AvePoint Learn
Request article
Contact support
Request article
Contact support
English

    Home > Viva Engage Community Provisioning and Management > Community Policy

    Export to PDF

    Community Policy

    The community policy allows you to customize rules to automatically manage your Viva Engage communities. Community policies are required in Create Community services and in Import Existing Microsoft 365 Objects – Viva Engage community. Community policies work in conjunction with Community Lifecycle Management services to not only automatically govern communities associated with each policy, but also empowers business users to easily manage the lifecycle of the communities.

    NOTE

    This policy is unavailable if your organization is using the Microsoft 365 Government GCC High environment.

    To create or manage policies, click Policy in the Request Management group within Settings. The community policy is integrated with the Group/Team/Community Policy. When you create a policy, choose the policy type Group/Team/Community Policy.

    In the interface for creating or editing a community 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. Workspace Type – Choose Viva Engage Community.

    4. Tenant – Select a Microsoft 365 tenant from the drop-down list. Your Microsoft 365 tenant is displayed here when your tenant has a Viva Engage app profile configured in AvePoint Online Services. For details, refer to Create App Profiles or Microsoft 365 Service Account Profiles.

    5. Click the arrow on the right-hand side to continue.

    6. Viva Engage Community Site Quota – Enter the storage quota for Viva Engage community sites that are created along with new Viva Engage communities.

      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. The Viva Engage community site quota will be set as 1024 GB if you don’t allocate a storage quota for Viva Engage community sites.

    7. External Sharing – Choose whether to use AvePoint Cloud Governance to set external sharing settings for Viva Engage community sites. The communities associated with the policy can have more restrictive settings than the global configurations in Microsoft 365 admin center.

      NOTE

      To set unique external sharing settings here, make sure the external sharing for SharePoint is turned on in Microsoft 365 admin center > Settings > Org settings.

      Choose whether to Set unique external sharing settings for the Viva Engage community site. With this option enabled, you can also choose whether to Allow users to share theViva Engage community site content with people outside the organization. If you allow this, select the scope of external users:

      • Anyone

      • New and existing external users

      • Existing external users

    8. 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 community to share the Viva Engage community site 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 Viva Engage community site with others.

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

        • 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.

          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.

    9. Community Lifecycle Management – Choose whether to enable the lifecycle management actions for Viva Engage communities applied with this policy. The lifecycle actions that you select here will be available for business users in the following situations:

      • Business users can submit Community Lifecycle Management service requests for the corresponding Viva Engage communities based on the enabled request types.

      • If you enable community inactivity threshold or community lease management in the policy, in the automatically generated community inactivity threshold tasks or community lease expiration tasks, task assignees can request to delete communities or extend community lease depending on the lifecycle actions you enable here.

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

        • Group/Team/Community Lifecycle Management– Extend Service

        • Group/Team/Community Lifecycle Management– Delete Service

      • If Enable deletion of the community is selected here, you can Enable automatic community deletion for escalation in the following sections: Community Inactivity Threshold and Community Lease Management. In the task for deletion, the task assignee can delete the community.

      Enable the following lifecycle management actions by selecting the corresponding checkboxes. For each lifecycle action, 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 communities are submitted.

      • Enable deletion of the community – Select this checkbox to allow business users to delete the community upon request.

      • Enable extension of the community lease – Select this checkbox to allow the lease of a community to be extended upon request. You can choose one of the following methods to set a limit on the lease extension:

        • Each extension must be a specific period of time – Enter a number in the text box and select Days, Weeks, Months, or Years from the drop-down list as the unit of time.

        • Each extension cannot exceed a specific period of time – Enter a number in the text box and select Days, Weeks, Months, or Years from the drop-down list as the unit of time.

      • Enable community policy change – Select this checkbox to allow business users to request a different policy for communities that have this policy applied. With this option enabled, you can enable the following option: Choose the policies that are presented to users in the Change Community Policy service request, and then select your desired community policies from the table. When a business user starts a request to change a policy for a community that has this policy applied, the business user can only choose a policy from the policies you selected here.

      • Enable Viva Engage community site quota change – Select this checkbox to allow business users to request to change the Viva Engage community site quota. Choose from the following methods to set a limit on the Viva Engage community site quota change:

        • Allow quota change to any available size – Choose this option to allow business users to request to change the Viva Engage community site quota to any available size.

