How to exclude mailboxes from the Mailbox Manager process (288115)

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After you install Exchange 2000 Service Pack 1 (SP1), if you are an administrator, you can clean user mailboxes based on message size or age. Although the Clean Mailbox functionality is useful for managing mailboxes, you may need to exclude certain users from the mailbox management process. To exclude a single user or multiple users, you can create additional recipient policies that use custom filters that apply only to these users. Or, if you only want to exclude one user or a very small group of users, the second method below may be better because it does not require that you create an additional recipient policy. You exclude the users by adding an attribute the user object associated with the mailbox to be excluded.

To create and configure a recipient policy that will exclude users from the mailbox management process:

1. Click Start, click Programs, click Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
2. Browse to the following location:

   Organization_name/Recipients/Recipient Policies

3. Right-click Recipient Policies, point to New, and then click Recipient Policy.
4. Click to select the Mailbox Manager Settings check box, and then click OK.
5. In the Name box, type a descriptive name for the new recipient policy, for example, Users Excluded from Mailbox Management.
6. Click the Mailbox Manager Settings (Policy) tab, and then click to clear all of the folder check boxes so that none of the folders are processed.
7. Verify that Generate Report Only is displayed in the When Processing a Mailbox box.
8. Click the General tab, and then click Modify.
9. In the Find box, click Custom Search.
10. Click the Advanced tab, and then type one of the following queries:
    • To exclude a single user, type the following filter:

      (& (objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(mailnickname=alias_of_user))

    • To exclude multiple users, type the following filter:

      (&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=User)(|(mailnickname=alias_of_user)(mailnickname=alias_of_user)))

      NOTE: This example describes the syntax for two users. Modify the filter if you want to find more than two users. The filter is limited to 256 characters.
11. After you type the filter, click Find Now, and then verify that the correct accounts were found.
12. Click OK, and then click OK in the message that is displayed.
13. Click Apply, and then click OK.
14. Set the priority of the exclusion policy so it is higher than any other mailbox manager policies that the excluded mailboxes are included in. To set the priority, right-click on the policy, point to All Tasks, and then click either Move up or Move down.
15. Right-click the new policy in Exchange System Manager, and then click Apply this policy now.

You can use other Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) filters; the LDAP filters in the preceding procedure are examples. You can also construct your own filters from the optional fields that are provided in the Find Exchange Recipients dialog box. For more information about LDAP queries and recipient policies, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

How to Exclude a Single User from Mailbox Manager

The following steps require you use ADSI Edit to modify the value for a user attribute. ADSI Edit is included in the Microsoft Windows 2000 Support Tools. For more information about Windows 2000 Support Tools, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Warning If you use the ADSI Edit snap-in, the LDP utility, or any other LDAP version 3 client, and you incorrectly modify the attributes of Active Directory objects, you can cause serious problems. These problems may require you to reinstall Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, or both Windows and Exchange. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems that occur if you incorrectly modify Active Directory object attributes can be solved. Modify these attributes at your own risk.

The attribute you are to modify is msExchPoliciesExcluded and the value is {3B6813EC-CE89-42BA-9442-D87D4AA30DBC}.

Use ADSI Edit to Add the Attribute

1. Start ADSI Edit. To do so, click Start, point to Programs, point to Windows 2000 Support Tools, click Tools, and then click ADSI Edit.
2. Expand the domain naming context, and then locate the user that you want to exclude from Mailbox Manager.
3. Right-click the user, and then click Properties.
4. In the Select a property to view drop-down box, select msExchPoliciesExcluded.
5. In the Edit Attribute space, type the following attribute value:

   {3B6813EC-CE89-42BA-9442-D87D4AA30DBC}

   NOTE: Make sure that you include the braces ({}) characters.
6. Click the Add button.
7. Click the Apply button or the OK button.

Once saved, the change takes effect shortly. The Recipient Update Service must process the object before the mailbox is excluded from Mailbox Manager.

Use ADSI Edit to Remove the Attribute

To undo the change and include the mailbox in Mailbox Manager, you can use ADSI Edit to remove the attribute from the user object. To do so:

1. Start ADSI Edit. To do so, click Start, point to Programs, point to Windows 2000 Support Tools, click Tools, and then click ADSI Edit.
2. Expand the domain naming context, and then locate the user that you want to exclude from Mailbox Manager.
3. Right-click the user, and then click Properties.
4. In the Select a property to view drop-down box, select msExchPoliciesExcluded.
5. In the Value(s) box, click the {3B6813EC-CE89-42BA-9442-D87D4AA30DBC} value to highlight it.
6. Click the Remove button.
7. Click the Apply button, or the OK button.

Once saved, the change takes effect shortly. The Recipient Update Service must process the object before the mailbox is included in Mailbox Manager.