atime synchronization with retention
Some file systems support the use of the POSIX atime
attribute to set retention. To take advantage of this existing mechanism, HCP gives you the option of synchronizing atime
values with HCP retention settings. When these properties are synchronized, changing one for an object causes an equivalent change in the other.
The tenant administrator enables or disables atime
synchronization for a namespace. While atime
synchronization is enabled, atime
values are automatically synchronized with retention settings for objects subsequently added to the namespace except in these cases:
- The object is added through NFS with an initial retention setting of Deletion Allowed.
- The object is added through any protocol with an initial retention setting that is either Initial Unspecified or a retention class.
In these cases, the atime value of an object is set to the time the object is stored.
For any given object, if atime synchronization was not enabled automatically, you can enable it manually.
While atime
synchronization is enabled for a namespace, the rules for changing retention settings also apply to changing atime
values. You cannot use atime
to shorten a retention period, nor can you use it to specify a retention period if the current setting is Deletion Prohibited
. Additionally, you cannot change the atime
value if the object is on hold.
atime
synchronization does not work with objects in retention classes. When you assign an object to a retention class, the atime
value for the object does not change, even if the atime
value had previously been synchronized with the retention setting. Triggering atime
synchronization for an object in a retention class has no effect.
atime
synchronization is enabled on a per-namespace basis. To find out whether it’s enabled for the namespace you’re using, contact your tenant administrator.