File expiration and expiration processing
Files expire when they exceed the retention criteria that are specified in the policy. Expiration processing on the server removes expired files from the server database and the files are deleted from server storage.
- Users delete file spaces from client nodes.
- Users expire files by using the EXPIRE command on the client.
- A backup version of a file exceeds the criteria for backup retention (how long a file is kept and how many inactive versions of a file are kept).
- An archived file exceeds the time limit for retention of archived files (how long archived copies are kept).
- A backup set exceeds the retention time that is specified for the backup set.
- A backup data object in an active retention set expires when the retention set expires. This backup data object might be eligible for deletion based on its backup policy, but expiration processing does not delete the data object if it is part of an unexpired retention set.
The server deletes expired files from the server database only during expiration processing. After expired files are deleted from the database, the server can reuse the space in the storage pools that was occupied by expired files. Ensure that expiration processing runs periodically to allow the server to reuse space.
Restrictions on expiration processing
The use of some functions affects expiration processing.- Replication
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During replication processing, client node data that is deleted from the source replication server is eventually deleted from the target replication server. However, the data that is marked for deletion on the target replication server is not actually deleted until expiration processing runs. On the target replication server, if files are marked as expired, they are deleted when the target replication server runs expiration processing. To help ensure that you have sufficient storage, you must delete client node data by regularly running file expiration processing on both the source and target replication servers.
If you are using dissimilar policies on the source and target servers, files that are marked for immediate expiration on the source replication server are not deleted until they are replicated to the target replication server. If you are not using dissimilar policies, files that are marked for immediate expiration on the source replication server are deleted immediately from the source replication server. The files are not replicated to the target replication server.
For retained backup data, expiration is processed in the following ways:- If a retained data object expires or is deleted on the source replication server, the replica data object on the target replication server is deleted during the next replication operation.
- Data on a target replication server does not expire until all the retention sets containing the data on the source replication server expire. When the retention set expires on the target server, only the retained data objects that it contains are deleted.
- Long-term data retention
- If you define retention rules and create retention sets for long-term data retention, the
expiration date of the retention set is determined by the retention period that is specified in the
retention rule. You can reset the expiration date on a retention set if requirements for keeping the
data change.
To provide an audit trail that you can use to track deleted or expired retention sets, a record of each deleted retention set (along with its full activity log) is retained in the activity log based on activity log retention settings. To view the activity log, issue the QUERY ACTLOG command.
- Event-based retention for archive data
- An archive file is not eligible for expiration if there is a deletion hold on it. If a file is not held, it is handled according to existing expiration processing.