Useful Enterprise Vault Links

Posted on March 12, 2009 by admin

So many links to share.  However, I thought I would start by sharing some basic links from my experiences troubleshooting Enterprise Vault:

  • First and foremost, if you have a Symantec Support Contract for your Enterprise Vault software, get yourself set up on the new Symantec MySupport Portal so you can keep track of all your support tickets. You can also create new tickets, bypassing the need to call the support line and talking to India (or wherever Tier 0 Support is located).
  • Google Google Google.  Try searching on keywords from your error or better yet the Event ID from the Enterprise Vault Event Log folder.  I prefer Google because it gives me more than just Symantec’s links.  However, if you wanna go directly to the source, there is of course Symantec’s Enterprise Support Knowledge Base.
  • I keep a regular watch on the Enterprise Vault for Exchange Digest for new KB articles. If Googling keywords doesn’t produce what I’m looking for, I bring up the Digest and do a little searching and reading.  Especially with Enterprise Vault version 8 out just a couple months, a lot of the issues are new and the digital ink on the KB articles is still wet.
  • You’d think that Symantec Enterprise Vault and Symantec Anti Virus would work seemlessly.  Nope, not quite.  Make sure you follow the “Recommended list of antivirus exclusions for Symantec Enterprise Vault“
  • Wanna understand how an email becomes an archived item?  If so, you’ll wanna read through this KB article.
  • Best to use the ResetEVClient Utility whenever having problems with the Enterprise Vault add-in to Microsoft Outlook.  For me, it’s been the tool that works the most often.  You might also need to ZAP the user’s mailbox.  Zapping a mailbox removes all customized archiving settings from the root of the mailbox and any folders within the mailbox.

I’m working on trying to create some more Enterprise Vault specific blog posts. However, in the meantime, if you have a question and you’re still waiting on Support to call you back, shoot me an email and maybe I can point you in the right direction.

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Wireless Security for Digital Nomads

Posted on March 7, 2009 by admin

Dell launched a new web site dedicated to the “Digital Nomad“. “Business as unusual” appears to be the catchphrase.  Kinda catchy… kinda kitschy I must say.

What’s business as usual is random hackers (both ethical and unethical) trying to gain access to your computer.  They’ll use any tools necessary to gain remote access and surreptitious control over your computer.  Sometimes it’s as simple as asking for your password over the phone (yeah, I know… you wouldn’t give it up… but I bet you know at least one person that might be trusting enough to accidentally give it up).

One of the blog posts on Digital Nomads is a post dedicated to network security for Digital Nomads.  In the blog is an awesome video interview of the most famous hacker of them all – Kevin Mitnick.  In it (see video below or in the link provided), Kevin talks about the various ways a random hacker (both ethical and unethical) can trick his way onto your computer.  I liked his reference to what he does with his computer before and during DefCon and Black Hat. It’s essentially what I do when I go.  Unfortunately it’s not something we all can do on a daily basis.

The most important thing to gain from all of this is that while hotel and other public wifi connections are now almost essential to our daily work lives, it doesn’t mean that we can inherently trust that we are safe from prying eyes.  And that’s even when you cover your keyboard when typing in “1234″ for your bank account password.  The stuff that Kevin discusses should be things that should be taught to every digital business nomad.  His thoughts should be as easy to repeat (and do) as “look both ways before crossing the street”.

As Kevin put it, hackers try to go after the “low hanging fruit”.  As a digital nomad myself, I’ve always tried to be as security savvy as possible and climb up as far I can go on the proverbial tree whenever I get on any public network.  I would highly suggest to anyone using a laptop computer to practice the same and find the highest branch possible to sit on before logging onto that café’s wireless connection.  Let the hackers go after the guys and gals that haven’t even climbed up the tree and are sitting under it waiting for the Apple to fall on their heads before they wise up and get secure.

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Microsoft Exchange 14

Posted on March 1, 2009 by admin

Just recently got a chance to catch the video from the Microsoft Exchange Team talking about the future of Microsoft Exchange aka Exchange 14 aka Exchange 2010 (supposedly).  Not too much to take away from the video except that Exchange 14/2010 will have an option for your email to be installed “in the cloud”, the OWA Web client version will be a full client version (or close to that) on non-IE browers (Safari, Firefox) rather than the lite version currently available, and that there was some vague references to providing compliance and ediscovery tools and features that will be appealing to data sensitive organizations like educational institutions (not so ironically the guinea pigs for their Exchange Labs).  I give props to Microsoft for going outside their own ‘eating your own dogfood’ philosophy and expanding their test environment to include a larger group of 3.5 million students, teachers, and faculty – oh my – instead of their approx. 100K Microsoft Campus environment.  It should be a solid product when it’s released.  Looking forward to hearing more about the compliance and ediscovery features that were very vaguely referenced to in the video.

