365 Retention Policies (EXCHANGE)

[Olliedawg]

I'm looking at implementing a shorter forced retention period for all staff mailboxes (currently its 5 years - SLT have decided this is too long, which is fair enough).

 

We currently have a single "Default Org Wide Policy" which applies to "All Mailboxes". This is set to 5 years, and set to delete when the time period is reached.

 

 

My plan was to set the Default Org Wide Policy to the new agreed period of 6 months and create a second policy to explicitly include users which require a longer retention period (Finance for example).

 

If the org wide policy is applying to all mailboxes, and I have a second policy which is explicitly targeting a user, which policy wins here? As the mailbox is technically under the scope of both of the policies. I would assume the explicit one would win?

 

I have read conflicting answers. One being that the shortest retention period wins, another being that Explicit inclusion wins over "All Mailboxes".

 

If anyone has any experience of this please let me know

Edited June 19, 2024 by Olliedawg
typo

[Steve21]

If you mean the "new" style retention policies (rather than MRM etc) - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/retention?tabs=table-overriden#the-principles-of-retention-or-what-takes-precedence - details it, but the short answer is:

 

 

Steve

[Olliedawg]

If you mean the "new" style retention policies (rather than MRM etc) - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/retention?tabs=table-overriden#the-principles-of-retention-or-what-takes-precedence - details it, but the short answer is:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]71732[/ATTACH]

 

Steve

 

Ah lovely - that answers my question!

 

When you say "new" style - do you mean 365 > Compliance > Policies > Retention

[Steve21]

Ah lovely - that answers my question!

 

When you say "new" style - do you mean 365 > Compliance > Policies > Retention

 

Yep that link takes you to the newer one, but there's two under that branch though - Microsoft 365 ("New") and Exchange (legacy) ("MRM")

 

There are specific examples on that page that reference scenarios with implicit/explicit and things like labels vs policies etc, but if it's just a question of two policies basically that #1 should answer it (Gets more waffly with extra items installed, thus they even made a nice flowchart! https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/retention-flowchart )

 

Steve

Edited June 19, 2024 by Steve21

[Olliedawg]

Yep that link takes you to the newer one, but there's two under that branch though - Microsoft 365 ("New") and Exchange (legacy) ("MRM")

 

There are specific examples on that page that reference scenarios with implicit/explicit and things like labels vs policies etc, but if it's just a question of two policies basically that #1 should answer it (Gets more waffly with extra items installed, thus they even made a nice flowchart! https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/retention-flowchart )

 

Steve

 

Gotcha - thank you

[kennysarmy]

I'm looking at implementing a shorter forced retention period for all staff mailboxes (currently its 5 years - SLT have decided this is too long, which is fair enough). We had a SAR recently which has brought this into conversation.

 

We currently have a single "Default Org Wide Policy" which applies to "All Mailboxes". This is set to 5 years, and set to delete when the time period is reached.

 

 

My plan was to set the Default Org Wide Policy to the new agreed period of 6 months and create a second policy to explicitly include users which require a longer retention period (Finance for example).

 

If the org wide policy is applying to all mailboxes, and I have a second policy which is explicitly targeting a user, which policy wins here? As the mailbox is technically under the scope of both of the policies. I would assume the explicit one would win?

 

I have read conflicting answers. One being that the shortest retention period wins, another being that Explicit inclusion wins over "All Mailboxes".

 

If anyone has any experience of this please let me know

 

Interesting.

 

I just created two policies; one for staff with a 3 year retention and another for 14 months, I just drop staff in to whichever one is most appropriate. Students are not included.

[Olliedawg]

Interesting.

 

I just created two policies; one for staff with a 3 year retention and another for 14 months, I just drop staff in to whichever one is most appropriate. Students are not included.

 

This is what SLT agreed on - Few different policies - One for 6 months, which will be the standard for majority, one for 18 months & one for 6 years (finance).

 

I'd advised staff that they can also create new folders in their mailbox & set an individual retention policy on that folder, moving items into the folder they wish to keep for longer.