grommunio Archive: e-mail archiving, search and restore

grommunio Archive is the e-mail archiving component of grommunio. It is based on the open source archiver Piler and stores an independent, deduplicated and encrypted copy of every message that passes through the mail system, indexes it for full-text search and lets users find, view, export and restore messages through a web interface under /archive/.

At the end of this guide you have an archive that receives a copy of each message from Postfix, a working search index, users who can log in with their grommunio credentials, and a proven restore path from the archive back into the mailbox. You also know which artefacts to back up and what to monitor.

How it fits together

Postfix delivers a message to the mailbox as usual and, in addition, creates a copy for an internal archive address. A transport map routes that address to the archive SMTP listener on 127.0.0.1:2693. The archive daemon stores the message in /var/lib/grommunio-archive/store, writes metadata to the groarchive database in MariaDB and feeds the Sphinx full-text index. Users search and open messages in the web interface; the interface authenticates against the Gromox IMAP service and uses the same IMAP connection to restore messages into the user's mailbox.

client / internet
      |
   Postfix  --------------------------------> mailbox (Gromox, virtual_transport)
      |  always_bcc or recipient_bcc_maps
      |  + X-Envelope-To header
      v
[email protected]  --transport_maps-->  smtp:[127.0.0.1]:2693
                                                    |
                                        grommunio-archive-smtp (piler-smtp)
                                                    |
                                          grommunio-archive (piler)
                                           |                |
                                 store + metadata      Sphinx index
                                 (files + groarchive)  (searchd, cron indexer)
                                                    |
                                   web UI /archive/ (nginx + PHP-FPM)
                                                    |
                                     restore via IMAP into the mailbox

Component	Unit / process	Listens on	Role
Archive SMTP listener	`grommunio-archive-smtp.service` (`piler-smtp`)	`listen_addr:2693`	Accepts the copies handed over by Postfix
Archive daemon	`grommunio-archive.service` (`piler`)	–	Deduplicates, encrypts and stores messages, writes metadata
Full-text index	`searchd.service` (Sphinx, runs as `groarchive`)	`127.0.0.1:9306` (MySQL protocol), `127.0.0.1:9312`	Serves search queries; indexes are refreshed by cron
Web interface	nginx location `/archive/`, PHP-FPM pool `grommunio-archive-pool`	HTTPS 443	Login, search, view, export, restore, administration
Database	MariaDB, database `groarchive`	local socket	Metadata, recipients, users, rules, audit log
IMAP service	Gromox imap(8gx)	993	Authentication backend and restore target

Files and directories you will work with:

Path	Purpose
`/etc/grommunio-archive/grommunio-archive.conf`	Daemon and SMTP listener configuration (template: `grommunio-archive.conf.dist`)
`/etc/grommunio-archive/config-site.php`	Web interface configuration (template: `config-site.dist.php`)
`/etc/grommunio-archive/sphinx.conf.dist`	Template that renders `/etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf`
`/etc/grommunio-archive/grommunio-archive.key`	Encryption key for the message store
`/etc/php8/fpm/php-fpm.d/pool-grommunio-archive.conf`	PHP-FPM pool, socket `/run/php-fpm/php-grommunio-archive-fpm.sock`
`/usr/share/grommunio-common/nginx/locations.d/grommunio-archive.conf`, `/usr/share/grommunio-common/nginx/upstreams.d/grommunio-archive.conf`	nginx location and upstream shipped with the package
`/usr/share/grommunio-archive/archive/`	Web interface document root
`/usr/share/grommunio-archive/db-mysql.sql`	Database schema including the built-in `admin@local` and `auditor@local` accounts
`/usr/libexec/grommunio-archive/`	Helper scripts: `indexer.delta.sh`, `indexer.main.sh`, `purge.sh`, `pilerpurge.py`, `import.sh`
`/var/lib/grommunio-archive/{store,tmp,sphinx,error,stat,imap}`	Message store, temporary files, Sphinx index files, failed messages, status beacons
`/var/spool/cron/tabs/groarchive`	Crontab of the `groarchive` user (indexer, purge, cleanup)

On the grommunio Appliance, grommunio-setup performs steps 2 to 6 when you select the Archive feature. Use those steps to verify or adjust the result, or to install Archive manually on a system that was not set up with the wizard. In the container deployment the same components are enabled with ENABLE_ARCHIVE=true, see Container deployment.

