Changing retention and/or purging items from the archive before their retention time (4292971)

Retention needs to be changed on items in the archive.

Items in the archive need to be purged (deleted) but the items have not reached the retention time yet.

Organization policies have changed or retention settings were not setup properly and retention needs to be changed on items in the archive.

Note: Retention policies can be changed at any time, however retention is applied to archived items when the archiving operation occurs. Changing retention policies DOES NOT change the retention of any items previously archived. To change retention of items that have already been archived a Retention Change request is needed.

Logging in to ArchiveWeb

If you need to change the retention on items in the archive, this can be done by using ArchiveWeb on the archive server. The following process will walk you through the steps to log in to ArchiveWeb, assign the permission to create retention change requests, and create a retention change request.

To log in to ArchiveWeb proceed to the following URL:

http://(servername)/archiveweb7 (replace (servername) with the name of your archive server)

* Remember to change URL to https:// if you've implemented SSL, and that installs starting from v8 use /archiveweb instead of /archiveweb7.

To complete this procedure we recommend using the Metalogix SuperUser account. If you are unsure about which account this is you can check the Metalogix services for the logon account.

Assigning permissions to create retention change requests

1. After logging in, click the username in the top right corner and select Manage Settings

2. Select the Permissions tab at the top of the page

3. Click the Add Users or groups button

4. Enter the name of the SuperUser account into the search field, click Search, select the user, and click OK

(Note: This same procedure can be done for any user who has a mailbox in the archive. In this example we are only applying the permissions for the SuperUser account)

5. Select the user in the left pane and choose the option for Allow for each of the following:

• Management - Extend retention time
• Retention - Approve retention change requests
• Retention - Create retention change request

(Note: The settings are saved immediately as soon as the box is clicked, there is no save button. Log out and log back in for permissions to apply to the user currently logged in).

Searching the archive and creating a retention change request

After the permissions to create retention change requests has been setup we are ready to search the archive to find the items we need to change the retention time on. In this example we will be using a test user in a lab environment where retention was incorrectly set.

1. To begin, log in to ArchiveWeb and select the Search tab at the top.

2. Select the appropriate mailboxes (Exchange Edition) or file servers (Files Edition) for searching and the appropriate criteria. For more information about performing searches of the archive using ArchiveWeb please refer to the ArchiveWeb manual.

3. Perform the search and verify results are what is intended. To select all items in the search click Select all rows at the top.

4. In the Search Operations menu, select the appropriate option to Extend Retention time or Create retention change request and choose Yes when asked if you want to perform the operation on each item from the result.

Extend retention time - Allows you to extend the current retention time to a new value. For example 12 months. This new retention time will become the item's fixed retention time

Create retention change request - Allows you to override the current retention time of the items, typically used if items need to be purged from the archive before they have reached their retention time. Choose Yes when asked if you want to perform the operation on each item from the result.

When creating retention change requests you must provide the following:

• A name for the retention change request
• The type of request:
  • Delete request - prepare the selected items so they can be purged immediately
  • Set retention time to: X Months - changes the retention time on the select items to the specified number of months
    • If you want the items to be marked for deletion automatically when they reach their retention time, check the box for Delete items after the retention expires.
• Reason for request - The reason you are changing the retention on these items. This will be noted on the request so it can be reviewed at a later time if needed

After entering the necessary information click Send request to create the request. If you receive an error about e-mail notification could not be sent this indicates that retention notifications have not been configured. This can be setup in the Archive Manager Configuration Utility under Users - SMTP Configuration. If you plan to use the same account to create and approve the requests this feature is not needed and the error can be ignored.

Note: If the request is being created for a large search result (100,000 items for example) the server will need a few minutes to complete the request

Approving the Change Request

1. To begin, log in to ArchiveWeb and select the Retention tab at the top

2. The first page that will load is the list of open requests to allow you to review and approve the request that was created. Select the request in the top pane and it will load the details of the request at the bottom. By default all items from the request will be selected allowing you to click Approve Selected to approve the request for all items.

Once the request has been approved it will begin processing on the archive server. If you are processing a large number of items the request could take some time to complete.

If you created a Delete request you can run a Delete job in Metalogix Archive Manager to purge the items in the request from the archive. More information about Delete jobs can be found in the Archive Manager Administration Manual.