PI Nexus+ / Reference
Retention and Maintenance Reference
This reference lists how long PI Nexus+ keeps each kind of data, when cleanup runs, and what each purge and reset removes. The Administration Guide chapter Inventory Maintenance and SQL Admin UI links here. Times are the scanner server's local time.
Overview
This reference lists how long PI Nexus+ keeps each kind of data, when cleanup runs, and what each purge and reset removes. The Administration Guide chapter Inventory Maintenance and SQL Admin UI links here. Times are the scanner server's local time.
Retention settings
| Data | Where | Options | Default | Cleanup runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Missing inventory | Inventory Maintenance > Inventory, Retention | 30, 90, 180, 365 days, Infinite | 180 days | After completed scans |
| Routine health history (successful health refreshes) | Scan history, Routine health history | 30, 60, 90, 180, 365 days, Infinite | 30 days | Daily at 3:00 AM |
| Inventory, verification, failure, completed-with-errors, recovery and other diagnostic runs | Scan history, Inventory and diagnostic history | 30, 60, 90, 180, 365 days, Infinite | 180 days | Daily at 3:00 AM |
| Compression tuning run details and comparison previews | Compression tuning, Detailed run retention | 7, 14, 30, 60, 90, 180, 365 days | 30 days | Daily at 2:30 AM |
| Compression tuning apply and restore audits | Compression tuning, Apply and restore audit retention | 90, 180, 365, 730, 1,825 days, Infinite | 365 days | Daily at 2:30 AM |
| Analysis recalculation runs and dismissed suggestions | Analysis recalculation, Keep history | 30, 60, 90, 180, 365, 730 days | 90 days | Daily at 3:30 AM |
| Inventory change history | Admin > Change Tracking | See Change Tracking | With change tracking | |
| Log files | Not configurable | 31 files per component | Daily | |
| Host monitoring samples | Not configurable | See Host Monitoring Reference |
Automatic cleanup is on by default for scan history, compression tuning and analysis recalculation. With it off, history is kept until you choose Run cleanup now. Saving changes only the settings; cleanup always uses the saved values.
Other limits
| Setting | Options | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Auto Tune recommendation capacity | 10,000 to 1,000,000 | 100,000 |
| Auto Tune capacity states | Warning at 50 %, held at 100 %, resumes below 80 % |
When the capacity is held, Auto Tune starts no new batches; manual tuning stays available. PI Nexus+ does not delete results to free capacity.
What cleanup never removes
- Active scans, unconfirmed cancellations, and work still being retried or waiting for attention.
- The run that current inventory or a target's automation baseline depends on.
- Emails not yet sent, and change events still inside their own retention.
- Analysis recalculation runs that are active, failed, unconfirmed or mixed, pending suggestions and suggestions whose email is not yet delivered.
- Active compression tuning runs, current recommendations, final apply results, unresolved restore failures and audits still inside their retention.
Cleanup works in small batches that can be resumed, and only one cleanup of a kind runs at a time. Analysis recalculation retention counts from the latest activity on a run (created, sent, retried, confirmed, dismissed or deleted). Some minimal records are kept after expiry so that no recalculation or email is sent twice; retention is therefore not a fixed size cap. Freed space is reused by SQL Server; database files are not shrunk.
Danger zone actions
| Action | Removes | Keeps | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purge missing inventory | All missing inventory, with its references, issues, suppressions and dependent PI Vision calculations | Active inventory, excluded inventory | Queued as Missing inventory purge; runs when no scan runs. Requested twice, it runs once |
| Purge excluded inventory | Inventory excluded by disabled targets or rules | Everything else | At once |
| Purge tuning runs | All inactive tuning runs, run points, comparison previews and tuning audits | PI Point inventory, tuning exclusions | At once |
| Purge full inventory | All discovered inventory, references, issues, dashboard snapshots, staging leftovers | Targets, rules, schedules, scan history | At once |
| Reset database | Inventory, scan history, targets, rules, schedules, PI Vision instances, notification settings | Security role mappings, security audit | At once |
On an estate of about one million PI Points and one million AF attributes, purging 56,500 missing objects took about 15 minutes.
Deleting a single scan run
| Item | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Where | Row menu of a finished run, Permanently delete, on the Scanning page's History tab or a target's history |
| Role | Admin |
| Preview | Lists the records deleted with the run |
| Refused when | The run has active work, is the source of current inventory, has retained change history or pending emails, or another record still needs it |
| Latest health result | Can be deleted; the target returns to unknown health and a health refresh becomes due |
| Audit | Each deletion is written to the security audit |
SQL Server page states
| Tile | States |
|---|---|
| Database | Reachable, Offline |
| Schema | Compatible, Not ready, Unknown |
| Migration | Current, Running, Failed, Backup (backup recommended), N pending (migration required; back up, then Apply), No history |
Who can do what
| Action | Role |
|---|---|
| Everything under Admin > Inventory Maintenance and Admin > SQL Server | Admin |
