Administering virtual roots

To access a mailbox, a virtual root must be assigned to each user. The virtual root is the first level of the directory path for a user when they are navigating one or more mailboxes.

To support limited visibility into the mailbox hierarchy, mailboxes are visible to the end user as a relative path, while Global Mailbox administrators see the mailbox in an absolute or full path. This concept is referred to as the virtual root.

Virtual roots are useful for security reasons so that you do not disclose the full path to a mailbox.

All users must be assigned a virtual root, or they cannot access a mailbox. Users are not assigned a default virtual root. Each user is assigned only one virtual root.

The virtual root for each user is displayed on the User Explorer page. A virtual root icon indicates the state of the virtual root for a user:

Valid virtual root: All mailboxes exist that are specified for the virtual root path. The user can access the mailboxes within the virtual root.
Undefined virtual root: A virtual root is not assigned for the user.
Invalid virtual root: One or more mailboxes do not exist that are specified for the virtual root path. The user cannot access the mailboxes within the virtual root.

If the virtual root for a user is undefined or invalid, the user must be assigned a valid virtual root be able to access mailboxes.

Global Mailbox administrators can view the mailbox hierarchy in an absolute or full path. Global Mailbox administrators always have a virtual root of / (slash). If a standard user is changed to a Global Mailbox administrator user, that user is assigned a virtual root value of / (slash).