A Microsoft Purview label placed on a single file or message to control how long it is retained, when it is removed, or both; it can also mark the item as a record. Labels are made available through policies that either publish them for people to choose or apply them automatically.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains Retention label in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Microsoft Purview
Family of Microsoft products for data governance, security and compliance. Its Data Map stores only metadata, such as lineage, schema and classification, never the data itself.
- Route table label
Name for a set of route tables in Virtual WAN hubs, used when choosing where routes propagate; Default, for instance, covers the defaultRouteTable of every hub.
- CONTROL
Granting this on a securable gives all other permissions on it too, making it the most powerful SQL permission. At database scope that includes UNMASK and ALTER ANY MASK. Warehouse access through the Admin, Member or Contributor workspace roles carries it.
- A record
Points a DNS name at an IPv4 address. A typical use is pointing a root (apex) domain at an app.
- APPLY
Evaluates a table-valued expression for every row on its left, inside
FROM. Think ofOUTER APPLYas a left outer join andCROSS APPLYas an inner join.
Related terms
- Data explorer
Lists, in Microsoft Purview, every item currently tagged with a sensitivity or retention label or containing a sensitive information type, together with where it sits. To open those items, an admin needs membership of two role groups: List viewer and Content viewer.
- Event-based retention
A retention label option where the clock starts only when something happens, such as a contract finishing or a member of staff leaving, instead of counting from an item's creation or last edit.
- File plan descriptors
Optional properties of a retention label, displayed in file plan, that help to organise labels, for example Category, Sub category, Reference ID, Authority type, Provision/citation and Business function/department.
- Policy lookup
A page in data lifecycle management and records management where you enter a user, site or Microsoft 365 group to see which retention policies and retention label policies cover it.
- Records management
Content with lasting business, legal or regulatory value is handled by this Microsoft Purview solution. Items become records when a retention label says so, and administrators also get file plans, event-triggered retention periods and disposal that is reviewed first and documented afterwards.
- Regulatory record
The most locked-down record type in Microsoft Purview: once a retention label marks content this way, nobody can change or remove it. Admins must first enable the option with a PowerShell cmdlet, and such labels cannot be applied automatically.