Enterprise Vault™ Classification using the Microsoft File Classification Infrastructure

A classification policy specifies the range of classification features that you want to implement in your Enterprise Vault site. With a classification policy, you can choose to do the following:

• Classify items during archiving/indexing. If you choose to do this, Enterprise Vault sends items for classification and tags them with the results at the same time that it archives or indexes them. Enterprise Vault tags the items with evtag.category, evtag.exclusion, and evtag.inclusion values according to the classification rules. Users of applications like Compliance Accelerator and Discovery Accelerator can then use the classification values to filter the items when they conduct searches and reviews.

  Exactly when Enterprise Vault classifies the items is determined by whether you are archiving the classified items to smart partitions rather than standard vault store partitions, as follows:

  • If you have chosen to use smart partitions, Enterprise Vault classifies the items at archiving time.

  • If you have not chosen to use smart partitions, Enterprise Vault classifies the items at indexing time.

  In both cases, if you perform an index rebuild of an archive or index volume, Enterprise Vault discards the classification tags that it previously applied and applies new ones in their place. This process does not affect users, as the old index volumes continue to be searchable during the rebuild.

  Note:

  If you have chosen to archive classified items to smart partitions, reclassifying the items does not cause them to move from one smart partition to another. These items remain on the smart partition to which Enterprise Vault originally archived them.

  For example, suppose that you have associated the classification tag "PII" with one smart partition and the tag "Credit-Card" with another smart partition. An item that Enterprise Vault archived to the partition that is associated with the "PII" tag remains on this partition, even if Enterprise Vault subsequently reclassifies the item with the "Credit-Card" tag.

• Set the retention category of items. If you choose to do this, the classification feature can update the retention categories of items. To determine which retention category to assign, Enterprise Vault examines the property values that the classification rules have assigned to the item. When the name of a property value matches that of one of the site's retention categories, Enterprise Vault assigns this retention category to the item.

• Prevent user actions from updating retention categories. By default, Enterprise Vault updates the retention categories of archived items when users perform actions that cause the retention categories to change. For example, users may move archived items between folders to which you applied different retention categories, or change the retention categories of items in Enterprise Vault Search, if permitted. Both actions can cause the retention categories of the items to change, potentially overriding the retention categories that the classification feature has set. With a classification policy, however, you can prevent such retention category updates in the archives to which you apply the policy.

  You can choose to prevent retention category updates in all instances or, if you use the Enterprise Vault records management feature, you can allow them in instances where this also causes the record types of the items to change.

• If you choose to classify items during archiving/indexing, the classification feature assigns retention categories to the items when it archives and indexes them. In these circumstances, the classification feature's retention category overrides that of the retention plan. The following additional options provide finer control over how the classification feature sets the retention category of items:

  • During user deletion. If you choose to implement this option, the classification feature classifies an item when a user tries to delete it. In some instances this may prevent the item from being discarded, because the classification feature assigns a retention category that blocks the action.

  • During automatic expiry. If you choose to implement this option, the classification feature classifies an item when its retention period has elapsed. As with user deletion, this may prevent the item from being discarded, because the classification feature assigns a retention category that either blocks deletion or extends the item's retention period.