        • Allow quota upgrade or downgrade within [Specified Size] GB – Choose this option to allow business users to upgrade or downgrade the Viva Engage community site quota, and the quota change cannot exceed the size defined here. Enter a number in the text box. 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 the following:

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

          • The maximum Viva Engage community site quota cannot exceed 25600 GB.

          • The Viva Engage community site quota cannot be reduced to be less than its current size.

    10. Community Inactivity Threshold – An inactivity threshold is the amount of time that any content in the corresponding Viva Engage community sites, files, notebook, calendar, mailbox, or conversations has been added or modified.

      Note the following:

      • By default, AvePoint Cloud Governance calculates the inactivity of a Viva Engage community site’s top-level site and subsites based on the Report.LastActivityDate property and retrieve the last activities of a Viva Engage community using the Microsoft Graph Beta APIs.

      • 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 Viva Engage community site’s subsites cannot be used to determine whether the site reaches the inactivity threshold. AvePoint Cloud Governance calculates the site inactivity based on the LastItemUserModifiedDate property of the top-level site, and any updates in the subsites will not change this property value. If you have also configured an impersonation account in Settings > Impersonation Account Management, the impersonation account will be used to invoke Exchange Web Services APIs to retrieve the last modified time of the corresponding calendar of the Viva Engage group for inactivity calculation.

      • Changes to a community’s plan in Planner are not regarded as activities since Microsoft 365 does not provide the API to retrieve a plan’s last modified time.

      This setting helps reduce the number of unused communities and Viva Engage community sites in your Microsoft 365 environment. Configure the following inactivity threshold settings:

      1. Enable community inactivity threshold – Select this checkbox to enable the inactivity threshold for Viva Engage communities. When a community reaches the inactivity threshold, a community inactivity threshold task will be automatically generated and assigned to business users selected in the approval process below. In the community inactivity threshold task, business users can continue allowing access to the communities and corresponding Viva Engage community sites. The business user can also choose to delete the community if you enable deletion in the Community Lifecycle Management section above.

        Configure the inactivity threshold by entering a number in the text box and selecting Day(s), Week(s), Month(s), or Year(s) from the drop-down list as the unit of time.

      2. Approval Process – Select an approval process from the drop-down list for the community inactivity threshold task 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 one based on the selected approval process.

      3. You can Enable community inactivity threshold warning to notify the approvers before the community inactivity threshold task is generated. Then, you must select a reminder profile from the Reminder profile drop-down list. You can also click Create New to create a new reminder profile. For detailed information about creating reminder profiles, refer to the Configure Reminder Profiles for Upcoming Expiration section.

      4. You can Enable automatic community deletion for escalation. If the community inactivity threshold task is not completed after a specific amount of time, a community deletion task will be generated and assigned to the approvers. The approvers are set in the approval process selected in the Community Lifecycle Management section above. Enter a number in the text box and select Day(s), Week(s), Month(s), or Year(s) from the drop-down list as the unit of time.

        NOTE

        If you enable the escalation, you must select the Enable deletion of the community checkbox in the Community Lifecycle Management field above.

        You can also enable the following options:

        • Enable a reminder for the approvers before the community deletion task is generated – Select this checkbox to send notification emails to approvers before the community inactivity threshold task is generated. Select a reminder profile from the drop-down list. You can also click Create New to create a new one. For more information about configuring a reminder profile, refer to Configure Reminder Profiles for Upcoming Expiration.

        • Notify the following people upon the deletion of the community – Select this checkbox to notify specific users when the community is deleted. Enter the names of the users in the text box and press Enter to check if the names are valid. Then, you must select an email template from the Email template drop-down list.

    11. Community Lease Management – A community lease period is the amount of time allotted wherein the Viva Engage community is valid in Microsoft 365. This setting helps manage the expired communities in your Microsoft 365 environment. Configure the following lease period management settings:

      1. Enable community lease management – Select this checkbox to enable the lease period for communities. When the community lease expires or when the last lease extension expires, a community lease expiration task will be automatically generated and assigned to the business user selected in the approval process below. In the community lease expiration task, the business user can choose to extend the community lease or delete the community if you enable lease extension or deletion in the Community Lifecycle Management section above.

        Configure the lease period by entering a number in the text box and selecting Day(s), Week(s), Month(s), or Year(s) from the drop-down list as the unit of time.

      2. Approval Process – Select an approval process from the drop-down list for the community lease expiration task, or click Create New to create a new one.

        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. You can Enable community lease expiration warning to notify the approvers before the community lease expiration task is generated. Then, you must select a reminder profile from the Reminder profile drop-down list. You can also click Create New to create a new reminder profile. For detailed information about creating reminder profiles, refer to the Configure Reminder Profiles for Upcoming Expiration section.

      4. You can Enable automatic community deletion for escalation. If the lease management task is not completed after a specific amount of time, a community deletion task will be generated and assigned to the approvers. The approvers are set in the approval process selected in the Community Lifecycle Management section above. Enter a number in the text box and select Day(s), Week(s), Month(s), or Year(s) from the drop-down list as the unit of time.

        NOTE

        If you enable the escalation, you must select the Enable deletion of the community checkbox in the Community Lifecycle Management field above.

        • Enable a reminder for the approvers before the community deletion task is generated – Select this checkbox to send notification emails to approvers before the community deletion task is generated. Select a reminder profile from the drop-down list. You can also click Create New to create a new one. For more information about configuring a reminder profile, refer to Configure Reminder Profiles for Upcoming Expiration.

        • You can select the Notify the following people upon the deletion of the community checkbox to notify specific users when the community is deleted. Enter the names of the users in the text box and press Enter to check if the names are valid. Then, you must select an email template from the Email template drop-down list.

    12. Viva Engage Community Site Quota Threshold – Select the Enable Viva Engage community site quota threshold checkbox to enable a quota threshold for Viva Engage community sites. A quota threshold is the maximum resources that a Viva Engage community site can use. If you select the checkbox, set the threshold by entering a number in the text box. Once a Viva Engage community site’s storage reaches the quota threshold, 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 group/team/community/shared mailbox/resource mailbox/Power Platform object contact

      • $Secondary group/team/community/shared mailbox/resource mailbox/Power Platform object contact

      • $Group/Team/Power App/Power Automate flow owner or community admin

      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.

    13. Deactivated Community Contact Election – The existing community contact account will become deactivated when it’s removed from or blocked in Microsoft Entra. You can choose whether to Automatically start the ownership election process if either of the community contact accounts is deactivated. With the option enabled, an election task will be generated when either of the contacts is deactivated.

      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 community contact is deactivated, AvePoint Cloud Governance will generate an election task for the secondary community 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 needs to select another user as the new secondary contact.

      • When the secondary community contact is deactivated, AvePoint Cloud Governance will generate the election task for the primary contact and the primary contact can select a user as the secondary contact.

      • When both the primary and secondary community contacts are deactivated, AvePoint Cloud Governance will generate an election task for all the community admins. After a community admin confirms to become the primary contact, the election process will be completed. When the community admin processes the election task, the admin can select a user as the secondary contact.

      You can also choose whether to Notify the following people when both the primary and secondary contact are deactivated. With the option selected, you can specify users or groups, or enter $ to specify a user role who will receive a copy of the notification email.

      Then, you can configure the following settings:

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

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

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

      • Duration – Set the duration for the election task. If the nominee does not complete the election task within the duration, the election task will expire and can no longer be processed. A new task will be generated and assigned when Cloud Governance finishes running a new deactivated community contact status scan job. Enter a number in the text box, then select Day(s) or Week(s) as the unit of time.

        You can choose to notify the nominee before the assigned time is reached. Select the Remind the nominated user before the 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.

      NOTE

      The Election Process Management in Settings is only used to manage the site collection contact election process and it does not take effect on the community contact election process.

    14. Community Renewal – You can enable the renewal process for the Viva Engage communities applied with the policy. Business users who are responsible for the community renewal will be able to periodically review community contacts, Viva Engage community site permissions, community membership, and/or community metadata in the community renewal task.

      Select the Enable community renewal checkbox, and then select a renewal profile from the drop-down list or click Create New to create a new renewal profile. For more information about configuring a renewal profile, refer to Viva Engage Community Renewal. Then, the renewal settings will be applied to the community.

    15. 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 page without saving any changes.