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Configure Retention Tag Properties

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Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2

Retention tags are used to apply retention settings to folders and individual items such as messages and notes. These settings specify how long a message remains in the mailbox and the action to take when the message reaches the specified retention age. When a message reaches its retention age, it's moved to the archive mailbox, deleted, or flagged for user attention.

There are three types of retention tags:

  • Retention policy tags (RPTs)   These tags are created for default folders such as Inbox and Deleted Items.

  • Default policy tags (DPTs)   These tags apply to all items that don't have a retention tag applied, either inherited or explicit. You can have a maximum of three default policy tags in a retention policy: a DPT with the Move to Archive action, a DPT with the Delete and Allow Recovery or Permanently Delete action to delete messages from the primary and archive mailboxes, and a DPT for voice mail messages.

  • Personal tags   These tags are available to Outlook 2010 and Outlook Web App users as part of their retention policy. Users can apply personal tags to folders they create or to individual items, even if those items already have a different tag applied.

To learn more about retention tags, see Understanding Retention Tags and Retention Policies.

Looking for other management tasks related to messaging records management (MRM)? Check out Deploying Messaging Records Management.

What Do You Want to Do?

  • Use the EMC to configure retention tag properties

  • Use the Shell to configure retention tag properties

Use the EMC to configure retention tag properties

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Messaging records management" entry in the Messaging Policy and Compliance Permissions topic.

  1. In the console tree, navigate to Organization Configuration > Mailbox.

  2. In the result pane, on the Retention Policy Tags tab, select the retention tag you want to configure.

  3. In the action pane, click Properties.

  4. Use the General tab to view or modify the following settings:

    • Name   Use this unlabeled box at the top of the page to view or change the tag name.

    • Modified   This read-only field displays the last date and time that the retention tag was modified.

    • Tag Type   This read-only field displays the tag type.

    • Age limit for retention (days)   Click this button to specify that items have a retention period. In the corresponding text box, type the number of days in the retention period. (The range of values is from 1 through 24,855 days.)

    • Action to take when the age limit is reached   After clicking Age limit for retention (days), you can use this list to specify what should happen to an item when it's past the age limit for retention. The choices include:

      Move to the Deleted Items Folder   This option isn't available for retention tags. If you select this option for a retention tag, messages that have the tag applied won't be moved to the Deleted Items folder.

      Move to a Managed Custom Folder   This option isn't available for retention tags. An error is generated if you select this option.

      Delete and Allow Recovery   If you select this option, messages are deleted but can be recovered by using the Recover Deleted Items feature in Outlook or Outlook Web App. To learn more about these features see the "Recover deleted items" topic for Outlook or Outlook Web App.

      Note

      Users can only recover deleted items for the retention time you specify in the RetainDeletedItemsFor parameter of the Set-Mailbox cmdlet.

      Permanently Delete   If you select this option, messages are permanently deleted and aren't recoverable by the user.

      Mark as Past Retention Limit   This option isn't available for retention tags. If you select this option for a retention tag, messages that have the tag applied won't be marked as past the retention limit.

      Move to Archive   If you select this option, messages are automatically moved to the user's archive mailbox. If you haven't created an archive mailbox for the user, no action is taken.

    • Disable this tag   Click this button to disable the tag. If a DPT or a RPT is disabled, the tag is no longer applied to the mailbox. If a personal tag is disabled, the retention period is displayed to the user as Never. If the user applies the tag to an item, the item never expires. .

      Important

      Items that have a disabled retention tag applied aren't processed by the Mailbox Assistant. If you want to prevent a tag from being applied to items, we recommend disabling the tag rather than deleting it. When you delete a tag, the tag configuration is deleted from Active Directory, and the Mailbox Assistant processes all messages to remove the deleted tag.

      Note

      If a user applies a tag to an item believing the item will never be deleted, enabling the tag later may delete items the user wanted to retain. The same is true for tags with the Move to Archive action.

    • Comments   Use this box to type a comment that will be displayed to Outlook and Outlook Web App users. For example, to alert users that MRM is enabled on the folder, you could type the message: "Messages are removed from this folder after 120 days." The maximum length of this comment is 255 characters. To configure localized comments, use the Set-RetentionPolicyTag cmdlet.

Use the Shell to configure retention tag properties

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Messaging records management" entry in the Messaging Policy and Compliance Permissions topic.

This example disables the Corp-BusinessCritical tag.

Set-RetentionPolicyTag "Corp-BusinessCritical" -RetentionEnabled $false

This example retrieves all retention policy tags for the Inbox default folder and disables them.

Get-RetentionPolicyTag -Types Inbox | Set-RetentionPolicyTag -RetentionEnabled $false

This example retrieves all retention policy tags for the Inbox default folder and sets the retention age to 30 days.

Get-RetentionPolicyTag -Types DeletedItems | Set-RetentionPolicyTag -AgeLimitForRetention 30

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-RetentionPolicyTag and Get-RetentionPolicyTag.

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