#Site Collection Policy

Site collection policy allows you to customize rules to automatically manage your site collection and integrate AvePoint Cloud Management features with the site collection once it is created successfully. Site collection policies can be used in the Create Site Collection service. Site collection policies work in conjunction with Site Collection Lifecycle Management services to not only automatically govern site collections associated with each policy, but also empower business users to easily manage the lifecycle of the site collections they own.

To create or manage policies, click Policy in the Request Management group within Settings.

In the interface for creating or editing a site collection policy, configure the following settings:

1. Policy Name and Description – Enter a Name for the new policy. Then, enter an optional Description for future reference.

2. Policy Category – Categories are used to organize AvePoint Cloud Governance policies. Select an existing category from the drop-down list or create a new category for this policy by clicking Create New then configuring the new category in the Create Category interface.

3. Click the arrow on the right-hand side to continue, or click Cancel to return to the Policy Management interface without saving any configurations.

4. Quota – Enter the storage quota for the site collection.

   NOTE

   A storage quota of less than 25600 GB will take effect only if the site storage limit is enabled in your SharePoint admin center > Settings > Site storage limits > Manual. If you select Automatic as the site storage management method, site collections will use the storage they need up to a maximum of 25600 GB.

5. Sharing – Choose whether to enable and configure sharing settings for site collections with this policy applied. When sharing is enabled on a site collection, sharing is also enabled on all sites in this site collection. If it is not enabled in Cloud Governance, the sharing setting for the site collection will be set to don’t allow sharing outside your organization. If you select the Enable and configure sharing settings checkbox, configure the following settings:

   • Sharing outside your company – Allows you to control how users invite people outside your organization to access site collection content and site content. Choose one of the following options:

     • Don’t allow sharing outside your organization

     • Allow sharing only with the external users that already exist in your organization’s directory

     • Allow external users who accept sharing invitations and sign in as authenticated users

     • Allow sharing with all external users, and by using anonymous access links

6. Access Request Settings – Choose whether to Set unique access request settings. With the option selected, configure the following settings:

   • Allow members to share the site and individual files and folders – Choose whether to allow users in the site members group to share the site collection and individual files and folders with other people. With this checkbox selected, the Allow members to invite others to the site members group. This setting must be enabled to let members share the site checkbox is automatically selected. Deselect the second checkbox if you only allow site members to share individual files and folders but do not allow members to share the site collection with others.

   • Allow access requests – Select this checkbox to allow users to request access to the site collection applied with this policy. Then, select who will receive access requests on the site collection.

     • Send access requests to the site owners group

     • Send access requests to the following email address – Enter the email addresses of the approvers in the text box. You can also enter the $PrimarySiteCollectionContact role or the $SecondarySiteCollectionContact role.

       NOTE

       Only members of the site owners group can accept or decline the access requests.

     You can also define a custom message that can be shown to users who see the access request page. Enter your custom message in the text box.

7. SharePoint Designer Configuration – Select the Enable SharePoint Designer checkbox to allow site owners and designers to edit the sites in this site collection using SharePoint Designer. Site collection administrators will always be able to edit sites regardless of this configuration.

8. Site Maximum Depth Limit – Site depth limits the layers of sites that can be created under a site collection. Select Maximum depth and then enter a positive number which is smaller than 12 in the text box.

9. Site Collection Policy Icon – Configure the settings for displaying the site collection policy icon on the chrome bar within SharePoint Online site collections. If you select the Display site collection policy icon within SharePoint Online site collections checkbox, configure the following settings:

   NOTE

   This setting is applicable to classic experience team sites and has no effect on modern team sites without associated Office 365 Groups.

   • Policy icon image URL – You must enter the policy icon image URL in the text box to retrieve the image.

   • Policy details reference URL – Enter the policy details reference URL in the text box for users to view details of the policy.