Prerequisites

A working grommunio installation with DNS, a trusted TLS certificate for the public name (for example mail.example.com), time synchronisation, access to the Admin UI and functioning user mailboxes. See the post-installation guide.
The Gromox IMAP service is running and reachable on port 993 under the same name that is on the TLS certificate; the archive web interface authenticates and restores over IMAP with TLS.
Postfix is the MTA on the host, configured with the grommunio MySQL maps (see the Postfix table in High availability).
MariaDB is local or reachable, and you can run SQL as the database administrator.
Disk capacity for the message store. Plan /var/lib/grommunio-archive like mailbox storage: it grows with every message for the whole retention period.

Check the starting point:

hostname -f
rpm -qa | grep -Ei 'grommunio|gromox' | sort
systemctl is-active postfix nginx php-fpm mariadb
ss -ltn | grep -E ':993 |:25 '

1. Install the packages

The archive and the Sphinx search engine come from the grommunio repository.

zypper refresh
zypper install grommunio-archive sphinx

Expected result: rpm -q grommunio-archive sphinx prints both packages, the system user groarchive exists and /var/lib/grommunio-archive contains the store, tmp, sphinx, stat and imap directories.

id groarchive
ls -la /var/lib/grommunio-archive
ls /etc/grommunio-archive

2. Prepare the database

Archive uses its own database, groarchive by default. Create the database and a dedicated user, then import the schema.

mariadb -uroot <<'SQL'
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS groarchive CHARACTER SET utf8mb4;
CREATE USER IF NOT EXISTS 'groarchive'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '<strong-password>';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON groarchive.* TO 'groarchive'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
SQL

The shipped schema creates two built-in accounts, admin@local (administration) and auditor@local (read access to all archived mail). Their passwords are the placeholders grommunioArchiveAdmin and grommunioArchiveAuditor in the SQL file. Replace them while importing; never import the schema with the placeholders.

sed -e 's#grommunioArchiveAdmin#<archive-admin-password>#g' \
    -e 's#grommunioArchiveAuditor#<auditor-password>#g' \
    /usr/share/grommunio-archive/db-mysql.sql | mariadb groarchive
mariadb -N groarchive -e "SHOW TABLES" | wc -l

Expected result: around 40 tables, among them metadata, rcpt, sph_index, retention_rule, archiving_rule, legal_hold, audit and user.

3. Configure the daemon, the web interface and Sphinx

3.1 Daemon configuration

Copy the template and restrict it to root and the groarchive group, because it contains the database password.

cp -n /etc/grommunio-archive/grommunio-archive.conf.dist /etc/grommunio-archive/grommunio-archive.conf
chgrp groarchive /etc/grommunio-archive/grommunio-archive.conf
chmod 0640 /etc/grommunio-archive/grommunio-archive.conf

Set the values that apply to your environment:

hostid=mail.example.com
listen_addr=127.0.0.1
listen_port=2693
mysqlsocket=/run/mysql/mysql.sock
mysqldb=groarchive
mysqluser=groarchive
mysqlpwd=<strong-password>
queuedir=/var/lib/grommunio-archive/store
workdir=/var/lib/grommunio-archive/tmp
sphxhost=127.0.0.1
sphxport=9306
encrypt_messages=1
default_retention_days=2557
extra_to_field=X-Envelope-To:

