Administration guidelines

Follow these guidelines when setting up Retention Policies within MFT:

Choose a setup strategy

Retention solution was designed to support different use cases for different customers. You are not expected to use all the options. Instead, look for a configuration strategy which can be implemented with a minimal set of rules.

Always look for the entity at the highest level for placing a rule:

• Prefer group rules over user rules
• Prefer folder rules at higher levels than lower levels
• Prefer folder rules over multiple file rules

If you have project folders which need to have retention rules, consider placing all of them under one roof and placing a single rule on this roof.

If you decide to go with rules for users, consider creating groups even if it is only for content retention purposes.

Prefer tighter rules for lower levels

If you have a site rule such as 365 days fixed period and a user rule of ten day inactivity period, removing the user rule is less likely to result in unexpected data loss.

If, on the other hand, the rules are reversed, meaning that the site-level rule is a ten day activity period and user rule is 365 days fixed period, removing the user rule is much more likely to result in unexpected data loss.

There may be cases where this guideline will need to be violated. It is mentioned here just as something to keep in mind whenever possible.

Monitor the system regularly

We highly recommend reviewing retention notifications on a regular basis. MFT only keeps deleted files for several days before purging them. Files can be restored only during this grace period.

Communicate setup changes

Whenever retention configuration needs to be changed in a way which affects the users, we recommend notifying users in advance so concerns can be raised prior to the changes.

Limit administration access

To maintain consistency and control, we recommend centralizing retention administration to a small specialized group reather than delegate administration to business owners.

Managing retention administrators

Only members of the Retention Administrators built-in group can make configuration changes.

• Other users cannot see the Retention node in the administration tree.

• Regular users (members) can be added to the Retention Administrators group. When added, they gain access to the Administration section.

We recommend also adding retention administrators to the AUDITORS group so they can have access to the reporting section, which includes reports such as User Analysis, ad-hoc querying tools, and summary dashboard.