Deleting CIs from a dataset by using the Delete activity

As a Configuration Manager, you can delete CIs and relationships from one or more datasets by using the Delete activity. The Delete activity is similar to the Purge activity. For information about the Purge activity, see Purging soft-deleted data to optimize CMDB performance.

Example

Calbro services wants to permanently delete the CIs in a dataset where the attribute AccountID is $NULL$. They trust that they do not need these CIs, hence they do not use the MarkAsDelete attribute to mark each of these CIs for soft-delete. Instead, they create a Delete activity and permanently delete all CIs that match the specified qualification.

Before you begin

Create a qualification ruleset to specify the instances and classes that are deleted. For creating a qualification ruleset, see Creating qualification rules for reconciliation activities.

To delete CIs from a dataset

1. On the Dashboard, go to Jobs > Manage Reconciliation.

   • To add the Delete activity in a new job, click Create Job. 
     See Creating a reconciliation job.

   • To add the Delete activity to an existing job, on the reconciliation dashboard, select an existing job from the All Job Run Activities and then click Edit Job.
     

2. Create a Delete activity in the reconciliation job. 

   1. In the Activities area, click Add activity and select Delete from the list.
      

   2. Enter the following information:

      Field	Description
      Name	Type a unique name for the activity. The name must contain only those characters that the operating system of your server allows for file names. For example, on a windows server, your job name cannot contain the following characters: \ / : * ? " < > |.
      Namespace	Select a Namespace from the list. Only classes in the selected namespaces can participate in the activity. For more information, see Namespaces and reconciliation.
      Status	Active - Runs the activity when the reconciliation job runs. Inactive - Does not run the activity when the reconciliation job runs.
      Continue on Error	Defines whether the job continues if the activity has an error. Selected - The job continues to run even if an error occurs in this activity. Cleared - The job is terminated if an error occurs in this activity.
      Sequence	Specify the sequence value for this activity in relation to other activities in a job. For example, if this activity has a sequence value of 2, it runs before an activity with a sequence value of 3. The sequence can be from 0 to 1000.

   3. Select the dataset from the list in the Dataset area. You can select multiple datasets to participate in the activity.

      

   4. Select the desired option under Delete instances.
      • Identified and unidentified - Both identified and unidentified instances are deleted.
      • Identified - Only identified instances are deleted.
      • Unidentified - Only unidentified instances are deleted.
      

   5. (Optional) In Qualification, add a qualification set to select which classes and instances to delete. 

   • • Clear Use all classes and instances to restrict the Delete activity by using a qualification set.

     • Click Select qualification ruleset to select a qualification set. 

   1. In the Schedule area, select the frequency and condition to run the job.
3. Click Saveto save the reconciliation job with the Delete activity. 
4. (Optional) To run the job immediately, open the job from All Job Run Activities and click Start Job.

If there are multiple activities in a reconciliation job and you want to run a specific activity, use the Status button to make the other activities inactive.

You can view the job in the Reconciliation jobs dashboard. To see only the jobs that have Delete activity, select Delete from the Activity Type list.

The following video (2:28) shows an example for a delete activity and the steps required to create a delete activity in a reconciliation job:

https://youtu.be/fJjQOt9Q24s