Key	Shipped default	Meaning
`hostid`	placeholder	SMTP HELO name of the listener. Use the domain part of the archive address (`mail.example.com` for `[email protected]`).
`listen_addr`	`0.0.0.0`	Address the SMTP listener binds to. Set `127.0.0.1` when Postfix runs on the same host; the shipped default listens on all interfaces.
`listen_port`	`2693`	Port of the SMTP listener. Must match the Postfix transport entry.
`mysqlhost`, `mysqlsocket`	empty, `/run/mysql/mysql.sock`	Database connection; the socket is used when `mysqlhost` is empty.
`mysqldb`, `mysqluser`, `mysqlpwd`	`groarchive`, `groarchive`, empty	Database credentials from step 2.
`queuedir`	`/var/lib/grommunio-archive/store`	Message store.
`workdir`	`/var/lib/grommunio-archive/tmp`	Temporary files while a message is processed.
`sphxhost`, `sphxport`	`127.0.0.1`, `9306`	MySQL-protocol endpoint of `searchd`.
`encrypt_messages`	`1`	Encrypt stored messages with `grommunio-archive.key`. Decide before the first message arrives and never change it afterwards.
`default_retention_days`	`2557`	Retention for messages without a matching retention rule (7 years + 2 days). Stored per message at archiving time.
`extra_to_field`	`X-Envelope-To:`	Header from which the archive reads the envelope recipient; Postfix adds it (step 6).
`username`	`groarchive`	Service account of the daemons.

Query the effective configuration at any time with pilerconf -q <key>, for example pilerconf -q listen_addr.

3.2 Encryption key

With encrypt_messages=1 the store is unreadable without /etc/grommunio-archive/grommunio-archive.key. Create it once, only if it does not exist yet, and include it in every backup.

test -s /etc/grommunio-archive/grommunio-archive.key || head -c 56 /dev/urandom > /etc/grommunio-archive/grommunio-archive.key
chgrp groarchive /etc/grommunio-archive/grommunio-archive.key
chmod 0640 /etc/grommunio-archive/grommunio-archive.key

3.3 Web interface configuration

The web interface reads /usr/share/grommunio-archive/archive/config.php and then overrides it with /etc/grommunio-archive/config-site.php. Render the template by replacing its placeholders: MYHOSTNAME (public name of the appliance), MYSMTP (mail domain used for notification senders) and the MYSQL_* database values.

sed -e 's#MYHOSTNAME#mail.example.com#g' \
    -e 's#MYSMTP#example.com#g' \
    -e 's#MYSQL_HOSTNAME#localhost#' \
    -e 's#MYSQL_DATABASE#groarchive#' \
    -e 's#MYSQL_USERNAME#groarchive#' \
    -e 's#MYSQL_PASSWORD#<strong-password>#' \
    /etc/grommunio-archive/config-site.dist.php > /etc/grommunio-archive/config-site.php
chgrp groarchive /etc/grommunio-archive/config-site.php
chmod 0640 /etc/grommunio-archive/config-site.php

The template already contains the grommunio-specific settings; check them after rendering:

Setting	Value in the template	Meaning
`PATH_PREFIX`, `SITE_URL`	`/archive/`, `https://<MYHOSTNAME>/archive/`	Public URL of the web interface.
`ENABLE_IMAP_AUTH`	`1`	Users log in with their grommunio e-mail address and password, checked over IMAP.
`IMAP_HOST`, `IMAP_PORT`, `IMAP_SSL`	`<MYHOSTNAME>`, `993`, `true`	IMAP endpoint for login and restore. The host name must match the TLS certificate of the IMAP service.
`RESTORE_OVER_IMAP`	`1`	Restore writes the message back into the mailbox over IMAP.
`IMAP_RESTORE_FOLDER_INBOX`, `IMAP_RESTORE_FOLDER_SENT`	`INBOX`, `Sent`	Target folders for restored received and sent messages.
`SMTP_DOMAIN`, `SMTP_FROMADDR`, `ADMIN_EMAIL`	derived from `MYSMTP`	Sender and contact addresses for notifications.
`DB_HOSTNAME`, `DB_DATABASE`, `DB_USERNAME`, `DB_PASSWORD`	from `MYSQL_*`	Database access of the web interface.

