Forum Discussion

TorInge's avatar
TorInge
Level 3
8 years ago

How to delete archives stored on Centera with 10 years of retention

We are moving archives away from Centera to a new storage device, as we are going to decommission the Centera device. While I was moving archives and deleting the old ones when finished, I noticed th...
Centera
Retention
  • ChrisLangevin's avatar
    ChrisLangevin
    8 years ago

    EV will not be able to delete the item data from the Centera until the Retention Period has expired. It is possible to remove the references from EV's databases (effectively orphaning the Centera data) but you will need to open a support case to have this done, as it's not trivial.

     

    The expiry date shown in the dtrace is recorded as a DATE type. This means that the number you see in the trace represents the number of days since December 30, 1899, with time of day represented by the fractional part. In the case of the example you posted, adding 45340.812847 days to December 30, 1899 yields an expiry date for this item of February 18, 2024.

    To convert in PowerShell, use this formulation:

    ([datetime]"12-30-1899").AddDays(<DATE value>)

    Example using the value you posted:

    PS> ([datetime]"12-30-1899").AddDays(45340.812847)

Sunday, February 18, 2024 7:30:29 PM
GertjanA's avatar
GertjanA
Moderator
8 years ago

Hello, probably due to Centera being in Compliance mode, these errors will be there until the 10 year retention is valid. You can change the Archivestatus for the mailboxes in 'delete' status, so they become available again. this will stop the deletion. You might need to talk to EMC to figure out if it is possible to change the Compliance mode to less restrictive (i.e. allow deletions despite the retention is not passed yet)

To reset the status:

1.Within SQL Management Studio run the following:

USE EnterpriseVaultDirectory
 SELECT *  FROM  Archive
 WHERE ArchiveStatus = 4

 This will generate a list of all of the Archives set for Deletion.
 
1.Check the results and make sure that the ArchiveName column contains the Archive/s in question. Take note of the RootIdentity for each Archive.
 
1.Within SQL run the following SQL query to change the status back to Available:

USE EnterpriseVaultDirectory
 UPDATE Archive
 SET ArchiveStatus = 1
 WHERE ArchiveStatus = 4 AND RootIdentity = 'RootIdentity taken from step2'
 
1.Refresh the view in the VAC and make sure that the vault status for the archive/s have changed from Marked for Deletion to Available.

  • TorInge's avatar
    TorInge
    Level 3
    8 years ago

    Will they be re-associated with the user mailbox at the next run of provisioning? Because the reason why I delete them in the first case, is that the old archives are confusing the end users when visible in archive explorer.

    Are there any other ways than marking them for deletion to remove the old archive from the user account? May I just remove the rights, or are they still in sync with exchange?

    • ChrisLangevin's avatar
      ChrisLangevin
      Level 6
      8 years ago

      Only one archive can be associated with a mailbox, so if the users have new archives that are associated to their mailbox, then the old ones will not be re-associated.

       

      If you remove the users' rights to the old archives, then they should stop showing in Search/Archive Explorer. And if the old archives are no longer associated to the mailboxes, then their rights will not sync from Exchange anymore, so the rights should stay removed.

       

      You may still want to delete the old archives if they are truly duplicative, just to keep your admin console and your SQL tables cleaner.

      • TorInge's avatar
        TorInge
        Level 3
        8 years ago

        I completed one without marking it for deletion. I ran provisioning and synchronization, and still, the closed archive has inherited the rights from Exchange. I cannot manually remove the rights, I have to set deny. So I think I will keep on marking the archives for deletion, if that doesn't reduce the overall performance.

        If I have two archives with the same name, same billing account and everything seems similar in the console. How can I tell which one is the one connected to the mailbox? We have quite a few of those, after users have gotten new usernames, but kept the mailbox. When I'm moving, it's easier, because the old one is renamed and the new one is on the new Vaultstore.