Retention policy doesnt work

Hi

I have Exchange 2013 environment containing DAG with 2 MBX servers, 2 NLB fronend servers and Outlook 2010 clients.

I made MRM policy to delete mails 14 days and older from "Deleted items" ajd "Junk email"  folders.

Using ECP I made 2 retntion tags: "Deleted items" and "Junk email"  Retension period for both folders 14 days and retention action is "Delete".

I created MRM policy containing these tags and applied that to some mailboxes.

But nothing happened.

PowerShell commands give results:

[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-MailboxServer | Format-Table Name,ManagedFolderWorkCycle* -Auto

Name ManagedFolderWorkCycle ManagedFolderWorkCycleCheckpoint
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------
MBX1 1.00:00:00             1.00:00:00
MBX2 1.00:00:00             1.00:00:00

I managed with this policy already some days ago.

I also started ManagedFolderAssistant manually using

Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -Identity <mailbox I applied MRM policy>

What else can I do?

  • Edited by MeelisV Monday, December 01, 2014 12:37 PM
December 1st, 2014 2:32pm

Probably not the case, but it's worth checking - is Retention Hold enabled against those mailboxes ? If so, retention policies won't be applied (last section here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd297955(v=exchg.150).aspx).

I'd also check the Application log on the mailbox server holding the DB with the target mailboxes, in order to see any error/warning relating to this.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 1st, 2014 3:17pm

Hi,

Please use the Get-Mailbox -Identity username | fl *policy command to check if the retention policy is applied.

And please check whether there is Event ID 9017 and 9018 in the application log, make sure the mailbox is processed.

Best regards,

December 2nd, 2014 9:01am

I checked retentionhold parameter:

Get-Mailbox "Mailbox Name"  | select retentionholdenabled

RetentionHoldEnabled
--------------------
False

Result of checking MRM policy:

Get-Mailbox -Identity "Mailbox Name" | fl *policy

ManagedFolderMailboxPolicy :
RetentionPolicy            : MRM Policy
AddressBookPolicy          :
ThrottlingPolicy           :
RoleAssignmentPolicy       : Default Role Assignment Policy
SharingPolicy              : Default Sharing Policy
RemoteAccountPolicy        :

MRM policy is just new created policy.

If to see application log, on these last days there are not seen very serious events....

9017 and 9018 events are informational:

Service MSExchangeMailboxAssistants. Probe Time Based Assistant for database Database04 (e92f244e-d2e9-4517-85d4-0bd1c3cc7261) is entering a work cycle. There are 2 mailboxes on this database.

Service MSExchangeMailboxAssistants. Probe Time Based Assistant for database Database05 (4b0bcdbf-5a50-4b16-bc91-c5ebc1e3c6be) reached a work cycle checkpoint (Duration: 00:00:00.2963905). 2 mailboxes were successfully processed. 0 mailboxes were skipped due to errors. 0 mailboxes were processed separately. 0 mailboxes were skipped due to failure to open a store session. There are 0 mailboxes remaining on this database which will be processed during the next workcycle checkpoints.

Sometimes number of mailboxes is bigger, but probably MailboxAssistant finds more things to do.

My MRM policy is applied only for 3 mailboces currently.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 2nd, 2014 10:42am

Hi,

Please restart the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistants service to check result.

Please run the following two commands and post result here for further research.

Get-RetentionPolicy -Identity "MRM Policy" | fl

Get-RetentionPolicyTag -Identity "retention policy tag" | fl

Best regards,

December 3rd, 2014 5:06am

[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-RetentionPolicy -Identity "MRM Policy" | fl

RunspaceId                        : 5f74a8ba-d612-46d2-8798-6de3b9f3a218
RetentionId                        : c295b71d-59a7-40fd-9658-4e002470b47a
RetentionPolicyTagLinks     : {Junk Email, Deleted Items}
IsDefault                             : False
IsDefaultArbitrationMailbox : False
AdminDisplayName              :
ExchangeVersion                 : 1.0 (14.0.100.0)
Name                                   : MRM Policy
DistinguishedName              : CN=MRM Policy,CN=Retention Policies Container,CN=Agri Organization,CN=Microsoft Exchange,
                              CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=pmin,DC=agri
Identity                                : MRM Policy
Guid                                     : c295b71d-59a7-40fd-9658-4e002470b47a
ObjectCategory                    : pmin.agri/Configuration/Schema/ms-Exch-Mailbox-Recipient-Template
ObjectClass                          : {top, msExchRecipientTemplate, msExchMailboxRecipientTemplate}
WhenChanged                     : 26.11.2014 11:36:34
WhenCreated                       : 26.11.2014 11:36:34
WhenChangedUTC               : 26.11.2014 9:36:34
WhenCreatedUTC                 : 26.11.2014 9:36:34
OrganizationId                      :
OriginatingServer                  : Kartul.pmin.agri
IsValid                                   : True
ObjectState                           : Unchanged

and one of tags:

[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-RetentionPolicyTag -Identity "Deleted Items" | fl

RunspaceId                            : 191eb486-fe73-4d52-bde3-955e2290c796
MessageClassDisplayName    : All Mailbox Content
MessageClass                        : *
Description                             : Managed Content Settings
RetentionEnabled                   : True
RetentionAction                      : DeleteAndAllowRecovery
AgeLimitForRetention             : 14.00:00:00
MoveToDestinationFolder        :
TriggerForRetention                : WhenDelivered
MessageFormatForJournaling  : UseTnef
JournalingEnabled                   : False
AddressForJournaling              :
LabelForJournaling                  :
Type                                        : DeletedItems
IsDefaultAutoGroupPolicyTag  : False
IsDefaultModeratedRecipientsPolicyTag : False
SystemTag                             : False
LocalizedRetentionPolicyTagName       : {}
Comment                                 :
RetentionId                              : 7fb5329f-9aa3-4a72-85d0-2eb28a876d92
LocalizedComment                    {}
MustDisplayCommentEnabled  : False
LegacyManagedFolder             :
AdminDisplayName                   :
ExchangeVersion                     : 1.0 (14.0.100.0)
Name                                       : Deleted Items
DistinguishedName                  : CN=Deleted Items,CN=Retention Policy Tag Container,CN=Agri Organization,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=pmin,DC=agri
Identity                                    : Deleted Items
Guid                                          : 7fb5329f-9aa3-4a72-85d0-2eb28a876d92
ObjectCategory                        : pmin.agri/Configuration/Schema/ms-Exch-ELC-Folder
ObjectClass                              : {top, msExchELCFolder}
WhenChanged                         : 26.11.2014 11:34:29
WhenCreated                           : 26.11.2014 11:34:29
WhenChangedUTC                   : 26.11.2014 9:34:29
WhenCreatedUTC                     : 26.11.2014 9:34:29
OrganizationId                          :
OriginatingServer                      : Kartul.pmin.agri
IsValid                                        : True
ObjectState                                : Unchanged

kartul.pmin.agri is one on domain controllers.

Thank You for support



  • Edited by MeelisV Wednesday, December 03, 2014 8:58 AM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 3rd, 2014 11:56am

Hi,

From the output you provided, the settings for retention policy are configured correctly.

Please create a new retention policy tag which is different from what you have created, add to a new retention policy and apply to test mailbox. Then please check if this new retention policy works.

If all retention policies don't work, please check if the value of key ELCAssistantThrottle is set to 1 under the following path on your Mailbox server.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\MSExchangeMailboxAssistants\Parameters\ELCAssistantThrottle

If this registry key doesnt exist, please create it set the value to 1 to check result.

Best regards,

December 4th, 2014 5:43am

Hi.

Yesterday morning I made new tag "Inbox test". Retention tag type: applied automatically to a default folder, Retention action: Delete and Allow Recovery, Retention period: 30 days.

Then created retention policy "Inbox_30days_delete_and_recovery" using this tag and this time applied it to a shared mailbox.

Both are made in ECP.

I mentioned, that registry parameter HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\MSExchangeMailboxAssistants\Parameters\ELCAssistantThrottle on both mailbox servers is set to 1.

Today inbox of this shared mailbox contains still same amount of items.

After I made previous retention tags and policy, we restarted all exchange servers because of adding CPU resources. So Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistants was restarted with it.

Is there possible to turn on more detailed logging for retention actions?

  • Edited by MeelisV Friday, December 05, 2014 7:35 AM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 5th, 2014 10:29am

Hi,

You can increase the diagnostic logging level for the MRM to check for more information.

Set-EventLogLevel -id "MSExchangeMailboxAssistants\Service" -level expert 

Set-EventLogLevel -id "MSExchangeMailboxAssistants\Email_Lifecycle_Assistant" -level expert 

Set-EventLogLevel -id "MSExchangeMailboxAssistants\ELC Library" -level expert 

Best regards,

December 8th, 2014 6:51am

Seems, like my policy started to work. Deleted items of some testusers have just rignt amount of items in deleted items. This happened, after exchange server were restarted because of windows updates.

So MSMailboxAssistants service was restarted as well.

Still there are some older mails in deleted items, than 14 days. If this amount of mails doesnt grow, then I can say, that policy works:)

Thanks.



  • Edited by MeelisV Wednesday, December 17, 2014 8:00 AM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 16th, 2014 3:46pm

Are they still working?  We're seeing it where the policies will apply after the Exchange servers are rebooted for updates, but then they won't be applied again until the next reboot.
February 27th, 2015 6:12pm

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics