The interface between the AXS-One archiving system and Messaging Server consists of a shared file system called the archive staging folder, or simply the staging folder. A high level architectural view is shown below.
All incoming and outgoing messages are copied to the staging folder. These messages are then moved into the Sun Compliance and Content Management Solution archive system where they can be retrieved via an AXS-One client or from the Messaging Server.
The figure below shows a low level view of a compliance architecture.
As shown in the figure, messages to be archived are copied from the MTA relay to a staging folder where messages are moved into the Sun Compliance and Content Management Solution at regular intervals. Archiving can be set to occur either before or after spam and virus filtering.
An AXS-One library file called libarch.so is used to implement the archiving functionality on the messaging server side. The archive stream, that is, the messages to be archived, is controlled by the Messaging Server spam filter interface. Messages can be archived on a per user, domain, channel, or per system basis (see Specifying the Messages to Be Filtered in Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.3 Administration Guide.
The arrow pointing from the IMAP Append function to the staging directory indicates messages that are moved or copied from a non-archive folder to an archive folder are archived. This is, any new message arriving into the archived part of the system is archived.
In an operational archiving deployment, messages are archived from the message store instead of the MTA. The figure below shows an architectural view of an operational archiving system.
The diagram above shows that the imexpire command specifies the messages to be archived. Messages can be specified by age, size, message count, and so on (see To Set the Automatic Message Removal (Expire and Purge) Feature in Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.3 Administration Guide). These messages are copied to the staging folder where they are archived into the Sun Compliance and Content Management Solution. The AXS-One application sends an archive confirmation message to the archive report directory indicating messages that have been successfully archived. It also provides information from which URL stubs can be constructed. imarchive does the following:
It marks messages in the messages store as archived and the message remains in both the message store and archive system. Marking it prevents the message from being re-archived.
(Optional) It saves the stub of the message and deletes the RFC 822 Message.