10. Integration with AvePoint Online Services – Configure this policy to use AvePoint Online services for Microsoft 365.

    • Enable Policy Enforcer – Select this checkbox to have AvePoint Cloud Management Policy Enforcer rules applied to the site collections. Policy Enforcer ensures that all actions and changes to the site collections fall within your previously configured rules by continuously monitoring and taking action on the site collections. Select a Policy Enforcer profile from the drop-down list. For more information on configuring a Policy Enforcer profile, refer to Create a Policy Enforcer Profile Using Profile Manager.

    • Enable Deployment Manager – Select this checkbox to include the site collection in an AvePoint Cloud Management Deployment Manager plan, so that the source design elements or solutions in the plan can be deployed to the site collection. Select a plan from the drop-down list. For more information on configuring Deployment Manager plans, refer to Configure a Deployment Manager Plan.

      NOTE

      To avoid performance issues, the enabled Deployment Manager plan will not be applied to the site collections that are imported through the Import Existing Microsoft 365 Objects feature.

    • Enable Granular Backup – Select this checkbox to include the site collection in a Granular Backup plan to provide data protection for site collection associated with this policy.

      NOTE

      If this option is enabled, do not activate this policy until you have configured the appropriate filter policy and added it to the selected Granular Backup plan. For more information on configuring the filter policy, refer to Configure a Filter Policy to Use DocAve Online Granular Backup.

    • Enable Auditing – Select this checkbox to include the site collection into an Audit Controller plan in AvePoint Cloud Management Report Center to record all events of site collections associated with this policy.

      NOTE

      If this option is enabled, do not activate this policy until you have configured the appropriate filter policy and added it to the selected Audit Controller plan. For more information on configuring the filter policy, refer to Configure a Filter Policy to Use Audit Controller in AvePoint Cloud Management Report Center.

    • Enable site collection content archival using AvePoint Cloud Archiving – Select this checkbox to allow content in the site collections associated with this policy to be archived by AvePoint Cloud Archiving after manual approval. You must then select an Archiver profile and an approval process from the corresponding checkboxes. For details on creating an Archiver profile, refer to Configure an AvePoint Cloud Archiving Profile.

      When there is site collection content that meets the Archiver rule, a manual archive task (which contains a report of all content that meets the Archiver rules) will be generated. The task will be assigned to the approver with a report, allowing the approver to select on the report which content to be archived. When the manual archive task is approved, the selected content will be archived. For more information about the manual archive task, refer to Manage Manual Archive Tasks.

11. Site Collection Lifecycle Management Request Types – Choose whether to enable the request types for the Site Collection Lifecycle Management service. The request types that you select in this section will be available for business users in the following situations:

    • Business users can submit Site Collection Lifecycle Management service requests for the corresponding site collections based on the enabled request types.

    • If you enable site collection inactivity threshold or lease management in the policy, in the automatically generated site collection inactivity threshold tasks or site collection lease expiration tasks, task assignees can request to extend site collection lease, delete site collections, archive site collections, or change policies for site collections depending on the request types you enabled here.

      To make AvePoint Cloud Governance generate the corresponding lifecycle action tasks, ensure the following built-in services are active:

      • Site Collection Lifecycle Management – Archive Service

      • Site Collection Lifecycle Management – Extend Service

      • Site Collection Lifecycle Management – Delete Service

      • Site Collection Lifecycle Management – Change Policy Service

    • If Enable deletion of entire site collection is selected here, Delete Site Collection will be the available lifecycle action in the site collection automated locking profiles applied to the following sections: Site Collection Inactivity Threshold Management and Site Collection Lease Period Management. In the task for deletion, the task assignee can delete the site collection.

    Enable the following request types by selecting the corresponding checkboxes. For each request type, you can choose to Use the default approval process, select a created approval process from the drop-down list, or click Create New to create a new approval process. If the configurations of the selected approval process do not meet your requirements, click Create From This Existing Approval Process to create a new approval process based on the selected approval process. The approval process will be triggered when service requests to manage the site collection lifecycle are submitted.

    • Enable archiving of entire site collection – Allows the entire site collection to be archived upon request. Select an Archiver profile that was created in AvePoint Cloud Archiving. For more information on configuring an Archiver profile, refer to Configure an AvePoint Cloud Archiving Profile.

