Setting how long database entries are retained

The amount of data that the Site database stores and processes have a large impact on database performance. Database operations affect processor, memory, and disk access. To improve you database performance, store only essential and necessary data in the database. You can control how information is purged to keep the database size under control.

About this task

The emergency database purge job is designed to prevent the site database from becoming full. Purging old data keeps the database size within a user-defined limit and helps improve database performance. The job runs only if the database size exceeds the set limit. The job continues to run every 10 minutes until the database size is within the defined limit.

If the emergency database purge job is not enabled, then the SiteProtector™ System automatically stops the Event Collectors and Agent Managers when the database reaches 95% full. These components remain inactive until you manually create more space in the database.

Use the default settings for maximum item age.

For a typical package-based installation, the database table purge is disabled by default. For an express installation, the database table purge job is enabled. When enabled, it removes entries from the following tables that are older than the following indicated number of days:

Analysis summary events (seven days)
Analysis detail events (seven days)
Incidents (90 days)
Audit (14 days)
Metrics (180 days)
Resolved tickets (30 days)
Mail data (90 days)
Cleared analysis summary events (14 days)
Cleared analysis detail events (14 days)
Exceptions (14 days)
Job History (seven days)
Unused Assets (30 days)
Expired quarantines (30 days)

The job does not purge rules that are associated with incidents and exceptions.

Procedure

From the My Sites pane, select the group that contains the Site Database.
In the Go to list, select Agent.
In the right-pane, select the database that you want to configure and then click Object > Properties.
Click the Database Maintenance icon. The Database Maintenance options appear.

Select the Purge tab, and then set the following options:

Option	Description
Emergency Purge	Select this option to enable automatic emergency database purges if the database exceeds the size you specify in the Database Size Threshold.
Database Size Threshold	Set the maximum allowed percentage of full for the database. The default is 85%. Note: If the database size exceeds this percentage, then the SiteProtector System runs the emergency purge to bring the database size below this percentage.
Purge Margin	The emergency database purge job first removes data from the database that is based on the age of the data. If this purge does not bring the database size below the Database Size Threshold, then the job begins purging all data from the database in bulk. The Purge Margin is the percentage of data that the job can remove during a single purge. The default is 5%. For example, with the Purge Margin set to 5%, the purge job can remove 5% of data from the database regardless of data age.
Purge Frequency	Choose how often you want the SiteProtector System to run the database purge job:
Maximum Item Age (in days)	For each item listed, specify the number of days that represents the maximum age of the data you want to maintain in the database. Any items older than the specified number of days are purged. Note: Values that you set on the Purge tab can be overridden in the Advanced Purge tab.
Purge assets even if grouped	For unused assets that exceed the maximum age, select whether to purge them even if they are grouped with other assets.

Click Action > Save.