Retaining Files on Your ZFS File System

Using a file retention policy enables you to specify a uniform rule to indicate how long to retain your organization's records. Ensure that your policy establishes the retention period for your data, which relies on the impact and importance of each document type.

The policy dictates the retention period for all your confidential and private official documents such as email, client correspondence, customer records, employee records, contracts, and financial records.

Without creating a retention policy, you might face stress or face legal complications if you destroy some documents too soon.

The Oracle Solaris 11.4 software introduces the ZFS file retention feature that enables you to implement your organization's file retention policy. You can retain files only on a ZFS file system that has the file retention feature enabled.

You can retain a regular file (not a directory, link, special file, and so on) for a specified retention period. During the retention period, the retained file is read-only and cannot be modified or deleted. When the retention period ends, you can delete a retained file. However, you cannot modify that file, even after the retention period ends.

The shadow migration feature correctly handles retained files and migrates them with the retention period property values intact.

This section covers the following topics:

• Creating a ZFS File System With File Retention

• ZFS File Retention Properties

• Retaining Your Files

• Retaining Zero-Length Files

• Enabling Automatic File Retention

• File Retention Restrictions

For more information about the ZFS file retention feature, see the zfs(8) and zpool(8) man pages.