      To notify the selected users when the archiving is completed, select the Notify the following people when the lifecycle action is completed checkbox, and then enter their usernames or Microsoft 365 Group names in the text box. You can also enter the following roles: $Primary site collection contact, $Secondary site collection contact, $Primary site collection administrator, and $Additional site collection administrators. For detailed descriptions of the roles, refer to Appendix F - Supported Variable Roles.

      The notification email uses the email template selected from the Email template drop-down list.

    • Enable deletion of entire site collection – Allows the entire site collection to be deleted upon request. You can choose if you want to Permanently delete the site collection. If this checkbox is deselected, the site collection will be deleted to the SharePoint site collection recycle bin.

      To notify the selected users when the deletion is completed, select the Notify the following people when the lifecycle action is completed checkbox, and then enter their usernames or Microsoft 365 Group names in the text box. You can also enter the following roles: $Primary site collection contact, $Secondary site collection contact, $Primary site collection administrator, and $Additional site collection administrators. For detailed descriptions of the roles, refer to Appendix F - Supported Variable Roles.

      The notification email uses the email template selected from the Email template drop-down list.

    • Enable extension of site collection lease – Allows the lease of this site collection to be extended upon request. You can choose one of the following methods to set limitations on the extension:

      • Each extension must be a specific period – Enter a number in the text box and select Day(s), Week(s), Month(s), or Year(s) as the time unit.

      • Each extension cannot exceed a specific period – Enter a number in the text box and select Day(s), Week(s), Month(s), or Year(s) as the time unit.

      By default, the expiration date of the site collection’s new lease will be the original expiration date plus the specific period of the new extension. If you want to use the approved date of the site collection lease extension request as the new lease start date, select the Extend lease based on the request approved time checkbox.

    • Enable site collection policy change – Allows business users to request a different policy for site collections created with this policy. With this option enabled, you can enable the following option: Show list of available policies for selection to limit what policies are presented to users in the Site Collection Lifecycle Management – Change Site Collection Policy service, and then select your desired site collection policies from the table.

    • Enable site collection unlocking – Allows the business user to request to unlock a locked site collection.

    • Enable site collection locking – Allows business users to request to lock a site collection. If you enable site collection locking, select one or both of the following locking types:

      • Lock the site collection in “no access” status

      • Lock the site collection in “read-only” status

      To notify the selected users when the locking is completed, select the Notify the following people when the site collection is locked checkbox, and then enter their usernames or Microsoft 365 Group names in the text box. You can also enter the following roles: $Primary site collection contact, $Secondary site collection contact, $Primary site collection administrator, $Additional site collection administrators. For detailed descriptions of the roles, refer to Appendix F - Supported Variable Roles.

      The notification email uses the email template selected from the Email template drop-down list.

    • Enable site collection quota change – Allow business users to request to change the site collection quota. If you enable site collection quota change, select one of the following quota change options:

      • Allow quota change to any available size – Allows business users to request to change site collection quota to any available size.

      • Allow quota upgrade or downgrade within [Specific Size] GB – Allows business users to increase or decrease site collection quota, and the quota change cannot exceed the size defined here. For example, if you enter 5 here and the site quota is 10 GB, then business users can only change the site quota to 5-15 GB.

      NOTE

      If you allow business users to change the site collection quota, make sure Manual storage management is enabled in the SharePoint Online admin center > Settings > Site storage limits.

12. Site Collection Inactivity Threshold Management – Site collection lifecycle management helps reduce the number of unused or expired site collections in your SharePoint Online environment. Configure the following lifecycle management settings:

    1. Enable Site Collection Inactivity Threshold – Select this checkbox to enable the inactivity threshold for the site collection. If no users have accessed the site collection or the site collection’s subsites within the amount of time entered here, a site collection inactivity threshold task will be assigned to the business user selected in the approval process below. In the site collection inactivity threshold task, the business user can continue allowing access to the site collection. The business user can also choose to archive the site collection, delete the site collection, or change a policy for the site collection if you enable archiving, deletion, or policy change in the Site Collection Lifecycle Management Request Types section above.

