This article contains information on Mimecast's Journaling feature, which archives internal emails using a Journal connector, ensuring comprehensive email retention and compliance by capturing both internal and external communications.
Mimecast automatically archives all inbound and outbound emails as they pass through the Mimecast cloud. Mimecast can also be configured to capture internal emails between users (which normally would not traverse the internet). This is done using Journaling, where internal email communication can also be added to your organization's Mimecast Archive.
Records retention is a legal requirement for many businesses, which makes Archiving essential for email data. Although a business's external email communications (inbound or outbound) are automatically Archived based on the organization's policies, internal email communication should also be retained.
This can be achieved using a Journal connector, which facilitates uploading internal email communication to Mimecast to store it in a single Archive. It is then very simple to use Mimecast to search across all internal and external email data when required. Users can also search through all their emails in a single archive view.
How Does Journaling Work?
Journal messages older than 30 days will not be processed and archived. If you require older messages to be part of your archive, contact your customer success manager for ingestion.
Journaling requires configuration in the customer environment and on Mimecast. Journaling needs to be enabled, allowing the internal mail server to send a copy of all emails to a journal mailbox. Once Journaling is configured on Mimecast, all emails will periodically be delivered/retrieved using either SMTP or POP3 (or POP3S). These emails will then be archived in the customer's Mimecast account so that a full archive of all internal and external emails is available.
Depending on whether SMTP or POP3S is used, it will cause a slight variation in how the emails are retrieved/delivered to Mimecast:
- SMTP: The customer's mail server will deliver the journal messages to Mimecast using real-time SMTP push technology.
- POP3: Identifies new emails from the receiver's server upon request and sends them to their computer.
- Mimecast only receives a copy of the emails from the customer's internal mail server.
- Configuring the correct journal type on your Journal connector is important to match the type of journal traffic sent from your email environment. Incorrectly configured journal types can cause unexpected issues to occur.
Journaling Systems
The table below lists supported and unsupported Journaling Systems. Select the appropriate article to learn more about configuring Journaling for Mimecast.
| Supported | Unsupported | |
|---|---|---|
| Exchange 2013 - 2019 | Exchange 2013-2019 Standard / Premium Journaling ( Premium requires Enterprise Cals) | Domino Send Mail MAC Mail Server Squirrel Mail |
| Microsoft 365 | Configuring Microsoft 365 Journaling. Check your Microsoft 365 plan on the Microsoft site. | |
| Google Workspace | Configuring Journaling for Google Workspace | |
Unsupported systems can still communicate and function with Mimecast using SMTP or POP3 but are not supported by our Mimecast Support teams.
Archive Reports Discrepancies
While the reports show sent messages per SMTP thread, the archive will condense and de-duplicate messages down.
In the archive, a person sends a single email to 100 people, which is de-duplicated and condensed. The report displays 100 emails from one person to 100 different people. If an email is sent to a Distribution list, it is condensed into a single email but not displayed on the report as it was sent to the list as the primary email, not to the end user directly.
Journaling Reference
- Email Security Cloud Gateway - Configuring Journaling using SMIME
- Email Security Cloud Gateway - Journaling Mixed Mode Environment
- Email Security Cloud Gateway - Migrate POP3 to SMTP
Troubleshooting Journaling
- Email Security Cloud Gateway - Journaling Connection Failures
- Email Security Cloud Gateway - Journaling Credential Failures
- Email Security Cloud Gateway - Journaling - Extraction Failures
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