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On-Premise Data Cleanup

Organizations running an on-premise Eyes Server accumulate historic test data over time, and that data can grow to account for a large share of the server's disk usage. The Data Cleanup feature reclaims that space by archiving historic data that is no longer in use, and then permanently deleting it once an archive period has elapsed.

Data Cleanup applies to on-premise deployments. It is turned off by default, and is enabled per organization by Applitools.

What Data Cleanup Covers​

When Data Cleanup runs, it archives and eventually deletes the following:

  • Test results, both batches and individual tests
  • Test apps
  • Checkpoint images
  • Baseline history and baseline images that were not used during the retention period
  • DOM captures, where DOM was captured for the Ultrafast Grid (UFG) or Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
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Data Cleanup permanently deletes data once it has been archived for longer than the archive period. Review the archive and retention periods carefully before requesting the feature, and make sure they match your organization's requirements for how long test history must remain available.

Enabling Data Cleanup​

Data Cleanup is available on on-premise Eyes Server version 10.14.2.x or later. It is enabled by Applitools rather than from within your Eyes account. To turn it on for your organization, contact Applitools support.

When you make the request, decide on the two periods that govern the process:

Archive period (in weeks)
The time between archiving the data and permanently deleting it. During this period the data can still be restored, but Eyes users cannot access it. The default value is 2 weeks.

Retention period (in weeks)
The period during which data is kept. Archived data older than the retention period is deleted. The default value is 52 weeks.

How the Data Cleanup Process Works​

Once a day, Eyes checks whether an archive or delete operation is needed, based on the archive period and retention period configured for your organization.

The Archive Process​

  • Any baseline that went unused during the retention period is archived. Baselines that were used for a comparison are marked as Used.
  • Test results, images, test apps, and environments used during the retention period are marked as Used.
  • Metadata from tests run before the retention period is marked as Archived. Only the metadata is archived at this stage — the associated images are not.
  • All images that were neither used nor created during the retention period are archived.
  • All unused apps and environments created before the retention period are archived.

The Delete Process​

  • Every entity archived during a previous archive operation is permanently deleted.

What to Expect​

Archiving an entity removes it from the server at runtime. It cannot be retrieved or accessed in Eyes, exactly as though it had already been deleted — the difference is that archived data can still be restored until the archive period elapses.

Images are never deleted directly by the archive process. An old image may still be associated with a recently used baseline, so images are only removed once they have been archived and the archive period has passed.