File deletion policies for storage management

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You can create policies to permanently delete files and folders when they reach a configured age. If the policy deletes all files in a given folder, the policy deletes the folder as well. Existing empty folders are not deleted. Shared folders and folders with public links are never deleted by a file deletion policy, though the content they contain may be deleted. Users with an Essentials edition of Aspera on Cloud have access to this policy on one node, Standard Plus users can configure it on ten nodes, and Premium edition users can configure it on 250 nodes.

Attention:
  • For ATS nodes: If there are additional nodes in the same bucket, the same file deletion policy applies to those nodes as well.
  • For tethered nodes: The policy applies only to the specific node that you are creating the policy for. Beware that if there are other nodes that share the same storage and bucket path, this policy is going to affect those as well. This could lead to content being deleted from other nodes that the policy was not intended to.
Note: You can set file deletion policies on buckets in AWS, S3, CGCS and Microsoft Azure storage.
  1. Go to Nodes and storage > Nodes. Click the row of the intended node.
  2. Go to Profile > File deletion policy.
  3. Click the toggle to On.
  4. Set the deletion age in days. Valid values are 7 to 3650 days. The deletion job runs daily. A timer is set to start 24 hours after the last run. It does not have a set start time, as it runs depending on when it was last completed.
    Note: The time the job takes to run depends on how large the bucket is.

    For example, if you configure the deletion age to be 90 days, the policy will:

    • Permanently delete files in that bucket 90 days after their creation. This deletion age applies to existing files that are older than the deletion age, as well as to new files when they reach the configured deletion age.
    • Permanently delete folders that are emptied by the deletion job.
    • Not delete empty folders that were not affected by the policy.
    • Not delete shared folders or folders with public links, even if they are emptied by the deletion job.
  5. Click Save to activate the file deletion policy.

Workspace folder protection

The workspace package and home directory file system structure are preserved when there is a file deletion policy in place.