SharePoint Site Lifecycle Management

Goal: Understand your current site landscape before applying policies.

Click-Ops (SharePoint Admin Center):

1. Navigate to SharePoint Admin Center > Active sites
2. Review site list and note:
   • Sites without primary owners
   • Sites with no recent activity
   • Sites shared with "Everyone"
3. Export site list for analysis

PowerShell:

Connect-SPOService -Url "https://yourtenant-admin.sharepoint.com"

# Get all sites with ownership info
Get-SPOSite -Limit All | Select-Object Title, Url, Owner, LastContentModifiedDate, 
    SharingCapability, StorageUsageCurrent |
    Export-Csv -Path "SiteAudit.csv" -NoTypeInformation

# Find orphaned sites (owner no longer in directory)
$Sites = Get-SPOSite -Limit All
foreach ($Site in $Sites) {
    try {
        $Owner = Get-MgUser -UserId $Site.Owner -ErrorAction Stop
    } catch {
        Write-Host "Orphaned: $($Site.Url) - Owner: $($Site.Owner)" -ForegroundColor Yellow
    }
}

Goal: Ensure every site has an accountable owner.

Click-Ops:

1. Navigate to SharePoint Admin Center → Policies → Site lifecycle management
2. Enable Require site owners
3. Configure notifications:
   • Warn when owner account is disabled
   • Notify secondary admins
4. Set escalation path for orphaned sites

Goal: Automatically manage sites that are no longer in use.

Click-Ops:

1. Navigate to SharePoint Admin Center → Policies → Site lifecycle management
2. Select Inactive sites tab
3. Enable Inactive site policy
4. Configure thresholds:
   • Warning: 90 days inactive
   • Read-only: 180 days inactive
   • Archive/Delete: 365 days inactive
5. Set notification frequency

Recommended Settings:

Goal: Set secure defaults for how sites can be shared.

Tenant-Level Settings:

Click-Ops:

1. Navigate to SharePoint Admin Center > Policies > Sharing
2. Set organization-level sharing capability
3. Configure link defaults and expirations
4. Enable guest access expiration

PowerShell:

Connect-SPOService -Url "https://yourtenant-admin.sharepoint.com"

# Set tenant defaults
Set-SPOTenant -SharingCapability ExternalUserAndGuestSharing
Set-SPOTenant -DefaultSharingLinkType Internal
Set-SPOTenant -RequireAnonymousLinksExpireInDays 0  # Disable anonymous
Set-SPOTenant -ExternalUserExpirationRequired $true
Set-SPOTenant -ExternalUserExpireInDays 90

Goal: Surface sites with overly permissive access for review.

Click-Ops:

1. Navigate to SharePoint Admin Center → Reports → Data access governance
2. Review reports:
   • Sites shared with "Everyone except external users"
   • Sites with large group membership
   • Sites with external guests
3. Create access review campaigns for high-risk sites

Integration with DSPM: Data Access Governance findings feed into DSPM for unified risk visibility. Sites identified here appear in DSPM's oversharing alerts.