Defaults that remain in config.php unless you override them in config-site.php: ENABLE_AUDIT = 1 (every view, download and restore is logged), ENABLE_DELETE = 0 (nobody can delete from the archive through the interface), BULK_DOWNLOAD_FOR_USERS = 1, ENABLE_PDF_DOWNLOAD = 0, SPHINX_HOSTNAME = 127.0.0.1:9306, SPHINX_MAIN_INDEX = main1,dailydelta1,delta1, SESSION_EXPIRY = 3600.

3.4 Sphinx configuration and initial index

sphinx.conf.dist is a PHP template. Render it, insert the database credentials, hand the file to the groarchive and sphinx accounts and build the empty indexes once.

php /etc/grommunio-archive/sphinx.conf.dist > /etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf
sed -i -e 's#MYSQL_HOSTNAME#localhost#' \
       -e 's#MYSQL_DATABASE#groarchive#' \
       -e 's#MYSQL_USERNAME#groarchive#' \
       -e 's#MYSQL_PASSWORD#<strong-password>#' /etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf
chown groarchive:sphinx /etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf
chmod 0640 /etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf
chown -R groarchive:sphinx /var/lib/grommunio-archive/sphinx
runuser -u groarchive -- indexer --config /etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf --all

Expected result: grep '^index ' /etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf lists main1 to main4, dailydelta1, delta1, tag1 and note1, and /var/lib/grommunio-archive/sphinx/ contains index files for each of them.

4. Enable the services and check the listeners

systemctl enable --now searchd.service grommunio-archive-smtp.service grommunio-archive.service
systemctl restart php-fpm.service
systemctl is-active searchd grommunio-archive-smtp grommunio-archive php-fpm nginx
ss -ltnp | grep -E ':2693|:9306|:9312'

Expected result: all five services are active; searchd listens on 127.0.0.1:9306 and 127.0.0.1:9312; piler-smtp listens on port 2693 on the address you set in listen_addr. If the listener shows 0.0.0.0:2693, set listen_addr=127.0.0.1 and restart grommunio-archive-smtp.service, or restrict the port with the host firewall. Only HTTPS should be reachable from outside.

5. Publish the web interface under /archive/

The package ships the nginx configuration; nothing has to be written by hand. /etc/nginx/conf.d/grommunio.conf includes /usr/share/grommunio-common/nginx.conf, which loads /usr/share/grommunio-common/nginx/locations.d/*.conf and /usr/share/grommunio-common/nginx/upstreams.d/*.conf, plus local overrides from /etc/grommunio-common/nginx/locations.d/ and /etc/grommunio-common/nginx/upstreams.d/. The archive snippet serves the document root, passes PHP to the fpm_archive upstream and rewrites the application routes (search, message view, bulk restore, retention, legal hold, audit). In essence:

location /archive {
        alias /usr/share/grommunio-archive/archive;
        index index.php;
        try_files $uri $uri/ /archive/index.php;
        access_log /var/log/nginx/nginx-archive-access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/nginx-archive-error.log;
}

location ~* ^/archive/(qr|js|sso|index).php {
        alias /usr/share/grommunio-archive;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_pass fpm_archive;
        include fastcgi_params;
}

upstream fpm_archive {
        server unix:/run/php-fpm/php-grommunio-archive-fpm.sock;
}

Do not edit the files under /usr/share; place changes in /etc/grommunio-common/nginx/locations.d/. Test and reload:

nginx -t
systemctl reload nginx
ls -la /run/php-fpm/php-grommunio-archive-fpm.sock
curl -kI https://mail.example.com/archive/

Expected result: an HTTP 200 or a redirect to the login page, and the PHP-FPM socket owned by groarchive.

