Running offline database cleanup

To perform offline database cleanup, you can choose between running the Offline Cleanup utility through the GUI or through a command line interface (CLI).

Before you begin

For a list of preparatory tasks that you might need to perform before performing offline database cleanup, see Preparing for offline database cleanup.

To run offline cleanup through the GUI

1. Log on to the Application Server that you plan to run the offline database cleanup utility (ensure that you have the required permissions to access the Database Maintenance Wizard).
   To start the Database Maintenance Wizard navigate to the location where the executable file is located. The path and file name for Microsoft Windows and Linux are listed in the table below:

   Platform	Path	Executable File
   Microsoft Windows	C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BladeLogic\NSH\br\dbm-rcp	dbm.exe
   Linux and UNIX	/opt/bmc/bladelogic/NSH/br/dbm-rcp	dbm.nsh

   Note

   If the Wizard is launched through a third party utility, such as Exceed, the screen resolution should be set to 1024*768.

2. Before you proceed to the Settings pane, ensure that all Application Servers connected to the database are shut down and no ETL processes are running.

3. On the Settings pane, perform the following configuration steps:

   Note

   A link above the list of retention periods ("Click here to get the approximate cleanup percentages") enables you to evaluate the impact of the database cleanup process (that is, how much data would be deleted from the database) for different retention periods when applied to the various modules. This option opens a secondary dialog box that is similar to the report returned by the dbm_cli.nsh script when run with the -eval option. The displayed data can help you decide on appropriate retention periods for the various modules. Audit Trail and Job Run Event modules are not evaluated for cleanup percentages. 

   1. Select the modules for which you want to run the cleanup utility. If the modules selected have a dependency on Job Run Event, Job Run Event is selected by default.

      Tip

      To speed up this step, use the Select All and Clear All buttons.

      The Last Run Date and Last Run Status columns contain information about the most recent time when each of the modules was cleaned up. This information can help you decide on the modules that you want to include in the cleanup.

   2. Select the retention period for your data (in days). Data older than the specified retention period will be purged. The retention period can be set to a maximum of 90 days and a minimum of 3 days. Default retention period for Job Run Event and Audit Trail is 14 days and for all other modules it is 90 days. The retention period is applied to all Job Result data irrespective of the existing retention policy set at the individual job level.
      

      Tip

      To set retention periods for all modules to default values, click the Reset Default Retention Period button.

   3. If you want to set a maximum length of time for the cleanup process to run, select the Configure Database Maintenance Execution Duration check box, and then set a duration in minutes.
      The range is 60 minutes to 1440 minutes (1 hour to 24 hours). If this duration is not defined, the process will continue until completion or until it is stopped.

      Note

      After completion of the specified duration, the maintenance process will end only after it has reached an appropriate stage in its execution. This is done to prevent data inconsistency and  it might take a while  for the process to stop.

4. After the Database Maintenance process has started, you can see the progress of each module and its status on the Database Maintenance pane.
   

   Note

   The wizard will not run the Database Maintenance process for modules that have been cleaned within a period of 180 days.

5. You can pause the offline database cleanup process by clicking the Stop button. However, the system only halts the process at a stage from where it can recover without any loss or corruption of data. For example, in the following screenshot, the system has halted only after completing the cleanup process for the first two modules.
   
   

   Note

   After pausing the cleanup process on an Oracle database, ensure that database statistics are updated before resuming the process at any later time.

6. When the Database Maintenance Wizard is in the Halted state, you can do either of the following:

   • Click Restart to continue the clean up process from where it was halted.

     Note

     The wizard will perform the following actions if the process is restarted:

     • It will rerun the Database Maintenance process for modules that were completed before a period of 180 days.
     • It will rerun the Database Maintenance process for modules that were run unsuccessfully.

   • Click Finish to end the clean up process and exit the wizard. You can restart the wizard to continue the clean up activities at a later time.

7. On the Summary pane of the wizard, review the list of modules and their statuses.
   To exit the wizard, click Finish.
   

   Note

   You can find a detailed log report of the Database Maintenance process in the run_log.csv file, which is stored in the following location:

   <Path to BladeLogic>/NSH/br/dbm-rcp/run_log.log

To run offline cleanup through a command line

Through the command line, run the dbm_cli.nsh script file with the following command options:

Where to go from here

For tasks that you need to perform after completing the offline database cleanup process, see Post-cleanup activities.