NAME
nfexpire - data expiry program
SYNOPSIS
nfexpire [options]
DESCRIPTION
nfexpire is used to manage the expiration of old netflow data files,
created by nfcapd(1) or other data collectors such as sfcapd(1). Data
expiration is done either by nfcapd(1) in auto expiry mode, or by
nfexpire which can by run at any time or any desired time interval by
cron. nfexpire can also be savely run while nfcapd auto expires files,
for cleaning up full disks etc. nfexpire is sub directory hierarchy
aware, and handles any format automatically. For a fast and efficient
expiration, nfexpire creates and maintains a stat file named .nfstat in
the data directory. Any directory supplied with the options below
corresponds to the data directory supplied to nfcapd(1) using option
-l.
OPTIONS
-l directory
List current data statistics in directory datadir.
-r directory
Rescan the specified directory to update the statfile. To be used
only when explicit update is required. Usually nfexpire takes care
itself about rescanning, when needed.
-e datadir
Expire files in the specified directory. Expire limits are taken
from statfile ( see -u ) or from supplied options -s -t and -w.
Command line options overwrite stat file values, however the
statfile limits are not changed.
-s maxsize
Set size limit for the directory. The specified limit accepts values
such as 100M, 100MB 1G 1.5G etc. Accpeted size factors are K, KB, M,
MB, G, GB and T, TB. If no factor is supplied bytes (B) is assumed.
A value of 0 disables the max size limit.
-t maxlife_time
Sets the max life time for files in the directory. The supplied
maxlife_time accepts values such as 31d, 240H 1.5d etc. Accpeted
time scales are w (weeks) d (days) H (hours). A value of 0 disables
the max lifetime limit. If no scale is given, H (hours) are assumed.
-u datadir
Updates the max size and lifetime limits, specified by -s -t and -w
and stores them in the statfile as default values. A running
nfcapd(1) processs doing auto expiry will take these new values
starting with the next expiry cycle. Running nfexpire next time
doing file expiration will take these new limits unless -s -t or -w
are specified.
-w watermark
Set the water mark in % for expiring data. If a limit is hit, files
get expired down to this level in % of that limit. If not set, the
default is 95%.
-h Print help text on stdout with all options and exit.
-p Directories specified by -e, -l and -r are interpreted as profile
directories. Only NfSen will need this option.
-Y Print result in parseable format. Only NfSen will need this option.
RETURN VALUE
Returns
0 No error.
255 Initialization failed.
250 Internal error.
NOTES
There are two ways to expire files: nfcapd in auto-expire mode ( option
-e ) and nfexpire running by hand or periodically as cron job. Both
ways synchronize access to the files, therefore both ways can be run in
parallel if required.
Expiring by nfcapd in auto-expire mode: option -e
If nfcapd is started with option -e, the auto-expire mode is enabled.
After each cycle ( typically 5min ) nfcapd expires files according to
the limits set with nfexpire using options -u -s -t and -w. If
initially no limits are set, no files get expired.
Expiring by nfexpire
nfexpire can be run at any time to expire files. It automatically syncs
up with the files created by nfcapd in the mean time since the last
expire run, if a nfcapd collector process is running for that directory
in question and expires the files according the limits set.
Limits
Files are expired according to two limits: maximum disk space used by
all files in the directory and maximum lifetime of data files, whatever
limit is reached first. If one of the limit is hit the expire process
will delete files down to the watermark of that limit.
SEE ALSO
nfcapd(1)
BUGS
2009-09-09 nfexpire(1)