To link the archive from the Admin UI, set archiveWebAddress to https://mail.example.com/archive in /etc/grommunio-admin-common/config.json (see Administration).

6. Connect the mail flow in Postfix

Postfix creates the archive copy. Two mechanisms are available; the appliance uses the first one.

6.1 Archive everything (appliance default)

always_bcc adds the archive address as a recipient to every message Postfix accepts. A transport_maps entry routes that address to the archive listener, and a check_recipient_access map prepends an X-Envelope-To header per recipient so that the archive knows the real envelope recipient (this is what makes BCC recipients and distribution lists attributable).

postconf -e "[email protected]"
echo "[email protected] smtp:[127.0.0.1]:2693" > /etc/postfix/transport
postmap /etc/postfix/transport
echo '/(.*)/   prepend X-Envelope-To: $1' > /etc/postfix/grommunio-archiver-envelope.cf

Make sure transport_maps points at the map and that the recipient restrictions contain the envelope map right after the permit rules. The appliance uses these values:

always_bcc = [email protected]
transport_maps = lmdb:/etc/postfix/transport
smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_sasl_authenticated, permit_mynetworks,
    check_recipient_access pcre:/etc/postfix/grommunio-archiver-envelope.cf,
    reject_unknown_recipient_domain, reject_non_fqdn_hostname,
    reject_non_fqdn_sender, reject_non_fqdn_recipient,
    reject_unauth_destination, reject_unauth_pipelining

systemctl restart postfix
postconf always_bcc transport_maps smtpd_recipient_restrictions
postmap -q [email protected] lmdb:/etc/postfix/transport

Expected result of the last command: smtp:[127.0.0.1]:2693. The domain part of the archive address must equal hostid in the daemon configuration. Only mail that passes through Postfix is archived; in a standard grommunio installation this includes mail submitted by Outlook, grommunio Web and mobile clients, because Gromox hands outgoing messages to the local MTA (outgoing_smtp_url, see gromox.cfg(5)).

6.2 Archive selected users only

If only some mailboxes must be archived, leave always_bcc unset (postconf -X always_bcc) and use the per-user E-Mail forward in the Admin UI (user, tab SMTP, CC mode) with [email protected] as the destination. Postfix evaluates these entries through recipient_bcc_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/grommunio-bcc-forwards.cf, which queries the forwards table with forward_type = 0; the transport and envelope maps from 6.1 are still required. See Administration for the forward settings and the CLI cookbook for scripted user changes.

postmap -q [email protected] mysql:/etc/postfix/grommunio-bcc-forwards.cf

Expected result: the archive address for every user that should be archived, and no output for users that should not.

7. Grant users access

The web interface authenticates over IMAP, so an archive user needs the POP3/IMAP privilege in addition to the Archive privilege. This is the most common reason for a failing archive login, see KB: Archive. Set both in the Admin UI (user, Account: Allow POP3/IMAP logins and Allow Archive) or on the command line:

grommunio-admin user modify [email protected] --pop3-imap true --privArchive true
grommunio-admin user query username pop3_imap privArchive -f [email protected]

Expected result: pop3_imap and privArchive are true for the user. See grommunio-admin user for all fields.

Then open https://mail.example.com/archive/ and log in with the full e-mail address and the mailbox password. Regular users see only messages they sent or received. The built-in auditor@local account can search across all mailboxes, admin@local manages domains, rules, legal hold and users. Keep these two accounts for auditors and administrators, use strong passwords and do not hand them to regular users.

8. Prove that messages are archived

Send a test message with a unique marker in the subject and follow it through Postfix, the SMTP listener, the daemon, the database and the index.

