Troubleshooting "No Results Found"

Scenario

You have installed and configured Exclaimer Mail Archiver in your environment. A user is searching for a message, however the message they are looking for is not returned in their results.

Cause

There are several explanations that could identify why this has happened. Each section below explains one scenario and what you as the Archive Administrator can do to resolve the issue.

Resolution

The user doesn't have permissions to view the message

With Exclaimer Mail Archiver, messages are archived using a policy to a specific store. Permissions are then set on each store separately. Therefore, it's possible that the message is being archived to a store that the user doesn't have access to. You can check the permissions for each store by following these steps:

1. Open the Mail Archiver console
2. From the tree on the left, expand Exclaimer, Mail Archiver, Storage
3. Select each store in turn, and examine the permissions on the Security tab to check the permissions are correct

Alternatively, you can login as the Archive Administrator. By default, this user has permissions to view all messages in the store. You can then perform the search and confirm that the message is in the store. By examining the Message Properties tab you can identify in which store the message is:

The message was outside the Store Retention period

Each store has a Retention Period. This is how long messages are held in the store for. Once a message is older than this period, it is permanently removed from the store. By default, this period is 25 years - however this may have been changed. To identify how long the Retention Period is:

1. Open the Mail Archiver console
2. From the tree on the left, expand Exclaimer, Mail Archiver, Storage and click the specific store
3. In the central pane, select the Availability tab
4. The Retention period is shown:
   

Note: If the Legal Hold option is checked, the Retention Period is ignored and messages remain in the store indefinitely.
If the message was outside the Retention Period then it has been permanently removed from the store. You can confirm whether this was the case by examining the Exclaimer Application Event Log. At midnight each night, the Retention Period is checked and details of the messages removed are listed in the event.

The message wasn't journalled

When Exclaimer Mail Archiver is installed, its default configuration is for all messages sent and received in your Exchange Organization to be journaled. However, if this configuration has been changed (or if journaling is not working correctly) then the message may not have been journaled and therefore not archived.
To confirm whether the message was journalled:

1. Click Start
2. Select All Programs, Administrative Tools, and click Event Viewer
3. The Event Viewer appears
4. From the tree on the left, expand Event Viewer (Local), Applications and Services Logs and click Exclaimer
5. The central pane will show details of each message processed, the policies it satisfied and the store it was stored to
6. Using the message date and time locate events at this time. If there is no entry then the message was not journalled

If messages are not arriving in the journal mailbox then the Exchange Journal rule will need to be recreated.

The message is waiting to be indexed

Exclaimer Mail Archiver stores message almost immediately to the Store. However, when users search for messages this uses the Index. By default, the Index is updated with new messages every 30 minutes. Therefore, your users may have to wait up to 30 minutes for messages they have sent to be visible in their search results. We recommend using the default value of 30 minutes because it provides timely results for your users without using excessive system resources maintaining the index.
You can:

• For a one-off case, force an immediate update to the Index. Any messages waiting to be added to the Index are added straight away and appear in search results
• Change the Batch Indexing Frequency so that messages are added to the Index more frequently, making them available to users faster

Force an update

To force an update:

1. Open the Mail Archiver console
2. From the tree on the left, expand Exclaimer, Mail Archiver, Index Maintenance and click the Index in the central pane (the Index name is the same as the Store name)
3. Click the Force Update button underneath

Change the Batch Indexing Frequency

To change the Batch Indexing Frequency

1. Open the Mail Archiver console
2. From the tree on the left, expand Exclaimer, Mail Archiver, Storage and click the Store
3. From the central pane, click the Data tab
4. Under Search Index change the frequency as required:
   
5. Click Save

The new Batch Indexing Frequency will take effect immediately.

No policies applied to the message

In Exclaimer Mail Archiver, messages are stored to a Store according to one or more Policies. A Policies is a set of rules that the message must pass in order to be stored to a particular Store. If a message is processed that doesn't satisfy any Policies then the message will not be archived.
To view which Policies applied to a specific message:

1. Click Start
2. Select All Programs, Administrative Tools, and click Event Viewer
3. The Event Viewer appears
4. From the tree on the left, expand Event Viewer (Local), Applications and Services Logs and click Exclaimer
5. The central pane will show details of each message processed, the policies it satisfied and the store it was stored to
6. Using the message date and time locate events at this time. You should find an event for the message in question. For example, the sample below shows a message met a policy exception and was therefore not stored:
   

Note: Messages that have no policies applied are moved to the "No Policies Applied" sub-folder of the Journal mailbox.

The index needs to be resynchronized

When a user performs a search, this searches the Index. The Index works much like a book; allowing the software to look for a particular word or phrase and rapidly locate the correct message in the Store. In busy email environments, there is a possibility that a message is added to the Store however it isn't added to the Index. To resolve this, you can resynchronize the index. This ensures that each message in a specific Store has an entry in the Index.
To resynchronize the Index

1. Open the Mail Archive console
2. From the tree on the left, expand Exclaimer, Mail Archiver, Index Maintenance
3. From the central pane, right-click the Index (the name of the Index is the same as the name of the Store)
4. From the menu select Add Task
5. The Maintenance Tasks dialog appears
6. Select the Resynchronize with store option and click OK

Note The Index Maintenance screen tracks the progress of the task.

There was a problem whilst archiving the message

Sometimes when a message is read from the Journal mailbox, a problem may occur whilst it is being put into the Store. For example, the Microsoft Exchange server may have been restarting to install Windows Updates or the disk you are using to store messages may have become full. In these scenarios, the Journal message will fail to import. In this scenario, Exclaimer Mail Archiver automatically moves the message to the "Unable to Archive" sub folder of the Journal mailbox.
At the same time, an event will be recorded in the Exclaimer Application Event Log. To examine this perform the following steps:

1. Click Start
2. Select All Programs, Administrative Tools, and click Event Viewer
3. The Event Viewer appears
4. From the tree on the left, expand Event Viewer (Local), Applications and Services Logs and click Exclaimer
5. The central pane will show details of each message processed, the policies it satisfied and the store where it was stored to
6. Using the message date and time locate events at this time. You will find an event for the message in question that explains the error encountered

Once you are confident that the issue has been resolved (for example Microsoft Exchange is running normally or more disk space is available) then you can open the Journal Mailbox using Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Outlook Web App and move the message from the "Unable to Archive" sub folder of the Journal mailbox back to the Inbox. Messages in the Inbox will be processed immediately by Exclaimer Mail Archiver.

More Information

These troubleshooting tips identify many of the common causes of this behaviour. However, if these steps don't resolve the issue you are seeing please don't hesitate to contact our Support Team who will be pleased to assist you.