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Symantec Enterprise Vault Version 8

Posted on March 1, 2009 by admin

I’ve been working with Symantec Enterprise Vault Version 8 for just over a month.  While it isn’t a dramatic difference from version 7.5 (aka 2007) to version 8, it is a solid step forward for Enterprise Vault in solidifying itself as the de facto leader in enterprise archiving of unstructured data.  The most noted improvement is in the new client GUI application for Discovery Accelerator version 8.  Up until now it was a web interface. While the old web interface was adequate, it took way too many mouse clicks to get after the information you were looking for.  From an IT administrator’s perspective, DA 8 is a big leap forward into giving you the tools necessary to building and monitoring litigation searches

And while on the subject of Discovery Accelerator all IT Administrators need to keep in mind that Symantec Enterprise Vault’s Archiving capabilities are far more than just managing your burgeoning email and storage demands.  Enterprise Vault and Discovery Accelerator, or at least tools similar to them (aka their competitors), are a must in terms of risk management.  Every email, every office document, every instant message you send are in play now in pending litigations due to the changes in federal and state laws.  And as lawyers and legal departments get more and more tech savvy, it’s only going to make your work lives more painful if you are not incorporating an archival and search strategy into your IT environments.

Posted in EDiscovery, Enterprise Vault, Records Management | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Value of Social Media for Small Businesses

Posted on December 19, 2008 by admin

I really do believe that Social Media like Facebook and Twitter have finally arrived. They are legitimate and very much needed tools for businesses (especially small businesses such as Start ups). What MySpace does for musicians, artists and the like, Twitter and Facebook can do for small businesses.

Here is a great interview with Michael Dell about the topic:

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EDiscovery

Posted on December 19, 2008 by admin

Are you ready for a lawsuit? Really think you are? Are you aware of the changes under Federal Law that started in December 2006? The new rules pertain to digital data and they require an organization/corporation to be able to produce digital data or face sanction (and more than likely losing the case). Ben Franklin was the one that said “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” And considering that our good buddy Ben is on the 100 dollar bill that’s a bit prophetic.

Now think of of my previous topic of unstructured data. Think of the vast catacombs of digital data you have on your network. Think of all the email you retain (and who here isn’t a pack rat when it comes to email). Think of your file server. Now think of getting that call from your lawyer (or worse… someone elses lawyer) demanding you preserve and present all data pertaining to “So and So” regarding “XYZ topic”. How much time and energy do you think it will take to find, collect/hold, filter, and then ultimately present that data. And if you have to do that manually, think of the labor costs of doing that.

This is where an outstanding tool like Symantec Enterprise Vault comes into the picture. Enterprise Vault archives your email, your instant messages, your files, and (if you have it) the data/files on your SharePoint portal. And once all that data is archived, it is now ready, willing, and able to be searched for the data you need.

Whenever I think of this process I think of the movie “Erin Brockovich” and all the time and energy she spent reading through all those forms and documents. If Erin Brockovich had Symantec Enterprise Vault, that movie would have been over in 30 minutes instead of the 130 minutes it took for her to find the proof that she needed.

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Unstructured Data

Posted on December 1, 2008 by admin

If you’re an organization with a network and a file server, you have unstructured data.  If you just have a Webmail account, you have unstructured data (Google’s GMail may be another story).  Unless you kept every bit of digital information you own (email, word docs, receipes) in a searchable database, your data is in an unstructured state.  As an individual, unstructured data is a tolerated nuisance.  Unless you’re one of those individuals that can remember where EVERYTHING is located at any given moment (which personally I am not), unstructured data is cumbersome to manage – but for the most part we all find a way to get by with (or usually without) knowing where that data is located.

Now imagine your company’s network and its digital catacombs full of stored data.  Overall, How useful do you think it is in it’s current state for your company as a whole?  Not very useful at all! From a litigation viewpoint, it’s a downright dangerous situation wrought full of data landmines just waiting for someone to stumble upon them. For the individual that created it and knew where they ‘hid” it, it is useful.  Unstructured data is good for the individual, but as useful for the organization as a whole, it can be a scary mess.

That’s where I feel I can help your company.  Let me help you build the framework into your unstructured data.  Let’s make your data spend more time working for you and not you spending all your time (and money) working to find your data.

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