/usr/sbin/sendmail -t <<'MAIL'
From: Archive Test <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Archive validation MARKER-20260916-1
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

This message verifies archiving, search and restore.
MAIL

Check each stage:

journalctl -u postfix --since "-10 min" --no-pager | grep 2693
journalctl -u grommunio-archive-smtp --since "-10 min" --no-pager
journalctl -u grommunio-archive --since "-10 min" --no-pager
mariadb groarchive -e "SELECT id, CAST(subject AS CHAR(255)) AS subject, FROM_UNIXTIME(arrived) AS arrived FROM metadata ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 5;"

Expected results:

Postfix: relay=127.0.0.1[127.0.0.1]:2693 ... status=sent (250 OK <ID>) for the archive recipient, and the normal delivery to the mailbox.
grommunio-archive-smtp: received: <ID>, from=<...>, size=..., client=127.0.0.1.
grommunio-archive: a line ending in status=stored with the same ID, retention=2557 (or the value of your rule). status=duplicate means the identical message was already archived; this is deduplication, not an error.
The metadata query lists the test subject as the newest row. The subject column is a blob, hence the CAST.

The search index is refreshed by the groarchive crontab: indexer.delta.sh every 30 minutes (minute 5 and 35), indexer.main.sh nightly at 02:30, tag1/note1 every 15 minutes. To make the message searchable immediately, run the delta indexer manually and query Sphinx directly over its MySQL protocol port:

crontab -l -u groarchive
runuser -u groarchive -- /usr/libexec/grommunio-archive/indexer.delta.sh
mariadb -h127.0.0.1 -P9306 -e "SELECT id FROM main1,dailydelta1,delta1 WHERE MATCH('MARKER-20260916-1');"

Expected result: the id from the metadata table. Indexer messages are logged to the journal with the prefix INDEXER INFO or INDEXER ERROR.

9. Search, open and restore

In the web interface, search for the marker. The hit must show date, sender, recipient, subject and size. Open the message and check that headers, body and the restore action are visible.

For a real restore test the message must first be gone from the mailbox:

Delete the test message from Alice's inbox in grommunio Web (and empty Deleted Items), or remove it with an IMAP client.
Confirm it is gone: search the mailbox in grommunio Web or list the folder over IMAP.
In Archive, open the message and use Restore to mailbox. The interface appends the message over IMAP into INBOX (sent messages go to Sent).
Confirm that the message is back in the mailbox with the original headers.

Every restore, view and download is recorded in the audit log (ENABLE_AUDIT = 1), which the auditor can search in the web interface. For automated acceptance tests, check the mailbox over IMAP rather than through the browser; it verifies the same folder without UI caching effects.

10. Export, attachments and user isolation

Export: a user can download an opened message as EML and, with BULK_DOWNLOAD_FOR_USERS = 1, download all hits of a search. PDF export is off by default (ENABLE_PDF_DOWNLOAD = 0). For bulk exports on the server, pilerexport selects by date range (-a, -b), sender or recipient (-f, -r, -F, -R), a Sphinx match expression (-w) and writes EML files, optionally into zip archives (-z); run pilerexport without arguments for the option list.
Attachments: open a message with an attachment; the attachment must be listed in the message view and be contained in the exported EML.
Isolation: search for one of Alice's messages while logged in as Alice (hit) and as Bob (no hit). Only auditor@local and accounts with the auditor role see mail of other users.
Deletion from the archive through the interface is disabled by default (ENABLE_DELETE = 0). Messages leave the archive only through retention and purge.

11. Retention, legal hold and purge

Retention works in two layers:

default_retention_days in grommunio-archive.conf (2557 days) is written into each message's metadata when it is archived. Changing it affects new messages only.
In the web interface, admin@local defines retention rules (retention period by domain, sender, recipient, subject, size or attachment type), archiving rules (exclusions that are not archived at all) and legal hold per address. Legal hold suspends purging for the affected mail.

