Disproportionate backup size of Alfresco

[ashokharnal]

I have a feeling that when uploaded files from Alfresco (ver 3.4.d) are deleted, the complete effect of file deletion
may take sometime to stabilise even though the files instantaneously disappear from Share or Explorer.
Backup of Alfresco continues to show heavy size, disproportionate to what it is holding now after deletion.
The question is how long will it take to clear the remnants of deleted files?

[loftux]

When you delete files, they first end up in a "waste bin". So you can recover them. It is unfortunately not available from Share, in Alfresco Explorer you can navigate to your profile and permanently delete them. Admin can delete for all users.
When deleted, they will be moved in your back end store from alf_data/contentstore to alf_data/contentstore.deleted around 4am (do not rememver exact time, around that hour) each day
contentstore.deleted you will have to manually empty, or delete files older thant x days. You can skip this folder in your backup if you want to.

So your observation is correct, backup size will grow over time if you do not delete items, first permanently in Alfresco Explorer, then from contentstore.deleted.

[ashokharnal]

Dear Loftux,

Thanks. I was able to transfer files to contentstore.deleted. But does it mean that if I stop Alfresco, delete
all folders from contentstore.deleted, Alfresco should work normally?

Ashok Kumar Harnal

[loftux]

Yes.
http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Content_Store_Configuration

One way to try this is to stop Alfresco, rename contentstore.deleted, start Alfresco. It should recreate contentstore.deleted.
It exists as an extra safety measure in case you would like to recover content that has been purged.
If you haven't checked this, it is good reading
http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Backup_and_Restore
It says to backup contentstore.deleted. And you can do so, but add some script to clean out older stuff from there. You could do something like
find /var/alfresco/alf_data/contentstore.deleted -mtime +30 -name '*.bin' |xargs rm
(havent tested the above, should work but take precautions)

[ashokharnal]

Dear Loftux

Thanks for the script to delete older files from contentstore.deleted.  I intend to put it in a regular cron job.

Ashok Kumar Harnal