Retention Policies DPT and RPT need help to understand

Copper Contributor

This is my first experience with Exchange online retention policies.

 

According to this article, "A DPT applies to untagged items, which are mailbox items that don't have a retention tag applied directly or by inheritance from the folder."

This is what I am trying to accomplish:

1. I need a default DPT 1 year move to archive

2. Decided not to use a second default DPT delete but rather to use a RPT delete 5 years for Inbox, for Sent items 4 years ... (different tags for Default Folders)

 

I have tested it on a test mailbox with DPT 1 day move to archive and RPT 2 day delete

 

All messages older than 1 day were moved to the Online Archive.

 

I am satisfied with the result but here is my question:

 

What does Microsoft mean by "untagged" items? Can I consider items in Inbox to be tagged by retention tags inherited from RPT applied to Inbox?

Or do they mean that not tagged by the same action, like "move to archive" or "delete"?

 

In my case I have a default "move to archive" and "delete" for default folders.

 

How can I check if some particular item has been tagged? I have found in Outlook "Assign Policy/View Items expiring soon". Can I do it in PowerShell?

 

 

 

 

 

7 Replies

Items within a folder inherit the tag applied to a folder, or the default tag if no such tag exists. Tagging individual items overrides this behavior, and items with "personal" tags will have and indicator in Outlook's info bar.

 

You can get a list of items expiring soon, but you will need to use the EWS API for that, as "pure" PowerShell does not cover item-level stats/operations.

@Vasil Michev 

I understand that . But let me rephrase my question.

 

Can an item have two tags, one  for "move to archive" and another for "delete"?

 

In my case, that I described in my post, I have items in Inbox folder that inherit RPT "2-day delete" and they are considered as tagged. But now I apply DPT "1-day move to archive" to already tagged items.

That is what confuses me: "..Items within a folder inherit the tag applied to a folder, or the default tag if no such tag exists..."

 

I realize that my test proves that an item can have 2 tags but before applying retention policies to the production mailboxes I would like to get a confirmation from experts.

 

EDIT:

 

Two DPTs (one "move to archive" and second "delete") can be applied to untagged items. So basically it confirms that 2 tags can be applied to an item. And now just DPT and RPT (of different actions) need to be confirmed.

 

Yes, you can have two tags with different actions applied. That's why in clients you see them as "Archive policy" and "Retention policy". And it's also used for scenarios where you want to clean up your primary mailbox but keep the items for a while longer in the archive. 

If I have one retention policy  which contains archive tags (DPT or/and personal)  and delete tags (DPT or/and RTP or/and personal) and only one policy can be applied to the mailbox, I do not see separate policies as mentioned in Outlook. I understand what Outlook means by these separate policies but it would be much more clear if  documentation explained this correlation between policy tags and Outlook different policies.

 

And I understand how it should work in theory....

But, unfortunately, my test eventually failed.

Some messages were moved to the Online Archive but they were not deleted after "Inbox 2-day delete" RPT and they are still in Online Archive/Inbox.

Some messages are still in the account mailbox/Inbox, though "1-day move to archive" DPT is long past due.

How can I troubleshoot this problem?

 

UPDATE:

 

Spoiler
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-RetentionPolicyTag -Types Inbox,All | Format-Table Name,Type,RetentionEnabled,AgeLimitForRetention,RetentionAction -AutoSize

Name Type RetentionEnabled AgeLimitForRetention RetentionAction
---- ---- ---------------- -------------------- ---------------
2 Day Delete Inbox True 2.00:00:00 PermanentlyDelete
Default 1 day move to archive All True 1.00:00:00 MoveToArchive
Default 2 year move to archive All True 730.00:00:00 MoveToArchive
Default 1 year move to archive All True 365.00:00:00 MoveToArchive
Spoiler
Get-RetentionPolicy -Identity "Ci....y Policy" | Format-List


RunspaceId : a7e4d2d6-31d0-4e12-b6ab-85745b5d2400
RetentionId : cd9df022-a8f4-4eeb-883f-fbf0d269259e
RetentionPolicyTagLinks : {Default 1 day move to archive, 2 Day Delete, 1 Month Delete, Personal 1 year move to archive...}
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-RetentionPolicyTag -Mailbox "...." -Types Inbox,All | Format-Table Name,Type,RetentionEnabled,AgeLimitForRetention,RetentionAction -AutoSize

Name                          Type RetentionEnabled AgeLimitForRetention RetentionAction
----                          ---- ---------------- -------------------- ---------------
Default 1 day move to archive All              True 1.00:00:00           MoveToArchive  

 

If this is the right way to troubleshot, it seems that the Inbox RPT tag has not been applied to the mailbox.

 

 

 

 

When using -Mailbox parameter, RPTs will NOT be returned. All you need to check is which policy is assigned to a given mailbox, you can get the full set of tags therein.

How can I troubleshoot this failed test? Is there any log or tool?

 

UPDATE:

 

Export-MailboxDiagnosticLogs

Available logs: 'DumpsterExpiration, MRM, RemindersAssistant, TimeProfile, DefaultViewIndexer, SharingMigrationAssistant, BirthdayAssistant, OnlineMeetings, SweepRules, 
InternetCalendar, TriggerSharingSyncAsNeeded, OOFRules, SharingSyncAssistant, FreeBusyPublishingAssistantQuickLog, CalendarPermissions,HoldTracking,SubstrateHoldTracking'

MRM:
MailboxLog  : 2/2/2020 10:54:53 PM;method:InvokeInternalAssistant;file:d:\dbs\sh\utff\0130_172722\cmd\e\sources\Dev\MailboxAssistants\src\Assistants\ELC\ELCAssistant.cs:865
              
              Exception:
              Microsoft.Exchange.WorkloadManagement.ResourceUnhealthyException: Resource 'Processor' is unhealthy and shouldn't be accessed.
                 at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxAssistants.Assistants.ELC.ELCHealthMonitor.InternalThrottleStoreCall(List`1 archiveResourceDependencies)

 

Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -FullCrawl -Identity <mailbox>

Didn't do anything on messages in Online Archive/Inbox

 

Those messages that were supposed to be moved to Online Archive (1-day move to archive) were deleted from the account mailbox by the 2-day delete RPT, I believe.

 

The results have not been very encouraging.

 

"...The Managed Folder Assistant is a throttle-based assistant. Throttle-based assistants are always running and don't need to be scheduled. The system resources they can consume are throttled. ..."

Who knows when it runs ...

I do not know if this is my short age test to blame. Will try to submit a support ticket.

 

 

I am replying to myself.

 

It looks like my short age test indeed caused these issues.

 

According to this MS article, "...The retention policy runs automatically one time every seven days ..."

 

Unfortunately, MS Exchange docs are quite confusing.

"....The Managed Folder Assistant is a throttle-based assistant. Throttle-based assistants are always running and don't need to be scheduled. The system resources they can consume are throttled..."

 

There is "Configure the Managed Folder Assistant" but it seems to apply to on-premises Exchange servers only.

 

So, I guess, Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -Identity <mailbox> is throttled by 7-day schedule.

 

Sam Spoerle's blog explains that (2016 and now is 2020).

 

I will test it with DPT 8-day and RPT 9-day.

 

UPDATE:

 

It doesn't look that RPT applies to the Online Archive Inbox. Messages have been moved to the Online Archive by DPT but have not been deleted by RPT from the Online Archive Inbox. That 7-day interval is questionable either. 2 days in a row my messages have been moved to the Online Archive.

 

MS Tech Support can't explain it either at least as of today I am trying to figure it out on my own.

 

Anyone?