This is one of those "I think I know the answer, but I'll ask anyways and hope for a miracle." My client initiated an Exchange 2003 to 2010 to 2013 migration last summer. This client was extremely comfortable with Exchange 2003, especially with the functionality the mailbox management policies for controlling mailbox size. We had to jump through some hoops to mimic the 2003 behavior in 2010 by using the following cmdlets:
#set managed folder to process top-level folder only (do not process subfolders)
set-managedfolder -Identity Inbox -BaseFolderOnly $true
#set managed folder to process top-level folder only (do not process subfolders)
set-managedfolder -Identity 'Deleted Items' -BaseFolderOnly $true
#set managed folder to process top-level folder only (do not process subfolders)
set-managedfolder -Identity 'Sent Items' -BaseFolderOnly $true
#Create default mailbox MF policy and link to Inbox, Sent Items and Deleted Items managed folders
New-ManagedFolderMailboxPolicy -Name "Default MBX Policy" -ManagedFolderLinks Inbox, 'Sent Items', 'Deleted Items'
#Create managed content settings for the Inbox managed folder
New-ManagedContentSettings -Name "CS-Testing-Inbox" -FolderName "Testing-Inbox" -MessageClass * -RetentionEnabled $true -RetentionAction DeleteAndAllowRecovery -AgeLimitForRetention 30 -TriggerForRetention WhenDelivered
#Create managed content settings for the Sent Items managed folder
New-ManagedContentSettings -Name "CS-Default-Sent-Items" -FolderName "Sent Items" -MessageClass * -RetentionEnabled $true -RetentionAction DeleteAndAllowRecovery -AgeLimitForRetention 60 -TriggerForRetention WhenDelivered
#Create managed content settings for the Deleted Items managed folder
New-ManagedContentSettings -Name "CS-Default-Deleted-Items" -FolderName "Deleted Items" -MessageClass * -RetentionEnabled $true -RetentionAction DeleteAndAllowRecovery -AgeLimitForRetention 60 -TriggerForRetention WhenDelivered
#create MF policy and link to Sent Items and Deleted Items managed folders
New-ManagedFolderMailboxPolicy -Name "Test MBX Policy" -ManagedFolderLinks 'Sent Items', 'Deleted Items'
#assign MF policy to specific mailbox
Set-Mailbox -Identity jsmith -ManagedFolderMailboxPolicy "Test MBX Policy"
#turn on MFA logging for retention items
set-mailboxserver -identity EX2010 -RetentionLogForManagedFoldersEnabled $true
#start MFA against mbx jsmith@mydomain.biz
Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -Identity "jsmith@mydomain.biz"
Stop-ManagedFolderAssistant
These are just a sample of what we did to get 2010 to mimic the 2003 mailbox management policy. It appears that the workaround created last summer is not going to work in 2013. Mailboxes migrated from 2010 to 2013 look like they retain their managed folder characteristics, but we can't create new mailboxes and manage them this way. We wonder if once the 2010 mailbox servers are decommissioned, the inbox, sent items and deleted items folders will cease to function as managed folders. Our challenge here is that this is the way mailbox sizes have been controlled for in the environment for 9 years. Whatever solution we develop, the client has made it clear that it cannot depend on user intervention. The workaround must remove items from the Inbox older than 30 days, remove items from the Sent Items and Deleted Items folders older than 60 days, and must not touch any subfolders of Inbox, Sent Items and Deleted Items. Has anyone been through this? Is there any way I can make this happen in Exchange 2013?