Archive Container

An Archive Container is a data container that contains many individual files (= e-mails) comparable to a ZIP archive.
With the REDDOXX Appliance, however, the Archive Container does not represent itself as a single file, but as a directory on your external memory provided data storage area.

The files of an active (mounted) container are permanently open and thus correspond to the behaviour of a database.
This requires an absolutely reliable provision of the external data storage medium.
Ensure that the network connection is stable and error-free and that the storages are highly available.
It is recommended to use an independent NAS device, at least for the default container.

  • Simple administration in the file manager (copy, delete, move)
  • A large number of containers can be accessed in parallel
  • Offline availability of containers (access even without an appliance)
  • Protection of containers against premature data deletion (retention control)
  • Long-term archives on offline media
  • Access protection with a passphrase (password)
  • A container can be of any size. It is only limited by the storage device.

When introducing MailDepot 2.0, the question arises as to how the data and the containers should be organised.
Here are a few tips on what to look out for:

  • Frequent copying or moving of emails to other containers can affect the performance of the appliance and the data repository.
  • Duplicates are no longer recognised if the original e-mail is no longer in the default container.
  • The more containers are accessed in parallel (mounted), the slower the search becomes.
  • A separate task is required for each container, if e-mails are to be selected for further processing.
  • You may want to outsource yearly over time. Consider whether you can combine several years (e.g. 2000-2009).
  • Containers created for specific purposes for offline viewing in copy (e.g. for a revision) should not be mounted unnecessarily.
  • The default container requires an absolutely high-availability storage (e.g. NAS device).
  • The default container must be open for writing.
  • Provide containers that are no longer to be changed with write protection.
  • Containers should be created according to the guideline: "As much as necessary, but as little as possible".

The following functions can be used in the Archive Container List view:

  • Create new containers on one of the created storages.
    During the creation of a container, it can optionally be protected by a password (this cannot be changed later!).
    The maximum chunk size (default 4096 MB) determines the size of the created container files.
    The minimum retention time determines how long a document in the container should be protected against deletion or moving.
  • Close containers (especially necessary if maintenance work is to be carried out on the storage).
  • Open containers (select the reddoxx.rdxacs file within the container)
  • Remove containers (this only removes the container from the list, it is still physically available on the storage).
  • Set container as default (this will archive mails from the archive spooler into this container)
  • Add containers (which are located on the storage and are currently not included in the list)
  • Editing containers

The following configuration options are available when editing the container properties:

  • Mount at service start
    Automatically remounts the container after an appliance restart.
    This requires that the data carrier on which this container is located is also automatically mounted.
  • Read only
    Switch on write protection if you want to protect a container from accidental modification.
    Non-writeable media, such as DVDs, should also have this option set. The option takes effect immediately.
  • Deactivate search
    By default, every container created is searched for in a search query.
    However, the more containers are to be searched, the slower the search.
    It is possible to exclude containers from the search with "Disable searching".
    Be careful not to include data copies unnecessarily in the search.
  • Do not index mail text
    Activate this option if the text area of the e-mail should not be indexed for the search.
    Changing this option only affects new incoming e-mails.
  • Do not index attachments
    Activate this option if the attachment of the e-mail is not to be indexed for the search.
    Changing the option only affects new incoming e-mails.
  • Complete the changes by clicking on "Save".

This option is not available in the Admin interface, the following steps explain the procedure:

  1. Unmount the container. (Close / Unmount)
  2. Remove the container from the inventory.
  3. Connect to a file browser on \\Appliance-IP\.
  4. SMB/CIFS access data: are defined via the SMB/CIFS configuration in the web interface => Configuration => Network => SMB/CIFS.
  5. Move the container to desired path
  6. Add the container to the inventory. Select the new target volume
  7. Mount the container again and set the container properties