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Barracuda Email Gateway Defense
formerly Email Security
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Email Continuity

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If you make setting changes, allow a few minutes for the changes to take effect.

Important
If your organization is using LDAP Authentication and your LDAP server goes offline, Email Gateway Defense cannot connect to your LDAP server, and therefore users will be unable to log into Email Continuity.

Email Continuity allows end-users to send, receive, compose, and forward emails when designated mail servers are unavailable. Note that Email Continuity is automatically disabled after 96 hours. Messages in the Email Continuity are viewable in the Message list for 30 days, after which they expire.

Enable Email Continuity for all users on all domains on the account to comply with business continuity regulations.

How it Works

When Email Continuity and spooling are enabled, Email Gateway Defense continually checks designated mail server connections. When the service determines a mail server is offline, spooling begins immediately and Email Continuity begins 10 minutes later. Email Gateway Defense then continues to check designated mail server availability until the connection is restored. Once the service determines spooling has stopped and email is flowing, Email Continuity remains active for up to an hour after spooling has stopped and email is flowing.

Figure 1. Designated Mail Servers are Available, Mail is Flowing.


 EmailContinuityOff.png

Figure 2. Designated Mail Servers are Unavailable, Email Continuity is Enabled.

EmailContinuityOn.png

Notes:

  • The original mail headers and timestamp sent/received during an outage are synchronized to the primary mail server to minimize end-user confusion.
  • Message for the primary and alias email are delivered to the primary account.
  • When replying to a message or forwarding a message from Email Continuity, the sender is the primary email address.
  • Outbound messages sent via Email Continuity are subject to the configured outbound policies.
  • When Email Continuity is enabled, if the administrator logs in as a user, that user's message log is view-only.
  • Messages cannot be deleted from the Email Continuity Service.
  • You cannot access or send messages via quarantine notification email when Email Continuity is in effect.

Status

If spooling or Email Continuity is enabled for more than 96 hours, a warning displays in the Users > Email Continuity page.

Email Continuity Actions

When Email Continuity is activated, users can continue to view their messages in the Message Log. In addition to the standard message actions in the Message Log view, users can compose a new message, and forward or reply to a message. Spooled messages display in the account admin, domain admin, recipient, and sender Message Logs when Email Continuity is running.

When you view a message in the log, the following actions are available in the Message View page:

  • Click on a message in the email list to view the message body, and take actions:
    • Compose a New Message
    • Reply to the sender
    • Forward a message with Delivery status of Delivered to one or more email addresses; separate multiple addresses with a comma delimiter.
  • You can select to download one or more messages from Email Continuity as a .eml file.
     UserEmailContinuity.png

Set Up Email Continuity

Use the following steps to set up Email Continuity.

Step 1. Enable Spooling

Enable spooling for each domain where you want to enable Email Continuity.

To enable spooling:

  1. Log into Email Gateway Defense as the administrator, and click Domains.
  2. For the domain where you want to enable Email Continuity, click Edit in the Settings column.
  3. In the Options section, set Spooling to Yes.
  4. Click Save Changes.
  5. Complete steps 2 through 4 for each domain where you want to enable Email Continuity.

Step 2. Enable Email Continuity

To enable Email Continuity:

  1. Go to Users > Email Continuity.

  2. Set Email Continuity to Auto-Enable.

    If you did not enable spooling, the Enable Spooling dialog box displays. Click OK.

  3. Click Save Changes.

The Email Continuity status displays the date and time after which it is disabled (after 96 hours).

If you disable spooling after Email Continuity is set to Auto-Enable, the Email Continuity dialog box displays:

spooling_notification.png

 

Automatic Deactivation

When Email Continuity is active, if no spooled messages are received for 15 minutes or longer, Email Continuity will turn off automatically.