Retention Policies

While the Barracuda Message Archiver is capable of handling an archive of virtually unlimited size, some organizations may want to expire messages just as a matter of course. The POLICY > Retention page allows you to set the maximum age of an archived message before it is permanently purged from the archive. Note that if an auditor has specified an indefinite hold on a Saved Search, the retention policy is treated as an infinite lifetime.

By default, automated purging of messages archived on the Barracuda Message Archiver is disabled. If you enable this ability, the Global Retention Policy and any Saved-Search retention policies are run against all the archived messages weekly on Friday night.

The Global Retention Policy setting does not apply to any messages that match a Saved-Search retention policy.

To enable or disable the automatic message expiration, set the Allow automatic message deletion option to Yes or No.

Global Retention Policy

The Global Retention Policy applies to every archived message. When retention policies are run against the archived messages (weekly on Friday night), any messages stored on the Barracuda Message Archiver that are older than this age are deleted unless they match an existing Saved-Search policy.

To configure the Global Retention Policy:

1. Verify that the Allow automatic message deletion option is set to Yes.
2. In the Policy Length field, enter the number of days to retain any archived message.
3. Click Save.

Saved-Search Retention Policy

You can define a retention policy based on a Saved Search to automatically delete archived messages from the Barracuda Message Archiver. Note that before you can create a Saved Search retention policy, you must create at least one Saved Search in the BASIC > Search > Advanced Search page.

Messages that match the specified Saved Search are permanently removed from the Barracuda Message Archiver when the age of the message exceeds the specified Saved Search policy length.

If you define multiple Saved Search retention policies, if the age of any message exceeds the maximum age allowed by all Saved Search retention policies that apply to the message, that message is permanently deleted form the Barracuda Message Archiver.

Automate Message Purging

To run Saved Search retention policies against archived messages, turn on Allow automatic message deletion. Once enabled, the Saved Search policies are run against archived messages weekly on Friday night.

Use the following steps to set up a Saved Search retention policy.

1. Log into the Barracuda Message Archiver.
2. Go to the BASIC > Search page, and in the Standard tab, click Advanced.
3. Enter the desired search criteria, and click Save Search.
4. Enter the Search Name, and click OK.
5. Go to the POLICY > Retention page, and enter the Saved Search Retention Policy details:
6. In the policy Name field, enter a name for the policy you are creating.
7. In the Saved Search field, select the name of the saved search on which this retention policy is to be based.
8. In the Policy Length field, enter the number of days to retain archived messages that match the Saved Search criteria.
9. Click Add.
   
   

Litigation Holds

Litigation Holds are created by auditors to prevent messages that meet the criteria for a specific Saved Search from being removed from the Barracuda Message Archiver. The system administrator must first Enable Litigation Holds before auditors will be given the option to create them from the Saved Searches tab on the BASIC > Search page.

The following information about active Litigation Holds includes:

• Auditor – account name of Auditor who created the Litigation Hold
• Saved Search – name of the Saved Search associated with the Litigation Hold
• Hold End Date – date and time when this Litigation Hold expires

 To delete a litigation hold you must have system administrator rights; click the trash can icon following the Litigation Hold you want to delete.