3.3 Worker Locations

Dredging large email systems can take a long time, especially when it involves multiple mail servers.

Because Worker Agents do the heavy lifting when it comes to dredging, their placement is critical to overall system efficiency.

You can install Worker Agents in three locations as your deployment needs dictate.

By order of recommendation, these locations are:

3.3.1 Post Office Servers

Micro Focus recommends installing one worker on each mail server wherever possible because

  • Item retrieval happens quickly and efficiently within the server itself.

  • Processing happens locally.

  • Only new messages are transmitted over the network to the datastore, conserving considerable bandwidth. See How Archive Jobs Work in the Retain 4.9.2: How Retain Works guide.

3.3.2 A Separate Worker Server

If installing on post office servers is not an option for whatever reason, you can install up to 10 Worker Agents on a dedicated Worker Server.

Keep in mind that the network must have sufficient bandwidth to handle the load of all items that require processing, traveling from the post office servers to their respective workers. See How Archive Jobs Work in the Retain 4.9.2: How Retain Works guide.

3.3.3 With the Retain Server

For troubleshooting purposes, Micro Focus recommends always installing one worker on the Retain server.

However, having this Worker Agent function as the system worker is only recommended for small, proof-of-concept, all-in-one deployments. This configuration would rarely, if ever, be an effective solution for actual production workloads.