6.0 HP X9000 File Serving Software File System User Guide (TA768-96043, October 2011)

12 Managing data retention and validation
The data retention and validation feature is intended for sites that need to archive read-only files
for business purposes. Data retention ensures that files cannot be modified or deleted for a specific
retention period. Data validation scans can be used to ensure that files remain unchanged.
IMPORTANT: The data retention and validation feature requires that the agile management
console be configured on all file serving nodes in the cluster.
Overview
Data retention
To use data retention, it must be enabled on a file system. When you enable data retention, you
can specify a retention profile that includes minimum, maximum, and default retention periods that
specify how long a file must be retained.
Determining the files to manage with data retention
The files in the file system can be in the normal, Write-Once Read-Many (WORM), or
WORM-retained state. WORM files and WORM-retained files can be managed by data retention.
A WORM-retained file is a WORM file that has a retention period applied to it. The files differ in
this manner:
• WORM files cannot be modified, but can be deleted at any time.
• WORM-retained files cannot be modified, and cannot be deleted until the retention period
expires.
NOTE: You can apply a legal hold to a WORM or WORM-retained file. The file then cannot be
deleted until the hold is released, even if the retention period has expired.
Before configuring a file system for data retention, you should determine the types of files you want
to manage and then set the default retention period accordingly.
• If you want to manage both WORM (non-retained) files and WORM-retained files, set the
default retention period to zero.
• If you want to manage only WORM-retained files, set the default retention period to a non-zero
value.
The following table summarizes the differences in normal, WORM, and WORM-retained files.
Modify or delete?Retention periodatime settingPermissionsFile state
Can be modified
or deleted
Retention period has no effectNot resetCreated read-only or
read-write
Normal
Cannot be
modified but can
be deleted
Default data retention period is set
to 0 seconds
Not resetManually set to read-only,
even if created read-only
WORM
Cannot be
modified or
deleted
Default data retention period is not
set to 0 seconds, or a specific data
retention period is applied to the
file
Set to a date in
the future
Manually set to read-only,
even if created read-only
WORM-
Retained
For WORM and retained files, the file's contents and the following file attributes cannot be modified:
• File name (the file cannot be renamed or moved)
• User and group owners
112 Managing data retention and validation