eDiscovery Manager Role for Legal Hold on Mailbox
Your organization uses Microsoft Purview eDiscovery to manage legal cases. You need to place a hold on a user's mailbox to preserve data for an ongoing litigation. Which role do you need to assign to the eDiscovery manager?
Quick Answer
The correct answer is the eDiscovery Manager role with the Legal Hold role enabled. This is because the eDiscovery Manager role group in Microsoft Purview includes the Legal Hold sub-role, which grants the specific permission to place a hold on a user’s mailbox to preserve data for litigation. Without this sub-role enabled, an eDiscovery Manager can search and export content but cannot freeze data from deletion. On the SC-900 exam, this tests your understanding of role-based permissions within Microsoft Purview compliance portals, often appearing as a scenario where you must distinguish between broad roles like Compliance Administrator and specialized roles like eDiscovery Manager. A common trap is assuming any compliance role can place holds, but only the eDiscovery Manager with the Legal Hold toggle turned on has that precise authority. Memory tip: think “eDiscovery holds the evidence, Legal Hold locks the door.”
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often assume the eDiscovery Manager role alone is sufficient to place holds, but Microsoft explicitly separates the Legal Hold sub-role to enforce least privilege, so the correct answer requires both the role group and the specific sub-role enabled.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
eDiscovery Manager (with the Legal Hold role enabled)
To place a hold on a user's mailbox in Microsoft Purview eDiscovery, you need the eDiscovery Manager role group with the Legal Hold role enabled. This role specifically grants the permission to create and manage litigation holds, which preserve mailbox content for legal cases. Without the Legal Hold sub-role, an eDiscovery Manager can search and export but cannot apply holds.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Records Management
Why it's wrong here
Records Management focuses on retention and disposal, not holds.
- ✗
Information Protection
Why it's wrong here
Information Protection deals with sensitivity labels, not holds.
- ✓
eDiscovery Manager (with the Legal Hold role enabled)
Why this is correct
The eDiscovery Manager role group includes the Legal Hold role, which allows placing holds.
- ✗
Compliance Administrator
Why it's wrong here
Compliance Administrator has wider permissions but is not the specific role for eDiscovery holds.
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Microsoft Entra ID
Key term
Microsoft Purview
Microsoft Purview is a unified data governance and compliance service that helps organizations discover, manage, and protect their data across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
Key term
Group
A group is a collection of users, devices, or other objects that are assigned permissions and policies together for simplified management in identity and governance systems like Microsoft Entra ID.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on SC-900
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. Your organization uses Microsoft Purview eDiscovery to manage legal holds. A legal hold has been placed on a user’s mailbox, but the user has left the company and their mailbox has been converted to a shared mailbox. You need to ensure that the legal hold remains effective. What should you do?
easy- A.Convert the shared mailbox back to a user mailbox to keep the hold.
- B.Create a new legal hold for the shared mailbox.
- ✓ C.Verify that the legal hold is still listed in the eDiscovery case for the mailbox.
- D.Remove the legal hold and reapply it to the shared mailbox.
Why C: When a mailbox is converted to a shared mailbox, the legal hold applied via eDiscovery remains in effect and does not need to be recreated. It is important to verify that the hold is still listed in the eDiscovery case. Option A is incorrect because converting back is unnecessary and may lose shared mailbox features. Option B is incorrect because the hold is still active; creating a new hold is redundant. Option D is incorrect because removing and reapplying the hold is not required.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SC-900 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SC-900 exam.