Truncating and Archiving System Logs

About this task

Retaining excessive data in the SOTI MobiControl database can consume significant storage space in your database. It is good practice to regularly truncate and archive old data.

Align the data truncation timelines with your business data retention or privacy policies.

Note: Microsoft SQL Server Express (provided by SOTI MobiControl) has a storage limit of 10 GB. If you have a large number of devices or a lot of activity in your deployment, you may require more storage space to accommodate your log data. Consider upgrading to Microsoft SQL Server Standard. Requires purchase from Microsoft.

In addition to the default log behavior (see Log Maintenance), you can define custom truncation and archiving rules.

Note: When archiving to files, note that these files may contain sensitive and personal information. You must store them in a well-protected location. It is your organizations's responsibility to restrict access to the exported files.

Procedure

  1. Select Global Settings from the main menu.
  2. From the Settings tree on the left, select Logs and Alerts > Log Maintenance to open the Log Maintenance page.
  3. Define truncation and archival settings per log type:
    Data Type Displays the log type.
    Truncate Data Older Than Define when to remove data from the database:
    • On the left, type the number of time units.
    • On the right, select a time unit.
    Archive Select "Yes" to archive the truncated data to files.
    Toggle Turn off the toggle to never truncate or archive logs of this type to files.
  4. Optional: To truncate logs immediately, click the corresponding icon(s) on the Data Truncation and Archival toolbar:
    • Truncate User, Device and System Logs
    • Truncate Alerts
    • Truncate App Logs
    Note: This process does not archive the data. Archival occurs only during nightly maintenance.
  5. To archive logs to files, use the following controls:
    Archive Folder Turn on the toggle to enable file archiving. When you do, the Folder Path field appears.
    Folder Path Enter the a local or network path to the folder where you want to save the archived files.
    Delete Archives Turn on the toggle to enable automated deletion of archive files based on their age. When you do, the Older Than controls appear.
    Older Than Select the time unit and the number of these units. Files older than the defined age get deleted during nightly maintenance.
  6. Click Save.

Results

Your logs will now be truncated and archived according to the guidelines you set.

Example