Retention for the NetApp Snaplock fixed content device

The NetApp Snaplock device can operate in aligned or unaligned retention mode.

Retention in aligned mode

Retention is controlled by both the Content Platform Engine and the NetApp Snaplock fixed content device.

Important: A request to assign an indefinite retention setting to the object content stored on the NetApp Snaplock device is rejected.

The following table compares the Content Platform Engine object retention setting for an object with the corresponding NetApp Snaplock retention setting that is applied to the object content.

Content Platform Engine object retention setting	NetApp Snaplock object content retention setting
Not set	The object content is not committed to WORM. This differs from using a zero length retention period in legacy retention mode. In that case, the object content is committed to WORM and the retention date is set to the current date and time of the Content Platform Engine server. The retention date is subject to the minimum and maximum values allowed by the NetApp Snaplock volume.
Permanent	The retention setting is set to the maximum setting permitted by the NetApp Snaplock volume.
Indefinite	The NetApp Snaplock device does not support the indefinite retention setting. The request to set the retention setting to indefinite is rejected.
Date value	The retention setting is set to a specific date and time value within the minimum and maximum values allowed by the NetApp Snaplock volume. A request outside this range is rejected. The max value cannot be greater than 01/19/2071.

Retention in unaligned mode

Retention is enforced by Content Platform Engine and is not applied to content stored on the NetApp Snaplock device. Object content created on the NetApp Snaplock device is not committed to WORM. For this reason, object content is not subject to the minimum and maximum retention values allowed for the NetApp Snaplock volume. Although the object retention setting on the Content Platform Engine can be set to any valid value, the retention setting for the corresponding object content is not changed on the fixed content device.

Retention dates for NetApp DataOnTap

From NetApp DataOnTap 9.10.1, you can set the retention date up to October 26, 3058. In a CPE environment, if you need to work with retention beyond 01/19/2071 for DataOnTap 9.10.1 and later versions, you need to set the JVM configuration parameter Content.Snaplock.Need2038Handling to false.

For CPE running on Unix system, the Snaplock volume needs to be mounted using NFS V4. If the volume is mounted using NFS V3, the maximum retention date that can be set by CPE is 02/07/2106.

The maximum retention date you can set on Snaplock side also depends on some other system configurations. For example, if the CPE runs in a stand-alone docker container on a Linux host system, the Snaplock volume is mounted as an NFS V4 mount on the host system and is mapped to a path inside the docker container by using volume mapping, the maximum retention that CPE can set on the document is 04/11/2262.

To find out what is the maximum retention, you can set in your CPE environment:

You can try to access the mounted Snaplock file system from your CPE server.
Set the last access time on a file by using the operating system command. The maximum last access time that you can set by using the command is the maximum retention date that can be set for a CPE document that is stored in the Snaplock fixed content storage area.

In an upgraded Snaplock system, the CPE correctly handles the existing retention dates between 01/19/2038 and 01/19/2071.