Cloud "Retention Policy" (Deployments)

Applies to: Patch My PC Cloud

Note

Using the Retention Policy tool is optional and is not supported by the MSP App Sets feature.

The Retention Policy tool of the Patch My PC (PMPC) Cloud deployment wizard allows you to determine how many versions of an app (both Windows and macOS) you want to keep. If deploying a later version of an app causes issues, you can redeploy an older version.

By default, PMPC only retains the latest version of an app in your environment. Configuring a Retention Policy allows you to keep the current version, plus the number of configured versions as set by the Retention Policy.

For example, setting a Retention Policy of 1 for Google Chrome would mean you always have n-1 versions of Chrome, the latest and the previous version, until a newer version is deployed.

Important

The previous version (n-1) of an app may temporarily remain visible in Intune even when a Retention Policy is not configured.

The portal only deletes the previous version during the next Sync Schedule, not in the same sync that creates the new version.

This behavior is intentional as it prevents situations where if the new version (n) fails to package, no version of the app remains available.

If Update Rings are configured, the previous version may remain for more than one sync, and will only be deleted after the next Sync Schedule and all Update Rings steps are completed.

To configure a PMPC Cloud deployment to use a Retention Policy:

1. Add the Retention Policy tool.

2. Click the Retention Policy tool.

1. In the Versions to Retain box, either type the required number or use the controls to configure the number of versions of this app you wish to retain in your environment.

Note

The default value of 0 means only the most recent version of the app is retained. You can retain up to ten versions of an app.

Tip

See Check App Version Retention for details on how to check within Intune that the correct number of versions of an app are being retained as defined in your Retention Policy.

Next Steps

If you do not want to configure any additional settings, click Next to move to the Assignments tab.

Otherwise, navigate to the relevant tool to configure the required settings, which are explained in the relevant section.

Note

Other important points about App Version Retention:

• Modifying the Versions to Retain setting is supported. The next time the Sync Schedule runs (or you manually update an app), the changes will be applied to the deployment.

• Deleting a deployment or disconnecting Intune will delete the latest and all old unassigned versions of all of your deployments.

• Modifying an existing deployment with a Retention Policy configured will only affect the current version, not all previous versions. For example, if you edit a deployment and add an extra file, the file is only added to the latest version, not all previous versions.

• You should avoid deleting versions of apps manually using the Intune admin center. Inadvertently deleting a previous version from Intune will not break the Retention Policy for the deployment. When a newer version is deployed, we will delete the relevant previous version(s) accordingly to keep everything in sync.