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Using the Event Based Retention (EBR) feature

You can use the SnapLock Event Based Retention (EBR) feature to define how long a file is retained after the occurrence of an event.

Before you begin

About this task

The event retention policy defines the retention period for the file after the event occurs. The policy can be applied to a single file or all the files in a directory.

  • If a file is not a WORM file, it will be committed to the WORM state for the retention period defined in the policy.

  • If a file is a WORM file or a WORM appendable file, its retention period will be extended by the retention period defined in the policy.

You can use a Compliance-mode or Enterprise-mode volume.

Note
EBR policies cannot be applied to files under a Legal Hold.

Using EBR to extend the retention period of already existing WORM files

EBR is convenient when you want to extend the retention period of already existing WORM files. For example, it might be your firm's policy to retain employee W-4 records in unmodified form for three years after the employee changes a withholding election. Another company policy might require that W-4 records be retained for five years after the employee is terminated.

In this situation, you could create an EBR policy with a five-year retention period. After the employee is terminated (the event), you would apply the EBR policy to the employee's W-4 record, causing its retention period to be extended. That will usually be easier than extending the retention period manually, particularly when a large number of files is involved.

  1. Create an EBR policy: snaplock event-retention policy create -vserver SVM_name -name policy_name -retention-period retention_period

    Example

    The following command creates the EBR policy employee_exit on vs1 with a retention period of ten years:

    cluster1::>snaplock event-retention policy create -vserver vs1 -name employee_exit -retention-period 10years
  2. Apply an EBR policy: snaplock event-retention apply -vserver SVM_name -name policy_name -volume volume_name -path path_name

    Example

    The following command applies the EBR policy employee_exit on vs1 to all the files in the directory d1 :

    cluster1::>snaplock event-retention apply -vserver vs1 -name employee_exit -volume vol1 -path /d1