How to set number of old archives kept on Ignite server?

[Zbigniew Filek]

How does one set the number of old archives kept for a host on the Ignite server? I seem to remember the default is 2, but how does one modify that?
Is there any “scientific” method of telling the Ignite-UX server to keep just one, newest copy of archive per host, using Ignite GUI, editing a configuration file or whatever? Or can I just brutally delete the old archive files in /var/opt/ignite/recovery/archives/ without breaking anything? I can’t find this info anywhere. Thanks in advance for a tip!

[Bill Hassell · Accepted solution]

The man page for make_net_recovery is helpful:

-n number_archives

Specifies the number of archives that should remain on the server at any given time. The default is two (2). If number_archives is two and there are already two archives present when a third is being created, make_net_recovery will remove the oldest archive after successfully creating the newest archive.

In other words, the server does not determine the number of archives -- it is the backup program itself.

> telling the Ignite-UX server to keep just one

Yes, -n 1 works fine -- BUT one copy? What if the one copy is a picture of the system when it had a bad patch or some critical files had been deleted? This archive is the lifesaver, the one last chance to restore a system. I typically keep 3 archives, but I also backup the archive directory daily so i can go back weeks if necessary.

[Zbigniew Filek]

Thank you for the fast answer! I did look at the man pages but somehow missed it. Anyhow, it works. BTW I have a whole bunch of servers and am simply not able to keep 2 images for all of them for space reasons. Some of them have make_tape_recovery backup available and for these I'll keep only one copy on ignite server. Thanks again. I'm closing the thread.

[Zbigniew Filek]

Add -n number_archives in make_net_recovery command.