ShArc policies help administrators define which SharePoint files should be archived to Azure Blob Storage and under which circumstances this should happen. Instead of running every archive process manually, policies allow you to create reusable rules for the SharePoint tenant root, sites, subsites, and document libraries.
A policy usually answers three simple questions:
What content should be considered for archiving?
Where should this rule apply?
Are there any locations that should be excluded?
A ShArc policy can use different conditions to identify cold data. Typical examples are files that have not been modified for a certain time, files above a specific size, or files with selected file extensions. These conditions are combined with an AND logic. This means that a file must match all configured conditions before it is included in the archive process.
For example, a policy could target files that have not been modified for more than two years. Another policy could be more specific and only target files that have not been modified for more than one year and are larger than 100 MB.
This makes policies flexible enough for different business areas. A general company wide policy can be rather conservative, while high volume areas such as marketing media, video archives, or legacy project libraries can use more specific rules.
Policies can be created on different levels of the SharePoint structure:
SharePoint tenant root level
Site or subsite level
Document library level
A policy can include one or multiple URLs, depending on the intended scope. However, each specific URL can only be assigned directly to one policy at a time. This avoids conflicting rules for the same location and makes it clear which policy is responsible for each configured URL.
A broader policy can still apply through inheritance. For example, a policy on the SharePoint tenant root can apply to all sites below it. If a more specific policy is created for one site or library, that more specific policy overrides the inherited rule for that location.
ShArc policies follow a hierarchy similar to SharePoint permission inheritance. A policy can be applied at a broad level, such as the SharePoint tenant root, and then inherited by the sites and libraries below it.
If a more specific policy is configured further down the structure, it overrides the broader inherited policy.
For example:
A tenant-level policy could archive files that have not been modified for more than two years.
A Marketing policy could override this rule and archive large media files after one year.
A specific archive library inside Marketing could use its own policy again.
This approach keeps policy management clean. Administrators do not need to define the same rule for every library. Instead, they can start with a baseline policy and only create more specific policies where the default behavior does not fit.
Not every old file should automatically be archived. Some locations may contain active project work, reporting data, automation dependencies, or content that should remain directly available in SharePoint.
For this, ShArc supports exclusions. An excluded location is not archived by the inherited policy. This is useful for areas such as current campaign folders, reporting libraries, or other locations where the files may be old but still actively used by business processes.
If needed, administrators can still define a more specific policy for a child location. For example, a current campaign site could be excluded from a broader Marketing policy, while a dedicated video archive library inside that area could still have its own archive policy.
Policies can also be scheduled. When scheduling is enabled, ShArc will run the configured policies automatically in the background. The interval is configured in the settings, using hours as the waiting time between scheduled runs.
A common default is to run policies once per week. This allows ShArc to regularly pick up newly eligible files without requiring administrators to start each archive process manually. .
If SharePoint throttling occurs or the environment contains very large amounts of data, the interval can be increased to reduce load.
The best way to start with ShArc policies is to create policies incrementally. A practical approach is to first analyze selected sites and libraries, run an estimation or simulation, and review the expected result before enabling automated archiving through scheduled policies.
Start with a conservative policy at the SharePoint tenant root , add more specific policies for large or clearly identified archive areas, and use exclusions for locations that should remain untouched. Keep in mind that a specific URL can only be directly assigned to one policy. If a location needs different rules, create the policy at the correct level instead of adding the same URL to multiple policies.
With the right policy structure, ShArc can automate SharePoint storage reduction while still giving administrators full control over what is archived, where policies apply, and which areas are protected from automatic processing.