GroupWise 18
Novell GroupWise 2014/R2
Novell GroupWise 6.x to 2012
Novell GroupWise 5.5
Novell GroupWise GWCheck
SUBJECTPURGE
SUBJECTLIST
Message or user database is very large
Groupwise Message Databases are very large
Removing messages from the message and user database with GWCheck.
Using SUBJECTLIST or SUBJECTPURGE with standalone GWCHECK.
Using SUBJECTLIST or SUBJECTPURGE with Administration Mailbox Maintenance
GroupWise 18.x and 2014/R2 Users:
With GroupWise 2014 the SUBJECTLIST and SUBJECTPURGE options have been significantly rewritten to both improve performance and underlying functionality.
Changes:
SUBJECTLIST no longer requires a "Contents" check but only a "Structure" check to get a list of subject lines.
SUBJECTLIST no longer creates a SUBDUMP file, but now all subject lines are placed directly into the GWCHECK.LOG file with the subjects listed under the User databases and the Message databases.
SUBJECTLIST now you can choose to dump the subjects via the user DBs, message DBs or both.
SUBJECTLIST, if you use the Standalone GWCHECK and only look at the active on screen log, it will only display about 25 characters worth if the Subject line, but the actual gwcheck log file will have about 125 characters of the Subject line.
SUBJECTPURGE does require a "Contents" check to remove messages.
SUBJECTPURGE is no longer case sensitive (ie: win an ipod will delete WIN AN IPOD as well as Win an iPod).
SUBJECTPURGE can now use up to 125 characters of the Subject line (over the old 27 characters).
SUBJECTPURGE now uses Wildcards of "*" and "?". This means that subjectpurge expects an exact match (not case) of the message Subject line before it will delete, unless a wildcard is used. (ie: win an ipod will not delete You Can Win an iPod nor will it deleted Win an iPod Shuffle, but will delete Win an iPod. However, win an ipod* will delete Win an iPod Shuffle and any other message that starts with win an ipod).
SUBJECTPURGE records its deletion results in the resulting GWCHECK.LOG file.
NOTE THAT you may have to run GWCHECK with the SUBJECTPURGE option several times to catch all the affected emails.
It is no longer needed to use the standalone GWCHECK unless problems prevent the running the POA or for customer preferences.
1. Please use the latest version of GroupWise or GWCheck included in the latest support pack. This ensures that the latest fixes are being utilized to resolve database issues.
2. Launch the GroupWise Web Administration console
3. Verify that Domain's Notify User is selected. This is done by editing the <Domain>, choosing the General tab and selecting a "Notify User". The Save the changes.
4. Select the User or Post Office depending on the scope of the problem message distribution you wish to fix.
NOTE: At this point the Standalone GWCHECK could also be used, but the following added steps must be done:
a. Fill in the Path to the Post Office.
b. Fill in the Post Office name as it appears in the Admin Console.
c. Select "Object Type" and fill in the user or resource name in question.
5. Under the drop-down Action menu choose Analyze / Fix Databases, and select "Structure" and "Fix problems."
6. At the bottom right of the GWCheck Screen select the Misc. tab.
7. In the Support Options: type in SUBJECTLIST (no longer needs to be all caps).
8. After the Mailbox Maintenance/GWCheck finishes, review the gwcheck.log file for suspected repeating messages.
9. Re-run Mailbox Maintenance/GWCheck on the same user or post office as before. Choose the drop down for "Analyze/Fix Databases" and select "Contents" and "Fix Problems".
10. On the MISC tab in the Support Options field, type SUBJECTPURGE=subject line of repeating message. SUBJECTPURGE= does not have to be in all capital letters. Note that the subject text entered here is NOT case sensitive but is text EXACT. It will NOT delete any partial matches unless a wildcard ( * or ? ) is used. Also, it can only match up to 125 characters. If the whole subject line is shorter than that, then the messages will be deleted. If the subject line is longer than 125 characters, then an * wildcard will be needed to get all of the messages.
11. The deletion results will be logged in the corresponding GWCHECK.LOG file.
12. Finally re-run GWCheck and select as the Action Expire/Reduce and select Reduce Only to shrink the database size.
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SUBJECTPURGE now goes through the User database check to clean up the purged messages. This now causes the user database(s), message database(s) and offiles to be cleaned up, where the old version only cleaned up the message database and subsequent "Contents" checks were required.
In some cases where the user or message database is very large the above options can take a day or more to complete.
1. Please use the latest version of GWCheck included in the latest support pack. This ensures that the latest fixes are being utilized to resolve database issues.
