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Purging the database of old incidents or answers
Answer ID 781   |   Last Review Date 01/03/2024

What options are there for purging the database of old incidents or answers?

Environment:

Purge incidents, Delete answers

Issue:

I would like to purge our database of all public answers and incidents for all interfaces. How can I accomplish this without deleting the incidents one at a time?

Resolution:

There are several options to purge your database of old incidents or answers. To delete records from your site, such as incidents or answers, your staff profile must have the Delete option enabled for the record type. For example, to delete incidents, your staff profile must have the Delete option enabled on the Service tab for incidents.

You can archive older incidents instead of deleting them so that if you need to reference them in a read-only format at a later time, you can. For more information on archiving incidents, refer to Answer ID 1234: Options for removing older incidents without deleting them from our site.

 

Deleting Solved Incidents

Important! Once the incidents have been purged, edit the PURGE_DELETE_INCIDENTS setting to be zero so that your new incidents are not deleted.

The best way to purge old, solved incidents prior to the 18B release is by using the PURGE_DELETE_INCIDENTS  configuration setting. This setting specifies the number of days after which Solved incidents will be deleted.

Beginning with the 18B release, incident purging can be configured and enabled via Data Lifecycle Policies in the Agent Browser UI. Because of this the PURGE_DELETE_INCIDENTS configuration has been removed.

Note: Incidents assigned to custom status levels where the custom status type is Solved are also purged from the database.

If you set the PURGE_DELETE_INCIDENTS setting to 0, incidents will not be deleted automatically. If you set this setting to be 1 day, you can remove virtually all Solved incidents from your database the next time agedatabase runs -- usually once per day.

Path to setting(s): Select Configuration from the navigation area > Site Configuration > Configuration Settings > and search by Key.


 

Deleting Unresolved Incidents

Important! Use extreme caution when deleting batches of incidents. Once the incidents are deleted from the database, they are removed completely and this action cannot be reversed.

Note that you can also use this method to delete groups of solved incidents if you have a specific group of incidents you wish to delete.

To delete a group of incidents, you can use the multi-select feature to select a group of incidents and then right click on the selection and select Delete:

  1. Use a report that allows you to search for the incidents of interest.
  2. Using the Shift key to select a range of incidents. Use the Control key to select specific incidents to delete.
  3. Right click and select Delete > Incident.
  4. Confirm the deletion if you are certain you want to delete the incidents.
 

Deleting Answers

Important! Be very careful when deleting answers. Once the answers are deleted from the database, they are removed completely and this action cannot be reversed.

 

To delete answers, you can use the multi-select feature and then right click on the group of answers and select Delete:

  1. Use a report that allows you to search for the answers of interest.
  2. Using the Shift key select a range of answers. Use the Control key to select specific answers to delete.
  3. Right click and select Delete > Answer.
  4. Confirm the deletion if you are certain you want to delete the answers.