Figure: SMTP Archiving architecture shows how you can integrate SMTP Archiving into your messaging infrastructure.

Here, SMTP messages are sent to an SMTP server, which can be any third-party messaging server that supports SMTP. The server illustrated is performing a relay function and passing messages to other messaging servers, which deliver the messages to recipients.

Messages to specific domains are BCC'd to the Microsoft SMTP Server for archiving by Enterprise Vault. For example, you could configure an application to package data as SMTP messages and send all messages directly to the Microsoft SMTP Server for SMTP Archiving to process. You can configure SMTP Archiving to handle messages for multiple domains, if needed.

SMTP Archiving processes the messages and stores them as EML files in folders in a holding area according to the message recipient address and date. On the holding area, you create the root folder for each domain manually. SMTP Archiving then creates automatically the following sub-folder structure under each domain root folder:

<DomainRoot>\<MailboxName>\<Year>\<Month>\<Day>\<Hour>

A configuration file enables you to control SMTP Archiving. In this you can specify information, such as the root folder to use for a specific domain, whether SMTP Archiving is to create Archive Points automatically and the indexing level to apply to Archive Points.

You configure Enterprise Vault File System Archiving to retrieve the EML files from the holding area and store them in archives. The archives created depend on where the archive points are in the folder structure created in the holding area. You can configure SMTP Archiving to create archive points automatically, or you can create them manually. If they are created automatically, a separate archive is created for each mailbox.

Enterprise Vault recognizes the EML files as messages and indexes the appropriate data, such as sender, recipient, subject, date and time, and content. However, custom SMTP headers (X-headers) are not indexed (with the exception of x-KVS-MessageType, which is used by Compliance Accelerator to enable searches on Instant, Bloomberg and Exchange Server messages).

If required, users can quickly find and retrieve archived SMTP messages using Enterprise Vault Search or Archive Explorer, which they can run from a Web browser.

The Microsoft SMTP virtual server on the Enterprise Vault SMTP Archiving computer must not be configured as a relay.

All messages sent to SMTP Archiving are stored; it does not perform any filtering.