Hello,  continuing a conversation from this thread " https://community.emc.com/thread/116824?tstart=0 "  where I stated:

"As for the method to separate each country's data into separate archive folder, we will probably use a metadata field because each country has a unique and exact string in the country field. (assuming the EMC terminology for metadata is equal to Microsoft's Active Directory Attributes on an object)."

Although we do have a metadata field that we can rely on, I have a better option which i'm asking for input, as well as a question at the end of my ramble

Exchange 2010 DBs:

Canada1

Canada2

USA1

Mexico1

Journaling mailboxes:

Canada

USA

Mexico

Native Archive Folders:

CanadaExempt - infinite retention

CanadaGeneral - 18 months retention

USAExempt

USAGeneral

MexicoExempt

MexicoGeneral

We organize our users database based on country, no exceptions.  For example, for Canada, we have one or more databases that are strictly for the users in that country.  Since in Exchange 2010 you can set the journaling recipient per database, we can:

1. Create a journaling mailbox for each country such as Canada.

2. Assign the Exchange Databases for this country to journal to this specific Mailbox.

3. Create one or more Organizational Policies. Whether to create one organization policy with many journalying activities is possible, or many policies, I don't see either way any better unless it is just organizational (neat and tidy).

4. Create a journaling activity for each country that takes the mail from Country-A, process any rules, and dump it in the proper Native Archive Folder.

5. There will be rules for the Journaling task which will look at a distribution group for a match, and if matched dump the mail data in the Exempt Native Archive, if no match dump in the General Native Archive.

So (if anyone is still with me ) here is the question

When UserA from say, USA launches SO Web Search to look for a message, how does SourceOne know where his data is located?  Does it search through every mapped folder that UserA has permissions to by default ?  Do they need to select the proper folder?

Thanks very much in advance for:

-any comments on the above design

-the question about the internal workings of SO Web Search