Cleaning up deployment history files

You can clean up deployment history files to reduce database and file system storage that HCL DevOps Deploy (Deploy) uses. The administrator can enable the deployment history cleanup and specify when the cleanup process begins, the duration of the cleanup, and the number of days to retain the process history. Administrators can also turn off deployment history cleanup. Other users, depending on their privileges, can use the deployment history cleanup process for specific environments. However, while the administrator has the Enable Deployment History Cleanup switch turned off, even when a user selects Use Deployment History Cleanup for an environment, the deployment history cleanup process remains turned off. By default, the deployment history cleanup enablement settings in both the administrator and environment settings are turned off.

About this task

Important: The deployment history cleanup process deletes all records in the database and the file system that are related to the deployments that you're deleting. The cleanup cannot be undone. Carefully choose the items that you delete.
Note: Despite these settings, deployment cleanup will not happen when:
  • the deployments are associated with active inventory of any type, such as deployed component version, resource, resource config, and environment properties.
  • the server is in an HA cluster and one of the instances is actively running a deployment history clean up job.

To enable or disable deployment history cleanup and specify other settings, an administrator completes these steps:

  1. In Deploy, click the Settings tab, and then in the System column, click System Settings.
  2. Scroll to the Process History Cleanup area.
  3. Set Enable Deployment History Cleanup to On.
  4. In Daily Cleanup Start Time, select the hour to start the daily cleanup process.
  5. In Daily Cleanup Duration (hours), specify the number of hours for the cleanup process to run.
  6. In Days to Retain Deployment History, specify the default number of days to keep the deployment history before the cleanup process removes the history.
To enable deployment history cleanup for specific environments, users with the correct privileges complete the following steps.
Tip: For the cleanup process to start and run according to specifications, the cleanup process must be turned on in Process History Cleanup in System Settings and Use Deployment History Cleanup must be selected in environment settings.
Table 1. Enabling deployment history cleanup
Enable Deployment History Cleanup switch in System Settings (administrator's setting) Use Deployment History Cleanup check box in environment settings Result
On Selected Cleanup starts as specified for deployments that are associated with this environment.
On Cleared Cleanup does not start for deployments that are associated for this environment.
Off Selected Cleanup does not start for deployments that are associated with this environment.
For example, Assume that you have two environments: Environment A and Environment B. In the Environment B settings, the Use Deployment History Cleanup check box is cleared. The check box is selected for Environment A. When the cleanup process starts, the deployments that are associated with Environment B are not removed.
  1. In Deploy, click the main Applications tab, and create an application or select a listed application.
  2. Click Create Environment or click the Change icon for a selected application environment.
  3. Complete the fields and make selections, and then select Use Deployment History Cleanup.
  4. Do one of these steps:
    1. Select Use Default Deployment History Retention to keep deployment history details for the number of days that the administrator specified.
    2. In Days to Retain Deployment History, specify the number of days to keep deployment history details.

Results

When cleanup begins, a progress indicator shows details about the cleanup process.

Example

If the date is 14 December 2016, and the following settings are used, cleanup removes the items that are listed.
  • Enable Deployment History Cleanup (System Settings:): On
  • Daily Cleanup Start Time (System Settings): 9:00 PM
  • Daily Cleanup Duration (hours) (System Settings): 3
  • Days to Retain Deployment History (environment settings): 15
  • Use Deployment History Cleanup (environment settings): selected
  • Use Default Deployment History Retention (environment settings): selected

At 9:00 PM on 14 December 2016, the deployment history begins to run for 3 hours. During the 3 hours, all records of the deployment that are 15 days old or older are deleted, including records of component processes that are run and step logs from the processes. Three hours might be insufficient to delete all records that meet the cleanup criteria. In that case, cleanup resumes operations the next day as scheduled. If you need to clear more disk space, increase the cleanup duration.

Tip: If the cleanup settings are changed before 9:00 PM 14 December, then items that are deleted are not be the same as in this example. The settings can changed after this date. The settings might be changed numerous times. At any time, the administrator or users with privileges can change whether the cleanup process runs, what cleanup removes, when cleanup starts, and how long cleanup runs.
Tip: It is not recommended to cleanup all history at once. Example: If your goal is to only keep certain data for 10 days before it is cleaned up, you should slowly reduce the number of days to keep, so that you do not attempt to cleanup the last 4 years all at the same time.