Retention Policy Editor
- 20 Nov 2023
- 4 minute read
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Retention Policy Editor
- Updated 20 Nov 2023
- 4 minute read
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Article Summary
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Retention policies are used to delete or purge data. Reasons to delete data include:
Compliance with state or federal laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
Adherence to institutional retention policies developed in conjunction with the institution’s general counsel
Batch deletion of data erroneously imported using Upload Dataset
By default, Slate retains all data in perpetuity. Retention policies must be created to purge specific data at the appropriate times.
Important
Use with caution. Retention policies will permanently delete selected data. Once a retention policy is executed, there is no way for the institution or Technolutions to recover deleted data.
Developing Retention Policies
Before configuring retention policies in Slate, it is strongly advised to consult and collaborate with additional stakeholders to ensure that legal and institutional guidelines are followed, specifically regarding FERPA and other state and federal laws. Stakeholders can include:
General Counsel
Institutional Research
Registrar
IT
Financial Aid
Consider creating one or more test records that contain data in each retention policy item. This will allow for easier testing later in the process and will ensure that the data is being deleted as intended.
Configuring Retention Policies
Retention policies are composed of groups and individual policies. Retention groups are collections of policies executed together in a specified order. For example, an application record must be deleted before a person record, or application records within a round must be deleted before the round can be deleted.
Groups enable partners to organize policies to execute the deletion of like data. Depending on the specificity of the kinds of data to be deleted, a comprehensive retention group could include several or even dozens of retention policies. Each policy must be configured individually. All retention policies are built on the configurable join query bases. Being able to query using configurable joins is essential to creating and executing successful retention policies.
Specific permissions grant users access to retention policies:
Permission | Description |
|---|---|
Retention Policy Editor | Grants access to the Retention Policies tool in the database. |
Retention Policy Editor – Edit All | Grants the ability to create and edit retention policies. |
Retention Policy Editor – Execute All | Grants the ability to execute retention policies. |
Tip
Retention policies can be configured and executed in both production and test environments.
Creating Retention Groups
Create retention groups to develop retention policies.
Select Database on the top navigation bar and select Retention Policies.
Select New Group.
Enter the following configurations in the dialog box:
Name: Give the retention group a descriptive name.
Status: Set the status to Active to be able to execute policies within the group.
Folder: Assign the group to a folder.
Select Save.
Creating a Retention Policy
After creating a retention group, create individual retention policies to be executed within the group.
Select the desired retention group where the retention policy should reside.
Select New Policy.
Enter the following configurations in the dialog box:
Name: Give the retention policy a descriptive name.
Object Type: Select the type of data to be deleted.
Base: Choose the base. This is the configurable join base on which the policy will be filtered to identify the data to be deleted.
Order: Give the policy a distinct order. Policies in the group will be executed sequentially according to the order.
Fail Threshold: Set a value (for example, 500, 1000, or 5000) greater than or equal to the expected number of records this policy will affect. If exceeded, the policy group will not execute.
Select Save.
Important
The status on a retention policy defaults to Inactive when it is created. Update the status to Active after it is saved to be able to execute the policy in the group. All policies in the group are executed together.
What does the fail threshold do?
Fail thresholds ensure that the maximum number of records affected in each policy does not exceed the expected size because this might indicate a problem with the selected filter criteria.
When executing a retention policy group, if the count of matching rows exceeds any policy's fail threshold, execution will be canceled, and no records will be deleted or updated by this policy group as a whole.
Executing Retention Policies
Before executing retention policies, make sure that the retention group and desired retention policies are set to Active.
Select Database on the navigation bar and select Retention Policies.
Select the desired retention group for execution.
Select Execute.
Add a memo in the dialog box and select Execute again.
Scheduling Retention Policies
Select Database on the top navigation bar and select Retention Policies.
Select the desired retention group for scheduling.
Select Run Options. A dialog box opens.
Select Enable Scheduled Policy Run.
Select the days on which the policy should execute.
Select Save.
Active policies in the retention group will be executed during the next overnight processing window following the day selected (for example, If Tuesday is selected, the policies will be executed overnight from Tuesday into Wednesday).
Executing Retention Policies on a Single Record
Retention policies can be executed on individual records administratively. The retention group must first be enabled for record-specific run.
Select Database on the navigation bar and select Retention Policies.
Select the desired retention group.
Select Run Options. A dialog box opens.
Select Enable Record-Specific Run for Users with Update Permissions.
If desired, set a population restriction. The retention group can only be executed administratively on records enrolled in the selected populations.
Select Save.
Once enabled, retention group policies can run on any person, application, or dataset record.
Go to the desired record in the database.
Select the Profile tab.
Select Account.
Select Execute Policy. A dialog box opens.
Enter the following configurations:
Policy Group: Select the retention group to be executed on the record.
Memo: Add a memo.
Select Execute.
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