Expired messages are removed by the daily purge job (purge.sh at 03:40 in the groarchive crontab), which runs pilerpurge.py. Preview what the next purge would remove without deleting anything:

runuser -u groarchive -- /usr/libexec/grommunio-archive/pilerpurge.py --dry-run --verbose

Record the retention decisions and the rule set together with the rest of your compliance documentation; the archive enforces them, but it does not define them.

Verification checklist

Check	How	Expected result
Packages	`rpm -q grommunio-archive sphinx`	Both installed
Services	`systemctl is-active searchd grommunio-archive-smtp grommunio-archive php-fpm nginx postfix`	All `active`
Listeners	`ss -ltnp \| grep -E ':2693\|:9306\|:9312'`	2693 on `127.0.0.1` (or firewalled), 9306 and 9312 on `127.0.0.1`
Postfix routing	`postmap -q [email protected] lmdb:/etc/postfix/transport`	`smtp:[127.0.0.1]:2693`
Postfix copy	`postconf always_bcc` or `postmap -q <user> mysql:/etc/postfix/grommunio-bcc-forwards.cf`	Archive address returned
Web interface	`curl -kI https://mail.example.com/archive/`	HTTP 200 or redirect to login
User privileges	`grommunio-admin user query username pop3_imap privArchive -f username=<user>`	Both `true`
Login	Browser login with e-mail address and password	Search page opens
Archiving	Test mail, `journalctl -u grommunio-archive`	`status=stored` for the message
Database	`mariadb groarchive -e "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM metadata"`	Count increases with each archived message
Index	Sphinx `MATCH()` query after `indexer.delta.sh`	`id` of the test message
Search and view	Search marker in the web interface, open the hit	Headers, body, attachments and restore action visible
Restore	Delete from mailbox, restore from archive	Message back in `INBOX`
Isolation	Search as a second user	No hit for the first user's mail
Cron	`crontab -l -u groarchive`	Delta, main, purge and cleanup entries present
Restart	`systemctl restart searchd grommunio-archive-smtp grommunio-archive` and reboot test	Archiving and search work afterwards
Logs	`journalctl -u grommunio-archive -u grommunio-archive-smtp -u searchd --since -1h`	No errors

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	What to check / fix
Login at `/archive/` fails for a grommunio user	POP3/IMAP or Archive privilege missing; IMAP service unreachable or certificate name mismatch	`grommunio-admin user query ... pop3_imap privArchive`; `ss -ltn \| grep 993`; `IMAP_HOST` in `config-site.php` must match the certificate; see KB: Archive
`404` or blank page under `/archive/`	nginx snippet not loaded, PHP-FPM pool not running	`nginx -T \| grep -A3 'location /archive'`; `ls -la /run/php-fpm/php-grommunio-archive-fpm.sock`; `/var/log/nginx/nginx-archive-error.log`; `systemctl restart php-fpm`
Postfix logs `connect to 127.0.0.1[127.0.0.1]:2693 ... Connection refused`, archive copies deferred	`grommunio-archive-smtp` not running or `listen_addr`/`listen_port` mismatch	`systemctl status grommunio-archive-smtp`; `ss -ltnp \| grep 2693`; `postqueue -p` or the Mail queue page in the Admin UI
Message is in `metadata` but the search finds nothing	Delta indexer has not run yet (30-minute interval) or fails	Run `indexer.delta.sh` manually; `journalctl --since -1h \| grep INDEXER`; `searchd` active; `SPHINX_MAIN_INDEX` unchanged
No `received:` line in `grommunio-archive-smtp` although Postfix reports `status=sent` to 2693	Another service answers on 2693 or the copy goes to a different host	`ss -ltnp \| grep 2693`; `postconf transport_maps`; `postmap -q` on the transport map
Message not attributed to the recipient (found only by the auditor)	`X-Envelope-To` header missing	`postconf smtpd_recipient_restrictions` contains `check_recipient_access pcre:/etc/postfix/grommunio-archiver-envelope.cf`; `extra_to_field=X-Envelope-To:` in the daemon config
Restore does not arrive in the mailbox	`RESTORE_OVER_IMAP`, `IMAP_HOST` or TLS settings wrong; user lacks IMAP privilege	`config-site.php`; `/var/log/nginx/nginx-archive-error.log`; audit log entry for the restore; test an IMAP login for the user
Port 2693 reachable from other hosts	Shipped default `listen_addr=0.0.0.0`	Set `listen_addr=127.0.0.1`, restart `grommunio-archive-smtp`, or restrict the port in the host firewall
Files accumulate in `/var/lib/grommunio-archive/error`	Messages could not be stored (database down, permissions, disk full)	`journalctl -u grommunio-archive`; `df -h /var/lib/grommunio-archive`; `cat /var/lib/grommunio-archive/stat/error`
Archived messages cannot be opened after a restore of the platform	Wrong or missing `grommunio-archive.key`	Restore the key from backup; compare `encrypt_messages` with the value used when the messages were archived
Configuration ignored after a package update	New `.dist` template, old values kept in `.rpmsave`	Compare `/etc/grommunio-archive/*.dist` with your files, merge new keys

