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Retention Policy

The application allows exporting historical data to compressed, readable files stored in a tenant-specific archive folder on the host system. Once exported, the data is purged from the database to free up space.

Archived files can also be purged from the file system to maintain host storage. To retain data longer, files must be manually copied from the archive folder before they expire.

Archive files follow this path structure: $HOME/archive/TENANT/ENTITY/ENTITY-DATE.zip, where:

  • $HOME is the deployment directory
  • TENANT is the tenant name
  • ENTITY is the archived entity
  • DATE is the archive date

The retention policy defines:

  • How many days data remains in the database
  • How long export files are kept on the file system
  • The export format (CSV or PDF)

Archival can be scheduled via a cron expression. If no schedule is provided, the process runs immediately and any previous schedule is cleared.

Retention Policy Parameters

Retention Policy parameters define time-based rules (in days) for removing historical data. Policies are applied separately to specific entities:

  • Events: this refers to the event entries reported in the Events Report.
  • Jobs: this refers to the job entries reported in the Jobs Report.

Each entity above has its own settings:

  • Database Retention (days): How long records stay in the database, measured in days. Use a value of zero (0) to disable this retention and retain all records in the database.
  • File System Retention (days): How long exported files remain on the file system, measured in days. Use a value of zero (0) to disable this retention and retain all export files on the file system.
  • Export Format: Required file format used for compression during export.

Creating a Retention Policy

From a tenant's /root site, an Administrator or Configuration Manager can configure a tenant-wide retention policy.

Note

Retention policies can only be configured on the /root site of a tenant and the configured policy is applied to all sites within this tenant.

  1. Log in using an Administrator or Configuration Manager account.
  2. Navigate to Configuration > Retention and define your retention policy parameters or accept the default values as provided.
    • A periodic Schedule time must be entered before the scheduled operation can be implemented. Use the Schedule Builder button within the Schedule parameter to define your schedule.
  3. Click the Schedule button to confirm the scheduling of this periodic archival process. If an existing retention policy already exists, this Schedule button will terminate that policy and schedule the new policy based on the entered values.

After scheduling a Retention Policy, users can click the Archive button to trigger an one-time, on-demand archive instead of waiting for the next scheduled run.

Tip

Schedule the Retention Policy during off-peak hours—for instance, every Sunday at 1:00 AM—to avoid running it during regular business hours.

Retention Policy Example

The following configuration demonstrates a Retention Policy as defined:

  • Events entries will remain in the database for 180 days and the exported CSV files will remain for 360 days on the host server's file system.
  • Jobs entries will remain in the database for 60 days and the exported CSV files will remain for 90 days on the host server's file system.
  • Retention Policy is scheduled to automatically run Every Sunday between 0100 and 0200 hours.

Retention Policy Example

If a user wants to run this policy one-time on-demand, rather than waiting until the next Sunday run-time, they may click the Archive button.