       NOTE

       By default, AvePoint Cloud Governance calculates the inactivity of a site collection’s top-level site and subsites based on the Report.LastActivityDate property. When Display concealed user, group, and site names in all reportsis enabled in Org settings > Services > Reports in your Microsoft 365 admin center or your organization is using the Microsoft 365 Government GCC High environment, the activities of a site collection’s subsites cannot be used to determine whether the site collection reaches the inactivity threshold. AvePoint Cloud Governance calculates the site collection inactivity based on the LastItemUserModifiedDate property of the top-level site, and any updates in the subsites of the site collection will not change this property value.

       Enter a number in the text box and select Day(s), Week(s), Month(s), or Year(s) as the unit of time.

    2. Approval process – Select a created approval process from the drop-down list for the inactivity threshold task, or click Create New to create a new one. Note that multiple-stage approval is supported for the inactivity threshold task.

       If the configurations of the selected approval process do not meet your requirements, click Create From This Existing Approval Process to create a new one based on the selected approval process.

    3. Enable automated locking – You can select Enable automated locking to lock the site collection if the inactivity threshold task is not completed within the amount of time configured in a site collection automated locking profile. Select a site collection automated locking profile from the drop-down list or click Create New to create a new one. For more information about how to configure a site collection automated locking profile, refer to Site Collection Automated Locking.

13. Site Collection Lease Period Management – A site collection lease period is the amount of time a site collection is available for use. Site Collection Lease Period Management helps manage the expired site collection in your SharePoint Online environment. Configure the following lease period management settings:

    1. Enable Site Collection Lease Period – Select this checkbox to enable the lease period for the site collection. When the lease period expires or when the last lease extension expires, a site collection lease expiration task will be assigned to the business user selected in the approval process below. In the site collection lease expiration task, the business user can choose to extend the lease, archive the site collection, delete the site collection, or change a policy for the site collection if you enable lease extension, archiving, deletion, or policy change in the Site Collection Lifecycle Management Request Types section above.

       Configure the site collection lease period by entering a number in the text box and then selecting Day(s), Week(s), Month(s), or Year(s) as the unit of time.

    2. Approval process – Select a created approval process from the drop-down list for the lease expiration task, or click Create New to create a new one. Note that a multiple-stage approval process is supported for the lease expiration task.

       If the configurations of the selected approval process do not meet your requirements, click Create From This Existing Approval Processto create a new one based on the selected approval process.

    3. Notify the approver of expiration – Select this checkbox to notify the approver when the site collection lease has expired. The notification email uses the email template selected from the drop-down list.

    4. Enable automated locking – You can select Enable automated locking to lock the site collection if the lease expiration task is not completed within the amount of time configured in a site collection automated locking profile. Select a site collection automated locking profile from the drop-down list or click Create New to create a new one. For more information about how to configure a site collection automated locking profile, refer to Site Collection Automated Locking.

14. Site Collection Quota Threshold Management – Select the Enable site collection quota threshold checkbox to enable a quota threshold for the site collection. A site collection quota threshold is the maximum storage space that the site collection can use. If a site collection’s storage reaches the entered percentage of the configured quota, a notification email will be sent to users defined in the Notification email recipients field. You can also enter $ to select from the following roles:

    • $Primary site collection contact

    • $Secondary site collection contact

    • $Primary site collection administrator

    • $SharePoint Online Group (“$SiteName Group Name Suffix”) – Enter the role name manually. For site-specific groups, use the following format: $SiteName Group Name Suffix. Replace Group Name Suffix with your desired value. Users in the specific SharePoint Online groups will be email notification recipients. SiteName will be automatically replaced with the appropriate site title while sending the notification email.

    For detailed descriptions of the roles, refer to Appendix F - Supported Variable Roles.

    Then, select an email template that will be used to send the email notification from the drop-down list.

15. Deactivated Site Collection Contact Election – The existing site collection contact account may become deactivated when they’re removed from or blocked in Microsoft Entra. You can choose whether to have the automated ownership election process begin if either of the site collection contacts is deactivated. With the option enabled, an election task will be generated when either of the contacts is deactivated.

