How to Cost-Effectively Offboard Users with Vault Retention?

PWA By islever Editorial Last updated

Short answer

B Purchase archived user licenses and archive the users.

Question

You need to offboard a full team of users at your organization. The organizational policy requires that all data and comments must be retained and available for eDiscovery for at least two years. Google Vault has already been configured. You must determine the most cost effective and flexible approach. What should you do?
  1. Purchase archived user licenses and suspend the users.
  2. Purchase archived user licenses and archive the users. Correct Answer
  3. Move the users to their own organizational unit (OU) and disable access to Google services.
  4. Remove the Google Workspace license and transfer files and data

Key Takeaways

Examines the administrative distinction between suspending and archiving users, with the common trap being confusion over license requirements and state restrictions in the Admin Console.

This scenario tests Google Workspace user archiving for compliant offboarding while minimizing ongoing costs. The community unanimously agrees that purchasing archive licenses and archiving users is the most efficient method to preserve data for eDiscovery.

Common mistake: Candidates often select option A because they assume suspending users is the standard offboarding step, overlooking that suspended accounts require full licenses and cannot be archived simultaneously per Google's administration rules.

Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

Archiving a user in Google Workspace is specifically designed for offboarding scenarios where data must be retained for compliance or eDiscovery. By purchasing the Archive Add-on license instead of a full Workspace license, organizations significantly reduce ongoing costs while ensuring all emails, Drive files, and comments remain securely stored in Google Vault. Archived users can be easily unarchived later if business needs change, providing the required flexibility. This approach aligns perfectly with the policy requirement of retaining data for at least two years.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

Option A is incorrect because suspended users consume full Workspace licenses and cannot be placed in an archived state simultaneously; the Admin Console explicitly restricts this combination. Option C maintains expensive active licenses for disabled accounts, failing the cost-effectiveness requirement, and does not automatically trigger Vault retention policies without proper licensing. Option D risks breaking data continuity and Vault holds by stripping licenses entirely, making it neither flexible nor compliant with standard offboarding best practices.

Community Comment Notes

Community feedback strongly reinforces option B, with voters noting that the technical documentation explicitly states archived users cannot be suspended in the Admin console. Comment [1] highlights this critical constraint, explaining why pairing an archive license with suspension is technically invalid. The unanimous vote distribution confirms that test-takers recognize the logical and administrative alignment between archiving and Vault-based retention.

Official Reference

These links open the official vendor documentation in a new tab.

Exam Strategy

Always map organizational compliance requirements directly to Google Workspace licensing tiers before selecting offboarding actions. Distinguish clearly between suspension (temporary access revocation) and archiving (cost-optimized data preservation) to avoid licensing pitfalls in scenario-based questions.

Community Votes

B
100%

100% of anonymous learners picked answer B. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 4 contributions

Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors.

From public community threads 4

  1. 3fd692e 👍 3 Answered B
    Has to be B. While the test says the correct answer is A, I disagree. You don't purchase an archive license and then suspend the user. You purchase an archive license and then archive the user. Also, per the documentation, an archived user "Can be deleted or unarchived, but not suspended in the Admin console." Point being, if the user is archived, they can't be suspend. I'm going with B.
  2. 87e37f5 👍 2 Answered B
    B is logical
  3. yokoyan 👍 1
    A or B....B?
  4. vladik820 👍 1
    Vote for B

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