Tutorial / Cram Notes
Exchange Online Archiving is a cloud-based, enterprise-class archiving solution that helps organizations solve archiving, compliance, regulatory, and eDiscovery challenges. It has native capabilities for archiving, compliance, and legal hold, with the potential to simplify the process of preserving electronic communications.
Retention Tags and Retention Policies
Retention policies in Exchange Online are comprised of retention tags that dictate how long messages are kept both in the user’s primary mailbox and their In-Place Archive. There are three main types of retention tags:
- Default Policy Tag (DPT): Applies to all items in the mailbox not tagged by other retention tags.
- Retention Policy Tag (RPT): Applies to default folders such as Inbox, Deleted Items, etc.
- Personal Tags: Users can apply personal tags to custom folders or individual items.
These retention tags are grouped into retention policies that are then assigned to mailboxes.
Implementing Retention Policies
To implement a retention policy in Exchange Online, follow these steps:
- Create Retention Tags: In the Exchange admin center (EAC), go to Compliance management > Retention tags, and create the necessary tags for your policy (e.g., retain email for 5 years).
- Create a Retention Policy: Go to Compliance management > Retention policies, and create a new policy by adding the retention tags you created.
- Assign Retention Policies to Users: Assign the retention policy to user mailboxes through the EAC or using PowerShell commands. This can be done singularly or in bulk.
Example: Creating and Assigning a Retention Policy
Suppose an organization wants to ensure that emails related to financial records are preserved for seven years, the steps would be:
- Create a Retention Tag named “Financial Records – 7 Years” with a retention period of 2555 days (i.e., seven years).
- Create a Retention Policy called “Financial Records Policy” and add the “Financial Records – 7 Years” tag to it.
- Assign “Financial Records Policy” to the mailboxes of all employees in the finance department.
Monitoring and Reporting
Administrators should regularly monitor the effectiveness of archiving policies by generating reports available in the Security & Compliance Center. They can track activities such as messages moved to the archive, messages deleted based on the policy, and more.
Exchange Online Archiving Licensing Requirements
Exchange Online Archiving is available under different licensing models. Here’s an overview of some of the key licensing requirements:
| License | Description |
|---|---|
| Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Server | Available as an add-on for on-premises Exchange Server mailboxes |
| Exchange Online Plan 2 | Includes archiving capabilities |
| Microsoft 365 E3/E5 | Includes advanced compliance and archiving features |
Understanding your licensing situation is crucial since features like unlimited archiving and retention policy application across the organization may depend on it.
Legal Hold
If your organization faces a legal dispute or investigation, you may need to preserve electronically stored information, including emails. This is where legal hold policies come in. Administrators can place a mailbox on hold to preserve its contents indefinitely, overriding any retention policies.
In-Place Hold & Litigation Hold
Exchange Online offers two types of holds:
- In-Place Hold: For more granularity, you can specify query-based holds or set time-based holds on items.
- Litigation Hold: Preserves all mailbox content until the hold is removed.
By implementing Exchange Online archiving policies, administrators can ensure their organization’s data is retained and protected according to legal and business requirements. As an SC-400 candidate, mastering the setup, deployment, and management of these policies is essential for both the exam and practical, on-the-job functionality.
Practice Test with Explanation
True or False: Exchange Online Archiving policies can only be applied to users with an Exchange Online Plan 2 subscription.
- False
Exchange Online Archiving policies can be applied to users with an Exchange Online Plan 1 subscription if they have an Exchange Online Archiving add-on or they can be applied to users with an Exchange Online Plan 2 subscription which includes archiving features.
True or False: A default retention policy is applied to Exchange Online mailboxes upon creation.
- True
When a new mailbox is created in Exchange Online, a default retention policy is applied automatically. However, administrators can change this policy or create new ones as per the organization’s requirements.
Multiple Select: Which items can be managed by retention policies in Microsoft Exchange Online? (Select all that apply)
- A) Emails
- B) Calendar entries
- C) Contact items
- D) Teams chats
Correct Answers: A, B, C
Retention policies in Exchange Online can manage the lifecycle of emails, calendar entries, and contact items. Teams chats are managed by separate retention policies within the Teams admin center.
In Exchange Online, what is the purpose of a retention tag?
- A) To classify email for encryption
- B) To specify retention settings for a specific item or folder
- C) To block spam emails
- D) To create email forwarding rules
Correct Answer: B
Retention tags in Exchange Online are used to specify retention settings for a specific item or folder. This helps in applying granular retention settings as part of retention policies.
True or False: An archive mailbox in Exchange Online provides unlimited storage.
- False
While an archive mailbox does provide additional storage, it is not unlimited. The storage limits can vary depending on the subscription plan, but additional storage can typically be purchased if needed.
True or False: In Exchange Online, you can set a retention policy to automatically delete items that are older than a specified period.
- True
Exchange Online allows administrators to set retention policies that automatically delete items when they reach a certain age, helping to manage data lifecycle and comply with company policies or legal requirements.
Single Select: What kind of retention tag should be applied to ensure all items in a mailbox are retained for a specific period, regardless of any other settings?
- A) Personal tag
- B) Default policy tag
- C) Retention policy tag
- D) Archive tag
Correct Answer: B
A default policy tag (DPT) is used to apply default retention settings to all items in a mailbox that don’t have a retention tag applied already, ensuring a base level of retention is set.
True or False: Exchange Online allows for manual archiving of emails by end-users.
- True
End-users can manually move emails to their archive mailboxes in Exchange Online, provided the archive mailbox is enabled and the user knows how to perform this action.
Single Select: What feature must be enabled for an Exchange Online mailbox before archive policies can be applied?
- A) In-place hold
- B) Litigation hold
- C) Archive mailbox
- D) Two-factor authentication
Correct Answer: C
An archive mailbox must be enabled before archive policies can be applied to automatically move emails from the primary mailbox to the archive mailbox.
True or False: A litigated mailbox can have its retention policy modified or removed.
- False
When a mailbox is placed on litigation hold, the retention policy cannot be modified or removed to ensure that email records are preserved for legal requirements or investigations.
Multiple Select: What actions can be taken by retention policies in Microsoft Exchange Online? (Select all that apply)
- A) Delete items permanently
- B) Move items to archive mailbox
- C) Automatically generate a reply to incoming emails.
- D) Recover deleted items
Correct Answers: A, B, D
Retention policies in Exchange Online can delete items permanently when they reach the end of the retention period, move items to the archive mailbox according to the archive policy, and allow recovery of deleted items within a certain period.
True or False: Auto-expanding archiving feature provides additional storage space automatically when the 100 GB storage quota is reached.
- True
The auto-expanding archiving feature in Exchange Online provides additional archive storage space automatically when the initial 100 GB space in an archive mailbox is used up. This helps organizations deal with large amounts of data that needs to be retained.
How do you configure archiving policies for Microsoft Exchange Online?
Appreciate the detailed guide on Exchange Online archiving policies!
Can someone explain the difference between retention tags and archiving policies?
Followed the steps, but my policies aren’t applying to user mailboxes. Any ideas?
Great post! It really helped me understand the steps involved in implementing archiving policies.
Is there any PowerShell script to automate the assignment of archiving policies?
I noticed some discrepancies when emails are moved to the archive. Any reasons why?
Why does the Managed Folder Assistant run so infrequently?