    If you enable the automatic election process, you can also enable the Only generate the election task for the other contact if one contact account is deactivated option. Note that even with this option enabled, the deactivated election task will not be assigned to the other contact who has become deactivated as a deactivated contact cannot handle the election task. It will be assigned to the user specified in the election process.

    If the current election task assignee becomes deactivated, the ongoing election task will be automatically canceled when Cloud Governance finishes the deactivated workspace contact status scan job, a new task will be generated and assigned to a new task assignee based on the following:

    • When the primary site collection contact is deactivated, AvePoint Cloud Governance only generates the election task for the secondary site collection contact. The secondary contact is set as the default user for the primary contact.

      • The secondary contact can select another user as the new primary contact. The secondary contact can also transfer the secondary contact role to another user.

      • If the original secondary contact confirms to be the new primary contact, the original secondary contact will select another user as the new secondary contact.

    • When the secondary site collection contact is deactivated, AvePoint Cloud Governance only generates the election task for the primary site collection contact and the primary contact can select a user as the secondary contact.

    • When both the primary and secondary contacts are deactivated, AvePoint Cloud Governance will generate the election task for the primary site collection administrator. The primary site collection administrator is set as the default primary site collection contact.

    Then, configure the following settings:

    • Specify the users you want to exclude – Enter the names of the users that will be excluded during the election process.

    • Email Settings – Choose to enable the following notifications by selecting the corresponding checkboxes:

      • Notify the user when the election task is assigned – Select this checkbox to send a notification email to a user when the election task is assigned to them.

      • Notify the primary contact when the site collection is assigned – Select this checkbox to send a notification email to a user when they become the primary site collection contact.

      • Notify the secondary contact when the site collection is assigned – Select this checkbox to send a notification email to a user when they become the secondary site collection contact.

      Each notification has a default email template. You can also select a custom email template.

    • Duration – Set the duration for each election stage. If the nominee does not complete the election task during the duration, the election task will be assigned to the next stage’s nominee. Enter a number in the text box, then select Day(s) or Week(s) as the unit.

      You can also notify the nominee before the assigned time is reached. Select the Remind the nominated user before each nomination task expires checkbox and select a reminder profile from the drop-down list. You can also click Create New to create a reminder profile. For more information, refer to Configure Reminder Profiles for Upcoming Expiration.

    For more information about the election process, refer to Site Collection Contact Election Process.

16. Recertification or Renewal – You can choose whether to enable recertification or renewal. Choose one of the following options:

    • Recertification – Choose this option to enable periodic review of site collection permission, metadata, or ownership in separate tasks.

    • Renewal – Choose this option to enable periodic review of site collection contacts, permission, and/or metadata in one task.

    Select a recertification profile or a renewal profile from the corresponding drop-down lists or click Create New to create a new recertification profile or a new renewal profile. For more information about configuring a recertification profile or configuring a renewal profile, refer to Site Collection Renewal. Then, the recertification or renewal settings will be applied to the site collection.

17. Click the arrow on the right-hand side to proceed to the next step.

18. View the timelines below for the site collection lifecycle management configured in this policy:

    • Lease Period Timeline – View the site collection lease period timeline and/or configurations in this timeline.

    • Inactivity Threshold Timeline – View the site collection inactivity threshold timeline and/or configurations in this timeline.

      For each timeline, Show Details is selected as the default view. You can also select Timeline Only from the drop-down list to only view the timeline without viewing detailed configurations. Note the following:

      • If you select Show Details from the drop-down list as the view, you can click icons within the timeline to hide the detailed configurations.

      • If you select Timeline Only from the drop-down list as the view, you can click icons within the timeline to display the detailed configurations.

19. When you have finished configuring this policy, choose one of the following options:

    • Click the arrow on the left-hand side to go to the previous step to check and modify your configurations.

    • Click Save to save all of the configurations.

    • Click Save and Activate to save all of the configurations and activate the policy, which allows this policy to be used in services.

    • Click Cancel to return to the Policy Management interface without saving any changes.