In Exchange 2013 (and also in Exchange 2010), MRM is accomplished through the use of retention tags and retention policies. Retention tags are used to apply retention settings to an entire mailbox and default mailbox folders such as Inbox and Deleted Items. You can also create and deploy retention tags that Outlook 2010 and later and Outlook Web App users can use to apply to folders or individual messages. After they’re created, you add retention tags to a retention policy and then apply the policy to users. The Managed Folder Assistant, a mailbox assistant that runs on Exchange 2013 Mailbox servers, processes mailboxes and applies retention settings in the user’s retention policy. To learn more about retention policies, see Retention Tags and Retention Policies.

When a message reaches its retention age specified in the applicable retention tag, the Managed Folder Assistant takes the retention action specified by the tag. Messages can then be deleted permanently or deleted with the ability to recover them. If an archive has been provisioned for the user, you can also use retention tags to move items to the user’s In-Place Archive. To learn more about In-Place Archiving in Exchange 2013, see In-Place Archiving.

Note:
Managed folders, the MRM feature available in Exchange 2007 and deprecated in Exchange 2010, isn’t available in Exchange 2013. You must port your managed folder policy settings to retention policies.

You can use retention policies to enforce basic message retention for an entire mailbox or for specific default folders. Although there are several strategies for deploying MRM, here are some of the most common:

Remove all messages after a specified period. In this strategy, you implement a single MRM policy that removes all messages after a certain period. In this strategy, there’s no classification of messages. You can implement this policy by creating a single default policy tag (DPT) for the mailbox. However, this doesn’t ensure that messages are retained for the specified period. Users can still delete messages before retention period is reached.

Remove messages based on folder location. In this strategy, you implement MRM policies based on email location. For example, you can specify that messages in the Inbox are retained for one year and messages in the Junk Email folder are retained for 60 days. You can implement this policy by using a combination of retention policy tags (RPTs) for each default folder you want to configure and a DPT for the entire mailbox. The DPT applies to all custom folders and all default folders that don’t have an RPT applied.

Note:
In Exchange 2013, you can create RPTs for the Calendar and Tasks folders. If you don’t want items in these folders or other default folders to expire, you can create a disabled retention tag for that default folder.

Allow users to classify messages. In this strategy, you implement MRM policies that include a baseline retention setting for all messages but allow users to classify messages based on business or regulatory requirements. In this case, users become an important part of your records management strategy - often they have the best understanding of a message’s retention value.

In Exchange 2013, users can apply different retention settings to messages that need to be retained for a longer or shorter period. You can implement this policy using a combination of the following:

• A DPT for the mailbox
  
  
• Personal tags that users can apply to custom folders or individual messages
  
  
• (Optional) Additional RPTs to expire items in specific default folders
  
  

For example, you can use a retention policy with personal tags that have a shorter retention period (such as two days, one week, or one month), as well as personal tags that have a longer retention period (such as one, two, or five years). Users can apply personal tags with the shorter retention periods for items such as newsletter subscriptions that may lose their value within days of receiving them, and apply the tags with longer periods to preserve items that have a high business value. They can also automate the process by using Inbox rules in Outlook and Outlook Web App.

Retain messages for eDiscovery purposes. In this strategy, you implement MRM policies that remove messages from mailboxes after a specified period but also retain them in the Recoverable Items folder for In-Place eDiscovery purposes, even if the messages were deleted by the user or another process.

In Exchange 2013, you can meet this requirement by using a combination of retention policies and In-Place Hold. Retention policies remove messages from the mailbox after the specified period. A time-based In-Place Hold preserves messages that were deleted or modified before that period. For example, to retain messages for seven years, you can create a retention policy with a DPT that deletes messages in seven years and an In-Place Hold to hold messages for seven years. Messages that aren’t removed by users will be deleted after seven years; messages deleted by users before the seven year period will be retained in the Recoverable Items folder for seven years. To learn more about this folder, see Recoverable Items Folder.

Optionally, you can use RPTs and personal tags to allow users to clean up their mailboxes. However, In-Place Hold continues to retain the deleted messages until the hold period expires.

Note:

A time-based In-Place Hold is similar to what was informally referred to as a rolling legal hold in Exchange 2010. Rolling legal hold was implemented by configuring the deleted item retention period for a mailbox database or individual mailbox. However, deleted item retention retains deleted and modified items based on the date deleted. In-Place Hold preserves items based on the date they’re received or created. This ensures that messages are preserved for at least the specified period.

Move messages to archive mailboxes. In this strategy, you implement MRM policies that move items to the user’s archive mailbox. An archive mailbox provides additional storage for users to maintain old and infrequently accessed content. Retention tags that move items are also known as archive policies. Within the same retention policy, you can combine a DPT and personal tags to move items, and a DPT, RPTs, and personal tags to delete items. To learn more about archiving policies, see In-Place Archiving.

In Exchange 2013, MRM provides the flexibility to implement the records management policy that best meets your organization’s requirements. With a good understanding of MRM, In-Place Archiving, and In-Place Hold, you can help meet your goals of managing mailbox storage and meeting regulatory retention requirements.

Messaging Records Management Terminology in Exchange 2013

Retention Tags and Retention Policies