{"id":18723,"date":"2023-07-12T06:59:51","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T06:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/au\/insights\/uncategorized\/how-to-manage-the-rif\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T06:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T06:41:08","slug":"how-to-manage-the-rif","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/au\/insights\/geek-speak\/professional-services\/how-to-manage-the-rif\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Manage the RIF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In previous posts, we discussed how to increase the quota and enable retention policies. We also saw what could be done to solve situations where the 100 GB quota has been reached. If you haven\u2019t already, check out my LinkedIn post<\/a> and Part 1 of this blog series where I take you through increasing the RIF quota and enabling retention policies<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quick recap – if the RIF ever become full, it would impact the useability and some basic features of email. This included the most fundamental ability \u2013 to delete and clean up items in your Exchange mailbox. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might be wondering what measures can be taken to better manage the RIF. Or maybe you\u2019re wanting to know what the best practices for the RIF are. Honestly, if you\u2019ve read my first post on this, you\u2019ve already done most of the work. The final management tool available is a bit overkill and not something you would want to do unless you\u2019ve explored all the possible risks behind it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at why it\u2019s not recommended to manage the RIF beyond increasing its quota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PURGES OVERVIEW<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As the Purges location of the RIF is completely hidden from the end user, it\u2019s almost impossible to manage the folder effectively from a user perspective. This is by design, as the purpose of the Purges is to ensure data is retained for a set period (or indefinitely) for litigation purposes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to this, Microsoft has provided the permissions to view and manage the contents of the Purges location by the means of eDiscovery. This also gives them the ability to clean the location if needed (although this requires further permissions and has risks involved \u2013 if you want to learn more, feel free to contact me directly).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RIF MANAGEMENT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most ideal solution to managing the RIF is to enable Auto-Expanding Archiving (AEA) for all users so that micromanagement will not be required. There is also another handy switch that can be executed using PowerShell which is the \u201cStart-ManagedFolderAssistant -identity <mailbox> -HoldCleanUp\u201d switch. This switch will clean up any duplicates that are retained in the RIF which resulted from multiple versioning of an item. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since we have already explored how to enable AEA, let\u2019s look at the risk I was mentioning above. When retention policies are enabled, no item can be purged for the duration of the retention period\u2026and this is final. You cannot, in no way, delete an item from Exchange if it\u2019s under retention. I\u2019m repeating this because the key point here is that the mailbox needs to be under retention. So, to delete something from a mailbox, you will need to remove or exclude that mailbox from the retention policy. This is not advisable as once it\u2019s removed, it\u2019s a free game for any deletions to occur. Even permanently deleting an item. Sure, you may have the best and most innocent of intentions when removing the retention so that an administrator can delete or clean up the RIF for a mailbox. However, end-users are another matter and most of the time you will not have control over this. I think you understand what I\u2019m trying to say here but just in case, picture this scenario: <\/p>\n\n\n\n