Site Policies in SharePoint 2013

SharePoint 2013 has a new feature called Site Policies that helps us control the growth of SharePoint sites. In many SharePoint implementations sites are created as required and are not deleted even long after their purpose has been solved. These unwanted sites occupy storage space and cause compliance issues. To automatically close and delete sites after their use SharePoint 2013 provides Site Policies.

Creating Site Policies

Site policies are created at the root site collection and are assigned to sites. Below are the steps for creating a SharePoint 2013 Site Policy

1.      Go to site settings page of root site collection and click Site Policies under Site Collection Administration section

 

2.      From the site policies page click Create to open Site Policies creation page.

 

3.      The following 4 options will be available for site closure and deletion

Do not close or delete the site automatically - If this option is selected, then the site has to be deleted manually.

Delete the site automatically – This option implies that the site having this policy will be deleted automatically based on the specified rule. The rule will have below options

1. What action  will cause the site to be deleted automatically
2. Whether an email notification to be sent the site owner a specified amount of time before the site is scheduled to be deleted.
3. Whether site owners can postpone site deletion.

Close the site automatically and delete the site automatically. This option has  the same choices as delete the site automatically, and additionally  requires to specify the site closure date.

Run a flow to close the site, and delete the site automatically.This option has the same choices as delete the site automatically, and additionally  requires to specify a  to process to be run when site is closed.

Applying Site Policies to Site

After creating site policies they can be applied to sharepoint site in the site collection.

1.      Go to the Site Settings page and click Site Closure and Deletion under Site Administration

 

2.      On the site closure and deletion page select the site Site Policy you want to apply to the site.

 

3.      Selected policy will be applied to the Site.

When the site deletion\closure date approaches a notification message will be displayed on top