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Apply a Retention Policy to Mailboxes

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

You can use retention policies to group one or more retention tags and apply them to mailboxes to enforce message retention settings. A mailbox can't have more than one retention policy.

Warning

Messages are expired based on settings defined in the retention tags linked to the policy. These settings include actions such moving messages to the personal archive or permanently deleting them. Before applying a retention policy to one or more mailboxes, we recommended that you test the policy and inspect each retention tag associated with it.

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

Use the EMC to apply a retention policy to a mailbox

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

  1. In the console tree, expand the forest you want, and then navigate to Recipient Configuration > Mailbox.

  2. In the result pane, select the mailbox to which you want to apply the retention policy. You can select multiple mailboxes by using the Shift or Ctrl keys.

  3. In the action pane, click Properties.

  4. In <Mailbox User> Properties, on the Mailbox Settings tab, select Messaging Records Management, and then click Properties.

  5. In Messaging Records Management, select the Apply Retention Policy check box, and then click Browse to select the retention policy you want to apply to the mailbox.

  6. Click OK, and then in <Mailbox User> Properties, click Apply.

Use the Shell to apply a retention policy to a mailbox

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

This example applies the retention policy RP-Finance to Bharat's mailbox.

Set-Mailbox "Bharat" -RetentionPolicy "RP-Finance"

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-Mailbox.

Use the Shell to change a retention policy for mailboxes

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

This example applies the new retention policy New-Retention-Policy to all mailboxes that have the old policy Old-Retention-Policy.

$OldPolicy={Get-RetentionPolicy "Old-Retention-Policy"}.distinguishedName
Get-Mailbox -Filter {RetentionPolicy -eq $OldPolicy} -Resultsize Unlimited | Set-Mailbox -RetentionPolicy "New-Retention-Policy"

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see the following topics:

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