5.2 Salvaging and Purging Files

Traditional volumes provide a salvage subsystem where deleted files are retained on the server until a purge delay time elapses, the deleted file is salvaged, or the deleted file is purged manually, whichever first occurs. The default purge delay time is four (4) days. When the purge delay time elapses or if server runs out of disk allocation blocks on the volume, deleted files are deleted in a first-deleted, first-purged order.

5.2.1 Configuring Salvage for All NSS Volumes on the Server

By default, all volumes on the server can optionally use the salvage feature to save deleted files for some predefined time or until space is needed. If you do not want files to be salvageable after deletion, you can enable the Immediate Purge of Deleted Files parameter. When this parameter is enabled at the server level, whenever a file is deleted, it is purged immediately. This server-level salvage setting overrides the settings for volume-level and file-level salvage parameters. For instructions, see SET in the NW 6.5 SP8: Utilities Reference.

Table 5-1 Server-Level Salvage Parameter

Parameter

Description

/(No)ImmediatePurgeOfDeletedFiles

Supported Values: On or Off (default)

If this parameter is set to On, all files on all Traditional volumes or NSS volumes on the server are purged immediately when they are deleted.

5.2.2 Salvaging Deleted Files

Salvageable files are deleted files that are saved by NetWare after being deleted by users

When you delete a file on a Traditional NetWare volume, the deleted file is moved into the sys:\deleted.sav directory, which is known as the file salvage area. No record is kept of where the file originated, so salvaging files by their original directory is not possible.

You can view a list of deleted files in a directory and recover files by using Novell Remote Manager for NetWare. For more information on salvaging files, see the NW 6.5 SP8: Novell Remote Manager Administration Guide. Recovered files contain information about who deleted the files and when they were deleted.

Deleted files are saved until the server’s purge delay time elapses, the administrator manually purges them, or the NetWare server runs out of disk allocation blocks on the volume.

5.2.3 Purging Deleted Files

Salvageable files are usually stored in the directory they were deleted from. If a directory is deleted, NetWare moves the salvageable files from the deleted directory to the deleted.sav directory.

When the NetWare server runs out of blocks, it purges deleted files. It deletes the files in the order that they were deleted (first in, first out) in any of the salvageable areas. Purged files cannot be salvaged.

To purge files and directories as they are deleted, use one of these methods:

  • Use the set command at the NetWare server console to disable the salvageable file feature.

    By default, the Immediate Purge of Deleted Files parameter is set to Off. By default, files are salvaged when they are deleted instead of being purged immediately.

    To purge files as they are deleted, set the parameter named Immediate Purge of Deleted Files to On. This increases performance, but at the cost of losing the salvageable file feature. For instructions, see SET in the NW 6.5 SP8: Utilities Reference.

  • Set the Purge attribute for individual files and directories.

    If a file is flagged with the Purge attribute, the file is purged when it is deleted.

    If a directory is flagged with the Purge attribute, NetWare purges all files in that directory when the directory is deleted. Purged files and directories cannot be recovered.

  • Use Novell Remote Manager for NetWare to manually purge individual files and directories. For instructions, see the NW 6.5 SP8: Novell Remote Manager Administration Guide.