Can you delete vaulted items if the shortcuts no longer exist?

[Mike_P]

I thought there was a way to delete vaulted items if their shortcuts no longer exist, but I'm having trouble locating a document describing how to do this. I have about 2.5 million files that were transfered, using the fsautility, to a new server. The files are not to be archived anymore.

The files are still archived in a vault. The shortcuts have all been deleted already. I would like to purge all 2.5 million items out of the vault, because they're now just a waste of space. Also, I'm guessing that when I do this, that the index for that vault will update automatically and shrink as well?

Help please!

Thanks all!

[Mike_P]

Also, unfortunately I did not create the vault stores at the beginning of our evault birth, and the vault with the 2.5 million items also shares items from other directories. These directories share the same policy as well.

If I set a 0 day retention for the policy, it would affect the other directories too, and I don't want to delete any vaulted items from those other directories.

Perhaps I should un-link the policy from the other directories, set a 0 day retention, let it clear out the items for the single volume, set the retention back to normal, and then re-link the policy to the other directories?

Hopefully there is another way to do this.

Again, thanks!

[MichelZ]

Well, you could try to delete them via Archive Explorer...
http://<server>/EnterpriseVault/archiveexplorerui.asp

[Mike_P]

Thanks for your response!

It looks like I can't delete more than 50 at a time through browser explorer. When I use select all and delete, it only deletes the 50 (maximum shown per page) and then brings me to the next page of items.

If I go through the advanced button in archive explorer, it will display up to 500 items, but with no select all/delete buttons.

If I had to go through deleting 50 at a time for 2.5 million items, I would be doing that 50,000 times.

It does work, but does anyone know a faster way?

Thanks!

[MichelZ]

Mike

If it's a separate Archive, you could just delete the archive (not the vault store), which would delete all items in this archive.

/Michel

[Mike_P]

Unfortunately this vault stores all archived files on all servers, meaning there are a lot that I cannot delete from the vault.

Looks like I might have to delete a few at a time till they're all gone.

If only there were a way of deleting a directory in archive explorer. I can see the 20 folders I need to delete, but when I right click, I only get a "refresh" option.

Would still like to know if anyone has a good option to delete these 20 folders and their items out of the vault. Talking about 2.5 million items, in 20 folders. I can see the 20 folders in archive explorer, but it will only display a certain ammount per page. There does not seem to be "delete all" button for the folder.

Thanks for your suggestions so far MichelZ. If I have to manually delete 50-100 at a time, that's what I'll end up doing.

[MichelZ]

Mike

I'm talking about archives, not Vault Stores.
I'll explain:

EV Groups Items into Archives.
In Exchange Archiving, those Archives are on a Mailbox level.
In Filesystem Archiving, those Archives are on Archive Point level.

Archives are then grouped in Vault Stores.

You will be able to delete a whole archive, which is a subset of a Vault Store.

You can find those archives in the Admin Console -> Archives -> File System.

Hope this helps :)

Cheers
Michel

[Mike_P]

Aha, yes I was thinking of the vault.

Unfortunately the archive is set at the root level of our file server. So the archive also has many items that should not be deleted. So of about 50 folders in the archive, I need to delete 20. This structure is definately making it difficult.

Any other ideas? I have a bad feeling that you've gone down the list with me, and now we're at the end.

[MichelZ]

Mike

Not yet, I got one absolutely last thing: API

I think you should be able to search for items which are in certain folders and delete them.

Item Delete example:

C#
item.Archive_Id = ”181E669473B52E64384C9A7D9EACA0E7E1110000evsite”;
Item.Id = “181E669473B52E64384C9A7D9EACA0E7E1110000evsite“;
Item.Delete();

There are two major drawbacks here:
You probably need an API License, and you need programming skills...

Cheers
Michel


Message Edited by MichelZ on 03-05-2008 10:16 PM

[MichelZ]

Mike

And just another one which came to my mind:
You could use fsautil to recreate placeholders:

Recreate the placeholders for archived files in their original location. This
may prove useful if you need to restore a file server to its original state or
synchronize the file server with the Enterprise Vault archive.
If multiple versions of the same file exist in the archive, the utility creates a
placeholder for the latest version only.

-c Recreate the placeholders for archived files.
Parameters for -c
-s UNC_path Specify the UNC path to the target folder or volume.

Only recreate placeholders for the items archived after
this date.
-D mm-dd-yyyy

After this, you would  be able to delete the items from within the fileserver... :)

Creativity dude! :)

Cheers
Michel