Operating notes

Backup and restore of the archive platform

Back up the whole set together, consistent with the general procedure in Operations and the backup and restore guide:

Database dump of groarchive.
/var/lib/grommunio-archive (message store, Sphinx index files, status beacons). The Sphinx indexes can be rebuilt from the database, the store cannot.
/etc/grommunio-archive including grommunio-archive.key.
/etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf.
/etc/postfix (transport map, grommunio-archiver-envelope.cf, main.cf).
/etc/grommunio-common/nginx and the PHP-FPM pool if you changed them.

install -d -m 0700 /var/backups/grommunio-archive
mariadb-dump --single-transaction groarchive | gzip -c > /var/backups/grommunio-archive/groarchive.sql.gz
tar -C / -czf /var/backups/grommunio-archive/archive-config-data.tar.gz \
    etc/grommunio-archive etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf etc/postfix var/lib/grommunio-archive
gzip -t /var/backups/grommunio-archive/groarchive.sql.gz
tar -tzf /var/backups/grommunio-archive/archive-config-data.tar.gz | head

The backup contains the encryption key and database passwords; store it with the same protection as the key itself.

Restore order: stop the three archive services, restore the configuration and the key, import the database dump, restore /var/lib/grommunio-archive, restore the ownership of /var/lib/grommunio-archive to groarchive as declared in /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/grommunio-archive.conf, rebuild the indexes with runuser -u groarchive -- indexer --config /etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf --all --rotate and start the services. Finish with a search and a restore test.

Monitoring and logs

Monitor more than an HTTP 200 on /archive/:

What	How
Services	`systemctl is-active searchd grommunio-archive-smtp grommunio-archive`
Listeners	`ss -ltn` for 2693, 9306, 9312
Archive throughput	`mariadb groarchive -e "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM metadata"`; `status=stored` lines in `journalctl -u grommunio-archive`
Index freshness	Modification time of `/var/lib/grommunio-archive/stat/indexer` (touched by every indexer run); `INDEXER ERROR` lines in the journal
Purge	Modification time of `/var/lib/grommunio-archive/stat/purge`
Failed messages	`/var/lib/grommunio-archive/stat/error` (count, updated every 5 minutes)
Storage	`du -sh /var/lib/grommunio-archive`; free space on the file system
Web interface	`/var/log/nginx/nginx-archive-access.log`, `/var/log/nginx/nginx-archive-error.log`

Add a synthetic end-to-end check (send, search, restore) to your monitoring schedule; it is the only test that proves the whole chain.

Updates

Update with zypper update like the rest of the appliance. After an update, compare your configuration with the new .dist templates in /etc/grommunio-archive/ and check crontab -l -u groarchive, then repeat the verification checklist.