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The user can also define a Time-to-live (TTL) value on each snapshot, which acts as an expiration date. Snapshots automatically terminate when the TTL expires, assuming the snapshot does not have any linked targets or is in a restore session. If a snapshot has linked targets and the time-to-live has expired, the snapshot terminates when the last target is unlinked or the restore session is terminated.
TTL values can either be set to a specific date (-absolute) or a specified number of days (-delta). When a user sets a TTL value to a specific date, Solutions Enabler internally uses a delta that is calculated from the specified date and the current host time. This internal conversion eliminates the need for users to synchronize clocks or calculate times between servers and the storage array. Time-to-Live values can be specified when the snapshot is established and can also be set or changed on existing snapshots.
Expiration can be specified by days or hours beginning with Solutions Enabler 8.4, Unisphere 8.4, and REST API 8.4. Expiration is available in one day increments in earlier releases.
Hours can be specified with both the -absolute and the –delta options. The maximum value allowed is 23 hours. Specifying hours is optional when setting the expiration date and can be omitted. Scripts that were created with previous versions of Solutions Enabler and do not specify hours continue to function after upgrading to Solutions Enabler 8.4.
Examples of the CLI format of the –ttl option are:
The following figure is an example of the Unisphere wizard: