For the list of all release notes click here.
The following list will give a quick overview about the newest improvements that contentACCESS version 6.1 brings to you:
Email archive
✓ Hybrid Exchange archiving as SaaS
From version 3.8 onwards, contentACCESS support Hybrid Exchange archiving. However, the hybrid archiving was initially limited to the scenario where contentACCESS was running on-premises, and has access to the local Active Directory. Now, this limitation is resolved, you can archive hybrid Exchange environment through a contentACCESS instance running as SaaS.
✓ REST API for provisioning
When contentACCESS is archiving O365 mailboxes, it is using Remote PowerShell to get mailbox and group information. In December 2022 Microsoft marked Remote Powershell technology as deprecated and will stop supporting it on 1st of June 2023.
To react to this change, we had to completely rewrite our provisioning mechanism for O365. Today we are introducing the new REST based provisioning, whose technology is more modern, secure and performant. The switch is without any compromise, we are support all the existing features with the new technology as well. However, if you already use contentACCESS 6.0 or later to archive O365 mailboxes, the Azure AD app, which is used in modern authentication configuration in Central Administration will require some new permissions. For more information, please read the corresponding documentation page.
Teams archive
✓ Retention changer
Have your business needs changed, and now you need to keep your archived private Teams chats for a different period than before? Do you need to delete sensitive archived data earlier? Now, you can change the previously specified retention time for your private MS Teams chats, thanks to which it’s now possible to delete items from the archive sooner due to the new shortened retention time. This option is supported by the following stores: Disk, Azure, Amazon S3.
✓ Delete job
The new delete from archive job for Teams chat archive allows cleaning up the archive from unwanted/expired chats. The delete jobs can run in three modes: report generation, delete based on report, immediate deletion. Using the report mode, the administration will have full control over the deleted items.
Another possibility to delete items from the archives is to mark the items for deletion in Portal. This feature allows the users with the necessary rights to mark items for deletion, so the delete job will clean these chats and messages even if those are in unprotected retention time. The users can select single items, single chats, or a whole search result.
The deletion is dependent on the used storage as well. The following storages support deletion: Disk, Azure, HybridStore, Google, AmazonS3 (and compatible). The delete job will not have any effect on storages which does not support deletion.
✓ Extended reactions
Microsoft introduced last year in Teams the possibility to extend the existing set of message reactions. We are watching, listening and reacting to every change of Microsoft. Now, contentACCESS is able to archive all these new reactions as well.
Common
✓ Introducing the Is Active filter
We are introducing the Is Active filter property for File, Email, SharePoint and Teams archives. The Is Active property specifies if the given archive item still exists on the target (original) system or not. Using this property you can delete data from your archive, which does not exist on the target system anymore.
✓ Performance and stability fixes
Improvements were made to make the system faster and more stable, so your contentACCESS experience is now even better than it was before.
Update from older versions
✓ Update path: The update is supported by contentACCESS version 3.1 and later. Older versions must first be updated to contentACCESS 3.1 and after that they can be updated to the latest version.
If the update has been done for an earlier version than 3.3, after the update some of the new features must be configured manually.
One of these features is the Task runner, which requires resource storage where the export files will be stored. This storage must be configured in System -> System -> Resource storage settings. This store must be accessible by all contentACCESS nodes inside a cluster, so it is highly recommended to use a network share.
✓ TLS 1.1 and older is disabled: In contentACCESS 6.1 and later the TLS versions older than 1.2 are disabled for security reasons.
✓ Modern authentication for Email archive needs more permissions: we have switched from the deprecated Remote PowerShell to a REST based management API, which requires some more permissions on the configured Azure AD application. For more information, please read the corresponding documentation page.
✓ Search V2 requires .NET Core: In 6.0 we have introduced the next version of search. The new search components targets .NET Core 6, which will be installed automatically by the search server setup.
✓ Teams and Teams chat job filter must be adjusted: In 5.4 we have fully redesigned the filtering capabilities in all Teams and Teams Chat jobs. Your existing Teams and Teams Chat jobs settings must be verified and adjusted after the update from 5.3 and earlier.
✓ Application pool identities changed: To increase the security, all application pools of contentACCESS are using the isolated IIS App Pool Identity. This requires a switch to the server-side rendering in contentACCESS Portal for email archive.
✓ .NET Framework support: From the 5.0 version, the minimum required .NET version for all applications was increased from 4.5.2 to 4.8.
✓ Mail app activation: As a result of redesigning the Mail app activation method in contentACCESS Email Archive, new permissions: “Org Marketplace Apps” and “User Options”, are needed to make the super user work correctly.
✓ Outlook forms: If the update has been done from an earlier version than 3.4, because of some internal changes in the email archive shortcut format, the Outlook forms must be updated to the latest version to maintain the correct functionality. For contentACCESS 3.8, the Outlook forms must be also republished due to the authentication changes.
✓ Remote file archiving: While updating from contentACCESS 3.6, existing remote agent definitions will be not working, since some of the database structures have been moved from the file system archive database to the tenant database.
✓ SQL server support: The minimum required SQL version was increased from MS SQL 2008 to MS SQL 2012.
✓ Redesigned filtering: The old filtering was converted to a new format. Therefore, after the update from 3.7 or earlier, we recommend the checking of all your job filtering settings.
Documentation
Please check the updated documentation and manuals.
contentACCESS and client apps user manuals
