Receiving Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange (SMSMSE) notification that the "Quarantine date limits specify not to keep data more than 90 days. Currently at least one Quarantine item is older than this limit."

Products

• Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange

Issue/Introduction

Why am I getting this alert by mail, or why are there repeated entries in the event logs?

Symptoms

Receiving an alert that the quarantine threshold has reached a set limit on data being older then the 90 days in quarantine. From the Windows Application Event Log:

Log Name: Application
Source: Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange
Date:
Event ID: 236
Task Category: Quarantine
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: COMPUTERNAME
Description: The Quarantine directory has exceeded a set limit.
Limit Information:

Quarantine date limits specify not to keep data more than 90 days.
Currently at least one Quarantine item is older than this limit.

 

Cause

The default setting for the SMSMSE quarantine is to retain items for 90 days. A notification is sent out when it goes beyond the threshold setting, prompting the mail administrator to delete or release the items. A well-maintained SMSMSE quarantine is important to the health of the mail server.

Resolution

 In the SMSMSE Console, click on Monitors, Quarantine Settings. You can change quarantine limits, notifications can be enabled or disabled, and other configuration options set here.

To delete quarantined items rather than send notifications, follow the steps below:

 

1. Login to the Console for the SMSMSE
2. Once open click on the 'Monitors' Tab
3. Now click on the 'Quarantine Settings'
4. Under the section 'When a threshold is met' you will see a box that you can check that has 'Delete oldest items'
5.  You will want to put a check there and Deploy the changes to save the setting

From that point onward, any quarantined items older than 90 days in quarantine will be deleted.

To stop the system from sending a notification to the administrator, you can uncheck the "Notify Administrator" option here.


References
Full details may be found in Chapter 5, "Quarantining messages and attachments" of the Symantec™ Mail Security for Microsoft® Exchange 2000 Server/Server 2003 Implementation Guide