ILM Dashboard - Drop A Partition

The ILM Dashboard - Partitions tab displays information on current partitions in the system for all Maintenance Objects that are ILM enabled.

For a Maintenance Object, at any given time, the oldest partition of the primary table can be requested to be dropped via the "Drop Partition" button by a Requester user. A new "Partition Drop Request" object is then created for this request in Pending status and a To Do is created for an Approver user so the request goes through the approval process.

Requesters

A user must be setup as a Requester user in order to drop a primary table's oldest partition for a selected Maintenance Object at any given point. Please refer to Administrative User Guide for more information on how to setup these users.

Note:
A pre-requisite exists for dropping a primary table's oldest partitions with data. The crawler Batch Control associated with the Maintenance Object must be run first prior to requesting the partition drop, so that relevant data is appropriately marked for the partition to be dropped.
Note:
When oldest partition of the primary table for a maintenance object is requested to dropped, the oldest partitions of child tables for that maintenance object are also dropped. This is based on the referenced partitions setup for the maintenance object. If the maintenance object does not have referenced partitions setup, then only the primary table's oldest partition is dropped.

The "Partition Drop Request" object is initially in Pending status and displayed to Approver users in the "Partition Drop Requests" zone.

Approvers

A user must be setup as an Approver user for them to approve any Partition Drop Requests.Please refer to Administrative User Guide for more information on how to setup these users.

Viewing Drop Partition Requests

Only the Requester or Approver can view Drop Partition Requests based on their access. By default, only Pending or Error Drop Partition Requests are displayed. User can use the filter critera option to display all Drop Partition Requests or search for ones with different statuses. Depending on the user's access, the available and applicable actions are displayed to the user.

When the Approver views list of Partition Drop Requests, they have the option of either approving or rejecting the request.

Approving a request results in Partition Drop Request in In Progress status and completing the To Do previously created for that Approver. A batch job submission for Batch Control K1-ILMDR (ILM Automation - Drop Partition) is also initiated to drop the requested partition. Once the partition is successfully dropped, the Partition Drop Request transitions to Completed final status. Otherwise, if there are any errors, the Partition Drop Request transitions to Error status.

Rejecting a request requires specifying a reason as to why the request was rejected. Possible reasons for rejecting a request are 1. Approver determines that partition that is requested to drop is required and so it should not be dropped. 2. Incorrect request to drop a partition was made where Requester accidentally requested wrong partition to be dropped. Once the Approver rejects the request, the Partition Drop Request transitions to Rejected final status.

When the Partition Drop Request is in Error status, the Requester has the option to re-try the request again or cancel the request. In the case of re-try option, Requester can review the errors, take any necessary steps needed and and re-try the Partition Drop Request again. For example, if the pre-requisite step was not taken prior to requesting a partition drop, the data in the partition will not be marked for dropping. In this case, an error would be generated when the partition with that data is requested to be dropped. Requester can review the error to confirm the reason and run the crawler Batch Control associated with the Maintenance Object to mark partition data to be dropped. Once it is complete, Requester can re-try the Partition Drop Request again.

A Partition Drop Request in Pending status can be canceled by the Requester user if desired. A Requester user can also cancel the Partition Drop Request that is in Error status if they wish to not re-try the request.

Recommendations

It is recommended that dropping partitions is tested thoroughly in non-production environments first before performing the same operation in a production environment.

Tips

  • Once a partition is dropped, the data is also removed from the database and there is no way to restore the data back into the environment. It is imperative that customers review the partition and the respective data before requesting and approving the Partition Drop Request.
  • Customers can optionally choose to raise an SR(Service Request) to request a database copy prior to dropping a partition