Exchange 2010 SP1 Archiving Part 4: Creating Retention Policy Tags on Default Folders

When you’ve read the previous posts in this series about Exchange 2010 archiving, you’ve probably seen the one explaining default folders. In this post, retention policy tags will be attached to default folders. Default folders are folders that are present in Exchange mailboxes by default. Examples are the Inbox, Drafts, Sent Items etcetera.

These Retention Policy Tags are set by administrators on the mentioned default folders and cannot be changed by users. Items in a default folder that has a retention policy tag attached to them inherit the retention policy that is set on the above default folder.

One downside to keep in mind

One big downside on the use of retention policy tags on default folders is that they can’t be used to move items to an archive after a certain period of time. Below you see the handsome error that is presented when you will try to do this. In my opinion, this is a reasonably big downside of using tags on default folders. When put in other words, retention policy tags on default folder can only have “Delete and allow recovery” or “Permanently Delete” as action to the policy.

0. Set up your Exchange environment.

Part 1 in this series on Exchange 2010 SP1 archiving talks about setting up our Exchange environment to make it ready for archiving. It is a prerequisite to follow part 1 first.

1. Configuring retention policy tags on default folders

1a. Using the Exchange Management Console (EMC):

Start the EMC
Navigate to Organization Configuration – Mailbox
Select the retention policy tags tab
Choose “new retention policy tag” in the actions pane
Name the retention policy tag
Choose a default folder as Tag Type, which specifies the use on default folders
Choose the age limit
Choose the retention action (Can only be “Delete and allow recovery” or “Permanently Delete”)
Click new

1b. Using the Exchange Management Shell (EMS):

New-RetentionPolicyTag -Name InboxPolicy -Type Inbox -AgeLimitForRetention 720 -RetentionAction PermanentlyDelete

2. Add the Retention Policy Tags to a Retention Policy

All created Retention Policy Tags are now being grouped in a retention policy. Note that only 1 retention policy can be applied to a mailbox. It’s allowed (mostly also needed) to add Multiple Policy Tags to 1 retention policy!

2a. Using the Exchange Management Console (EMC):

Start the EMC
Navigate to Organization Configuration – Mailbox
Select the retention policies tab
In the actions pane, click “new retention policy”
Name the policy and add the in step 2 created policy tags
Attach the policy to mailboxes
Click New

2b. Using the Exchange Management Shell (EMS):

New-RetentionPolicy -Name "Techdom.nl Inbox Policy for IT employees" -RetentionPolicyTagLinks "InboxPolicy"

3. Add The Retention Policy to Mailboxes afterward

3a. Using the Exchange Management Console (EMC):

Start the EMC
Navigate to Organization Configuration, Mailbox
Select the Retention Policies tab
Select the policy and add mailboxes on the mailboxes tab

3b. Using the Exchange Management Shell (EMS):

Attach a policy to all mailboxes:

Get-Mailbox | Set-Mailbox -RetentionPolicy "Techdom.nl Inbox Policy for IT employees"

Attach a policy to selected mailboxes:

Get-Mailbox -Identity "William Adama"| Set-Mailbox -RetentionPolicy "Techdom.nl Inbox Policy for IT employees"

Now we have created a default folder policy. In the next article personal tags for users are setup!

Back to Exchange 2010 Archiving Guide Index.

Dominique Hermans

Dominique is an IT enthousiast who currently works as a consultant in the south of the Netherlands. He has a strong focus on Microsoft collaboration products (Microsoft Exchange, Lync) and Cisco Wireless Networking. He blogs about these technologies at www.techdom.nl

Pacerfan9

Excellent write up!

Does the
Get-Mailbox | Set-Mailbox -RetentionPolicy “Techdom.nl Inbox Policy for IT employees” command apply to all future mailboxes as well?
- http://www.techdom.nl Dominique Hermans
  
  Thanks!
  
  I double checked your question in my lab just now but as I thought, the command doesn’t apply to future mailboxes that are being created. As the command implies, it pulls all mailboxes out of the environment and runs the retentionpolicy command against those mailboxes only.
  
  A shame you can’t have retention policy on an entire mailbox database (even more weird you can’t have a database-wide quota on archive mailboxes). Also, the ability to apply a mailbox policy to a (distribution / security) group isn’t supported. What you can do, is pull all members out of the group using the Get-DistributionGroupMember command and than pipe the output to the Set-Mailbox -RetentionPolicy command.
  - Pacerfan9
    
    Thanks for the quick reply.
    
    I noticed that you can’t assign a group or entire mailbox database to a policy, I was wondering if I was missing something. Thanks for the confirmation on the limitation. For my purposes I will just go ahead and add the retention policy tag to our default policy.
  - Pacerfan9
    
    I thought I could get by with adding the Tag to our “Default Archive and Retention Policy” but I just realized that only automatically applies to mailboxes that are enabled for Online Archives.
    
    Basically I am just trying to create a policy that will automatically purge all deleted emails older than 14 days. Is there a way to create a policy that will apply to all present and future mailboxes?
    - http://www.techdom.nl Dominique Hermans
      
      No, Unfortunately not by using the GUI or fire-and-forget cmdlet. An alternative would be to use the “Get-Mailbox | Set-Mailbox -RetentionPolicy “Techdom.nl Company Policy for IT employees”" cmdlet and run it -for example- every day with the Task Scheduler so new mailboxes are automatically updated with the company wide policy.
ssfuser

Thank you for these comprehensive articles. Good writing, thorough info and great sense of humor.
Esan Biodun

Insightful articles. On the retention policy tags downside, how does one then create a lasting tag that will move items from say (Inbox, sent items) to the archive folder?
- http://www.techdom.nl Dominique Hermans
  
  Thanks Esan. You can create a Default Policy Tag to do this. Take a look at the following article for more information: http://techdom.nl/microsoft/exchange-2010-sp1-archiving-part-1-introduction-preparing-exchange-environment/
  - Esan Biodun
    
    Thanks for your response. Though issues that may arise were not covered in your series, may I ask if you have encountered this challenge?
    ” Online archive visible on OWA but does not show on Outlook 2010″
    - Esan Biodun
      
      Just to state what i have done
      1. I run Outlook 2010 Professional Plus from Office 2010 Professional Plus with volume license
      2. Test users have been granted full permission on mailbox with Send As Permission
      3. I have tried folder list view also
      
      All these were suggestions and requirements for this to work, but still nothing.
      - http://www.techdom.nl Dominique Hermans
        
        Hi Esan, take a look at your autodiscover settings. Your outlook client uses autodiscover to “connect” your online archive when being external.