Purge Old - Explained

The Purge Old Data feature allows administrators to remove inactive historical records that have not had any activity associated with them for more than seven years. Its primary purpose is to maintain database efficiency, improve system performance, and ensure data remains relevant by clearing out old, unused information. This article is intended for OPS-COM administrators responsible for system maintenance and data retention.

Setup and Configuration

This feature is a core administrative data maintenance tool and requires no specialized initial setup to enable.

Admin Side: Administrators must have the appropriate system permissions enabled to access the data maintenance tools and execute a system purge.

User Side: This feature is strictly a backend administrative tool and is not accessible to end-users on the portal.

Using this Feature

Administrators can use the following instructions to generate a list of inactive records and execute the system purge.

Executing a Data Purge

1. Hover over Tools and click Purge Old Data to initiate the identification process.

2. Wait for the progress bar to complete as the system compiles a list of any user activity and associated record updates that have occurred within the last seven years.

3. Review the system prompt indicating the number of inactive records identified for potential purging.

4. Click the Purge these records button to complete the process and execute the deletion of any data not found on the active list.

Any small update or activity on a record will automatically restart its seven-year clock. This business rule ensures that the record is excluded from purging and preserved for another seven years from that last activity date.

Purged Record Types

The following record types will be permanently purged if they have had no activity in the last seven years:

• User profiles

• Vehicles

• Violations

• Permits

• Appeals

• Temp Permits

• Payments

• Lockers

• Access Cards

• Gate Events

• Refunds

• Waitlist Records

• User History

Retained Record Types

The following record types will NOT be purged, regardless of their last updated date, ensuring the retention of critical long-term information:

• Incident Users

• Contact History

Best Practices and Considerations

• Review data retention policies: Administrators should ensure this purge process aligns with their organization's data retention policies and legal compliance requirements. Because purged data is permanently deleted, it is critical to confirm that your organization does not legally require records older than seven years to be held on file.

• Schedule appropriately: Consider running this purge during off-peak hours to minimize any potential impact on system performance. Although the process is designed to be efficient, scanning and deleting large volumes of historical data can temporarily draw system resources.

• Acknowledge historical context: Be aware that while purged records are removed, essential incident and contact history data remains intact for long-term reference. This ensures that major historical interactions are preserved even if the associated user profile or vehicle has been cleared out.