsigned and untrusted SSL certificates when communicating over HTTPS to the target system

Disable Past Reminders

Removes reminders for meetings and calendar items that occurred in the past

Tracking Information

Applies hidden metadata about the migration to items written to the target system

Folder Types

List folder types of tasks, calendar, and contact

Update Retention

Enables the ability to set a retention policy tag in the target system at the Top Folder level or on all items

Retention Policy Tag

The policy in the target system that is expected to be applied to migrated content

Enterprise Vault

 

This tab contains configuration settings for the ingestion into Enterprise Vault targets. PST Flight Deck uses the Enterprise Vault API as an ingestion method into Enterprise Vault targets. The settings in this tab control the behaviour of this module and permit the ability to tune these settings for the desired results. The settings Unique to this tab are described as follows:

 

Option

Description

Retention Category

The ID or name of the Retention Category content is to be stored under

Subfolder name

The location created or used in the target mailbox where all content migrated is placed into

Unique subfolder name

Enables files with the same display name to have unique folders created for each PST file ingested

Ingest by Age Filter

Sets a date filter for ingestion

Tracking Information

Applies hidden metadata about the migration to items written into the target system

Create Shortcuts

Enables the ability to create Enterprise Vault shortcuts in Exchange targets for migrated content

Shortcut Filter

Option to filter shortcuts that are created. Create shortcuts must be enabled.

 

EV Shortcut Rehydration

This tab contains configuration settings for the identification and restoration of Enterprise Vault shortcuts identified within PST files. The settings in this tab control the behaviour of this module and permit the ability to tune these settings for the desired result. There is only one unique value in this tab. The Item Ingest Parallelism is used to determine the number of items requested for rehydration per pass per thread of a running module.

Cleanup

This tab contains configuration settings for the cleanup module. The settings in this tab control the behaviour of this module and permit the ability to tune these settings for the desired result.

Option

Description

Move Location

Select local or cloud storage

Local Location

Sets the local storage path for cleanup data

File Statuses to Delete

Sets the status codes of files to be deleted during cleanup. The default value is status 2400 (Deleting)

 

Leftover

This tab contains configuration settings for the Leftover module. The Leftover module copies non-ingested data to a file share or OneDrive. The settings in this tab control the behavior of this module and permit the ability to tune these settings for the desired result.

 

Option

Description

Destination

Select share (eg c:\, e:\ or UNC path) or OneDrive

Subfolder name

Creates a subfolder in the destination

Flat Structure

If checked, all leftover data is saved in the destination with no folder structure

Unzip

If checked, individual leftover mail items will be stored. If unchecked, zipped items will be stored

Scheduled Tasks

Scheduled tasks sub-menu permits review and management of regular activities required in a migration. The interface shows all tasks available to the system and the time they are last run. You can execute the tasks now or you can change the configuration of a given task to run at specified times. Tasks can also be scheduled to execute on a regular interval and run continually.

 

Scheduled Reports

The Scheduled Reports sub-menu permits management of schedule report configurations.  Scheduled reports are run periodically and are made available through the web portal to users who subscribe to the report.  The reports are created by running defined SQL scripts and are saved as CSV files.  Subscribed reports are emailed to the subscriber as ZIPed files.

 

The options on the home ribbon for the Scheduled Reports sub-menu are as follows:

 

Option

Description

Refresh

Refreshes data

Add

Creates a new report definition

Delete

Deletes an existing report definition

Edit

Edits an existing report definition

The options available in the report configuration are:

 

Option

Description

Name

The name of the report

Description

Description of the report

Mail Template

The name of the email template used for emailing subscribed reports

SQL query

SQL script to generate the report

Schedule

Schedule for executing the query

Day of Month

Select day of month for monthly reports

Report Enabled

Option to enable/disable the report

 

Computers

The Computers sub-menu provides a grid of data showing all machines seen in the environment. The data returned also includes all computers where content was discovered. Computers can be assigned to specific locations, be designated as “Central Servers” so the Central Upload Agent uploads the content on it, and can be flagged to have the content of the files identified on that machine scanned for sender and recipient information. Should it be appropriate, comments can be added, displayed, or managed for computers identified within the environment.

The options on the home ribbon for the Computers sub-menu are as follows:

Option

Section

Description

Refresh


Refreshes the data

Set

Central Servers

Sets servers to act as a central upload server

Unset

Central Servers

Unsets servers acting as a central upload server

Set

Content Scanner

Sets servers to act as a content scanner

Unset

Content Scanner

Unsets servers acting as a content scanner

Add

Comments

Add comments for a selected computer

Show

Comments

Shows comments for a selected computer

Close All Comments

Comments

Close all the comments for a selected computer

Set Location

Location

Assigns a computer to a specific location

Import Owners

Computer

Imports CSV file of computer owner information to be used in ownership calculations

Admin File Scan

Computer

Forces a file scan on a computer using the agent service to find files that the logged in user doesn’t have rights to

Email

The Email sub-menu contains templates and configuration related to all email messages sent from the PST Flight Deck environment. These messages include templates for the various stages of a migration project a user goes through, as well as notification emails that are sent to PST Flight Deck team members responsible for portions of the migration. The grid seen in this section displays the template names and the type of email communication they are. All templates can be tested by selecting the applicable message, hitting the Test button on the ribbon, and providing the requested information.

There are two types of email communication in PST Flight Deck. The first type is “Batch” email messages. Batch Email messages are triggered manually by the PST Flight Deck Administrator by highlighting the applicable message and selecting the Batch Mail button on the ribbon. The resultant window will ask the email priority range that you would like to send the message to and have a button to send the messages. This will queue messages for delivery during the next scheduled send.

Automatic templates are sent when conditions for a user have been met. They can be configured to only be sent after a specific time and have a robust rules system that can be used to develop the conditions under each mail being sent. After enabling a template, the rules are evaluated regularly upon execution of a scheduled task. When the conditions match, the message is queued for delivery during the next scheduled sending of content within the queue; then is logged as having been sent. Automatic templates can also be configured to only be sent once.

Templates can be edited within the XML initially provided after launching the Edit button, or can be edited using the WYSIWYG button to launch a rich text graphical editor. If using the graphical editor and the communication requires images to be included, special consideration is required. After editing a template, it is encouraged to test the message prior to using it in production.

The options on the home ribbon for the Email sub-menu are as follows:

Option

Section

Description

Refresh


Refreshes the data

Add

Templates

Adds a new email template

Edit

Templates

Edits an existing email template

Delete

Templates

Deletes an existing email template. Only user defined templates can be deleted

Batch Mail

Templates

Queues email for batch delivery

Test

Templates

Sends a test email for a selected template

 

Leavers

The Leavers O365 sub-menu contains the configuration required to leverage PST Flight Deck to add orphaned PST files into your target system for compliance or legal search. The grid of this tab shows the licenses available for the environment and permits the designation of the number of licenses that will be used to facilitate this functionality. The options available help to define what the naming convention used to create new archives in the target will be, the usage location, email domain associated with the tenant, and the ability to set and configure legal holds against the migrated content.

 

Event rules engine

The Event rules engine option provides for the development and maintenance of workflows that define how various events are processed.  Each event processed is given a threshold for the number of times an event happens before the action steps are taken.  With this engine, you can define actions to take and notifications to be sent.  Automatic actions such as agent reset can also be configured.

The steps to create an event rule are:

1.Add workflow

2.Add a rule that triggers the workflow

3.Add steps to be taken once the rule is satisfied

The options on the home ribbon for the Event rules engine sub-menu are as follows:

Option

Section

Description

Refresh


Refreshes the data

Add workflow

Workflow settings

Adds a new rules workflow

Edit workflow

Workflow settings

Edits an existing rules workflow

Delete workflow

Workflow settings

Deletes an existing rules workflow

Edit rule

Workflow settings

Edit existing rule within a workflow

Add step

Workflow settings

Adds a step to an existing rule

 

 

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