Share via

Should I implement Managed Folder Policy or Retention Policy ?

  • Article

This is common question asked whether I should implement Managed Folder’s (MRM 1.0) or Retention Policy’s (MRM 2.0) in Exchange 2010.The answer to this question depends upon your requirement as both these technologies have their own advantages and disadvantages from feature perspective.

MRM 1.0 & MRM 2.0 both are available with Exchange 2010. MRM 1.0 can only be managed from Exchange Management Shell (EMS),whereas MRM 2.0 can be managed from Exchange Management Shell (EMS) and Exchange Management Console (EMC).

Some of the answers to below question would help you to decide whether can want to implement MRM 1.0 or MRM 2.0.

Question : Can I use MRM to process third party message class ?    

Answer : You can use MRM 1.0 to process third party message class like “IPM.Note.EnterpriseVault.Shortcut”.
We cannot use MRM 2.0 to process third party message class.

Question : Can I block subfolders from processing ?

Answer : With MRM 1.0 we can use the parameter –BaseFolderOnly switch to block subfolder’s from processing.
BaseFolderOnly is not applicable to MRM 2.0. In order to block subfolders from processing we need to create a Personal tag with “Never Delete” action (Disabled tag) .

 By default, managed content settings apply to the root folder and all subfolders in an Exchange 2007 environment.

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/939037

Note that MRM 1.0 is still available in Exchange 2010,but can only be managed from Exchange shell.

Question : I have MRM 2.0 tag to process all folder in my mailbox,Need to exclude user created folder from processing by this tag.

Answer : We need to use Personal tag on this folder to exclude from processing.

Question : Can I have different retention age for Inbox and its subfolder ? 

Answer : With MRM 2.0,we need to apply Retention Policy Tag for Inbox and the Personal tag with different retention age to subfolder.

With MRM 1.0, this is not possible.

In MRM 1.0 ,the Retention setting for Inbox configured using Content setting by default applies to subfolders also,we can disable it using –BaseFolderOnly ,so that subfolders are not processed,but you cannot have a different retention setting for subfolders.

Question : Can I apply MRM 1.0 & MRM 2.0 policy to the same mailbox ? 

Answer : You can either apply MRM 1.0 policy or MRM 2.0 policy to a given mailbox,but not both.

Your organization can have mix of MRM 1.0 & MRM 2.0, ie some users can have MRM 1.0 policy while other can have MRM 2.0 policy.

Note : MRM 1.0 policy cannot be applied to a mailbox, which is Archive mailbox enabled.

Question : Can I apply a separate policy to my archive mailbox ?

Answer : No. The Policy applied to the Primary mailbox also applies to Archive mailbox.

Question : Managed Custom folders are created as subfolders under “Managed Folder” root folder,Can I configure to publish the custom folders at the root of the mailbox ?

Answer : Published custom folder will appear as subfolder under root folder “ Managed Folders” and this behaviour cannot be changed.

Question : Can I publish Custom Folder using MRM 2.0 ?

Answer : No,Managed Custom folder is a feature of MRM 1.0 only. We cannot use MRM 2.0 to publish custom folders. Need to apply personal tags to such custom folders incase you are migrating from MRM 1.0 to MRM 2.0.

Question : Can I configure MRM 2.0 tag to processes messages on basis of moved date ?

Answer : No. We cannot configure MRM 2.0 tag to process message on basis of date when message was moved to the folder.MRM 1.0 can be configure to process messages on basis of moved date.

Question : Can MRM be configured to process messages on basis of message size or message attachment or when the mailbox is full ?

Answer : No

Question : Can I configure Managed Folder Assistant to run at specific time to process the mailboxes ?

Answer : You cannot schedule Managed Folder Assistant to run at specific time, Managed Folder Assistant is a throttle-based assistant ,which processes mailboxes 24×7.

This assistant can be configured using ManagedFolderWorkCycle & ManagedFolderWorkCycleCheckpoint parameters.

Configure the Managed Folder Assistant

Question : Can MRM generate a log which contain information of mailboxes being processed in the given workcycle or generate a report ?

Answer : MRM 2.0 does not generate a report or logs to indicate number of items or mailboxes processed.

It does log Event ID 9017 to indicate that the workcycle is started, Event ID 9018 to indicate total number of mailboxes processed in the workcycle  & Event ID 10027 to indicate number of items processed,tagged,moved and deleted in the given workcycle. Note that Event ID does not provide the names of mailboxes processed in the workcycle.

MRM 1.0 does generate logs.

Question : Are Managed Folder available in Exchange 2013 ?

Answer : Managed Folders are not supported in Exchange 2013,thou you would see commandlets available for Managed Folders.

What’s Discontinued in Exchange 2013

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj619283(v=exchg.150).aspx

 

Hope this helps !

 

- Vikas

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    "We cannot configure MRM 2.0 tag to process message on basis of date when message was moved to the folder.MRM 1.0 can be configure to process messages on basis of moved date."

    What is the justification for this loss of functionality? Processing messages based on received date can produce disastrously counter-intuitive behavior when a message is moved between folders that have different retention tags. For example administrators may wish to autodelete mail from trash after it's been there 30 days. A user puts a message in the trash that arrived today, it will live there for (about) 30 days. The user puts a message in the trash that arrived a couple months ago--it's deleted immediately! Not good.

    Discussion on technet pointed out that ADSI Edit can be used to change the msExchELCFlags of a Retention Tag from "1" to "3". (Possibly the container should also be modified from "0" to "3".) After this is done, Get-RetentionPolicyTag | ft name,triggerforretention will show WhenMoved. But does this workaround actually work?

  • Anonymous
    October 14, 2013
    Good One....Cleared lots of Confusions....

  • Anonymous
    November 14, 2013
    Awesome information and crystal clear documentation. Thanks for making this useful blog.

  • Anonymous
    December 01, 2013
    Very useful Info. Thank you Vikas. Will keep looking for more.

  • Anonymous
    January 28, 2014
    Super blog brother.. very clear..

  • Anonymous
    June 17, 2014
    This blog is amazing and very helpful especially to give a detailed understanding to customer. Thank you for this Vikas. Great article.

  • Anonymous
    October 22, 2014
    The comment has been removed