Mimecast Synchronization Engine - Unstubbing

This article contains information on using the Mimecast Synchronization Engine's (MSE) un-stubbing utility to restore stubbed content from the Mimecast archive to Exchange mailboxes, including running jobs and monitoring progress.

The un-stubbing utility is available with the Mimecast Synchronization Engine and works against a previously stubbed mailbox (or mailboxes) to restore the stubbed content and attachments. Stubbed content is retrieved from the Mimecast archive and restored to the original Exchange mailbox.

Running the Utility

Run the utility from the command prompt under a Windows identity with access to the Exchange mailboxes, possibly the primary Mimecast Synchronization Engine service.

Log on to the MSE server using this account to run consoletools.exe or the Windows runas.exe utility to open a command prompt window under this identity. For example,

runas /user:DOMAIN\serviceaccount cmd.exe

If consoletools.exe is not run under the identity of an account with the required permissions, the un-stubbing job will display an error, for example:

running as DOMAIN\normaluser
console tools application terminated with an expected problem finished

The utility will be retrieving message content from the Mimecast archive. Consequently, the credentials for a Mimecast Super Admin are required when running the utility. See the Understanding Administrator Roles article for more details.

Running an Un-Stubbing Job

Unlike other Mimecast Synchronization Engine features un-stubbing is not configured using the Administration Console, these jobs can only be run using the consoletools.exe utility.

To run an un-stubbing job, follow these steps:

1. On a server where the Mimecast Synchronization Engine is installed, launch a Windows Command
2. Prompt as a user accessing the Exchange mailboxes that the job will process.
3. Using the "cd" command, navigate to the %installdir%\Mimecast\Synchronisation Engine\bin directory.
4. Issue this command:

consoletools.exe [accountcode] unstub mailbox1

Where mailbox1 is the primary SMTP address associated with that mailbox

1. Press Enter to start the job.

• • To run the utility against more than one mailbox at a time, add the primary SMTP addresses of the target mailboxes as a space-separated list, for example:

consoletools.exe [accountcode] unstub [e-mail] [e-mail] [e-mail]

• • Mailboxes are processed sequentially as entered into the command to start the utility.

6. At the username prompt, enter the primary email address of a Mimecast Super Admin and press Enter. This does not have the same user identity running the consoletools.exe application locally.
7. Enter the password for the Super admin account:

• • If domain authentication with Mimecast is enabled for the Super Admin, a Mimecast Cloud or Active Directory password can be used.
  • If domain authentication is not enabled for the Super Admin, use a Mimecast Cloud password.
  • If using an Active Directory password containing extended ASCII characters, customers may experience issues properly un-stubbing messages; in this instance, please use a password without these characters.

8. Once the Super Admin credentials have been entered, the utility will start with the first listed mailbox.

Monitoring Progress & Output Logs

On-screen

During the execution of an un-stubbing job, consoletools.exe displays the following to the user:

This includes:

• The currently processing mailbox (with the total number of mailboxes and the position of this mailbox in the queue).
• The currently processing folder (with position and total).
• The position and total of the currently processed item within this folder.
• The total number of items un-stubbed to this point (with the total size of these items before and after un-stubbing and the total amount of mailbox expansion that this represents).

Logs

The location of the detailed execution log that the un-stubbing job will create is displayed in the command console as the job starts (see above). This location is the log folder the MSE service uses under the subfolder console tools by default.

Reports

The un-stubbing job also creates a comma-separated values (CSV) report in the exact location of the detailed log. This CSV report lists messages that could not be successfully stubbed and a detailed error.