2. Launch GWCheck.
3. Fill in the Path to the Post Office.
4. Fill in the Post Office name as it appears in ConsoleOne.
5. Select Object Type and type in the ballooned db name in question. For Example, if msg2.db was the database in question: msg2.db
Under the drop-down Action menu choose Analyze / Fix Databases, and check only "Contents" and "Fix problems."
6. At the bottom right of the GWCheck Screen select the Misc. tab.
7. In the Support Options: type in SUBJECTLIST (all caps). This will create a file called SUBDUMP in the same folder that you are running GWCheck from.
8. After the GWCheck finishes, review the subdump file for suspected repeating messages.
9. Re-run GWCheck with the same options as listed and remove SUBJECTLIST from Misc Support Options and type SUBJECTPURGE=subject line of repeating message. Note that the subject text entered here is case sensitive, and also will delete emails with subject lines that form only a partial match from the start of the subject. So for instance entering the text Win an iPod will not delete an email with the subject WIN AN IPOD, will not delete an email with the subject You Can Win an iPod, but will delete an email with the subject Win an iPod Shuffle .
10. Finally re-run GWCheck and select as the Action Expire/Reduce and select Reduce Only to shrink the database size.
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In situations where a user has received the same message thousands of times you can do the following.
1. Run Analyze/Fix Database on Contents and Fix problems against the user and message database. (This will clean all of the records out of the database).
Note: Under Object type, choose User/Resource, and enter the USERID of the user with the problem. In some cases where the user or message database is very large the above options can take a day or more to complete.
Note: With GroupWise 8.x through GroupWise 2012 the ConsoleOne Mailbox Maintenance functionality (which is just the POA preforming the GWCheck routines) can also be used for the SUBJECTLIST and SUBJECTPURGE options, but you do not have the ability to run against a specific Message database.
GroupWise version 5.x
Run GWCHECK with the following steps:
1. Create a text file named GWCHECK.CFG file in the directory where GWCheck is run from.
2. In the GWCHECK.CFG file put SUBJECTPURGE on the first line. On the second line, put whatever the subject of the problem message is. Press enter after the subject line. Note that the GWCHECK job will only extract the first 27 characters of the subject. Spaces are also considered characters.
3. Run Analyze/Fix Database on Contents and Fix problems against the message database. (This will clean all of the records out of the database). Note: Under Object type, choose User/Resource, and enter the message database (ie MSG12.DB). To determine what message database the message is contained in, right click the message in the GroupWise Client, and choose Properties. The number between the colons, at the top of the page, represents the message database number.
4. Delete GWCHECK.CFG (this should get automatically deleted by GWCHECK).
5 Run a Reduce on the database that is so large. This will get the space back.
NOTE: Before running a SUBJECTPURGE, you may want to backup the message database. Also, you may want to run a SUBJECTLIST prior to the SUBJECTPURGE, to verify the subjects in the database before deleting. To run SUBJECTLIST, do the following:
1. Create a text file named GWCHECK.CFG file in the directory where GWCheck is run from.
2. Put SUBJECTLIST on the first line of the GWCHECK.CFG file (Do not put anything else in the file).
3. Run Analyze/Fix Database on Contents and Fix problems against the message database. This will create a file named SUBDUMP. In this file you will find every subject that is in that message database.
4. Delete GWCHECK.CFG (this should get automatically deleted by GWCHECK).
NOTE:
- For GroupWise 5.5, SUBJECTPURGE is only available in GWCHECK 5.5.4 (GW 5.5 SP4) and later.
- For GroupWise 5.5 Enhancement Pack, SUBJECTPURGE is only available in GWCHECK 5.5.4.1 (GW 5.5 EP SP2) and later.
- For GroupWise 6.0 or 6.5, SUBJECTPURGE is only available in GWCHECK 6.0.1 (GW 6.0 SP1) and later or 6.5. (See separate instructions below.)
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In situations where a user has received (for whatever reason) the same message thousands of times you can do the following.
Run GWCHECK with the following steps:
1. Create a text file named GWCHECK.CFG file in the directory where GWCheck is run from.
2. In the GWCHECK.CFG file put SUBJECTPURGE on the first line. On the second line, put whatever the subject of the problem message is. Press enter after the subject line.
3. Run Analyze/Fix Database on Contents and Fix problems against the user and message database. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BOTH USER AND MESSAGE SELECTED. You can cause problems with remote/caching modes and archives if you do not select both user and message. Note: Under Object type, choose User/Resource, and enter the USERID of the user with the problem.
4. Run a GWCHECK Reduce on the user or message database that is large. This will get the space back.
5. Delete GWCHECK.CFG (this should get automatically deleted by GWCHECK).