Delete Aged Discovery Data vs Delete Obsolete Client Discovery Data

Question

_{Friday, September 26, 2014 2:43 PM}

Hello all!

I have been reasearching the differences between the Delete Aged Discovery Data and Delete Obsolete Client Discovery Data maintenance tasks. I have also read the two TechNet write ups below.

• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb693856.aspx
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632879.aspx

I still have not been able to determine if the Delete Aged Discovery Data maintenance task will actually purge obsolete records, or if turning on the Delete Obsolete Client Discovery Data maintenance task is the only way to clear our obsolete records. Does anyone know? I was hoping someone could explain in further detail the differences how these two tasks clean up old data.

--Tony

All replies (16)

_{Monday, September 29, 2014 3:21 PM ✅Answered}

It's as simple as that:
"Delete inactive .." . will delete resources that are marked as "inactive".
"Delete obsolete ..." will delete resources that are marked as "obsolete". Obsolete ones are not automatically marked as inactive.

"Delete aged ..." will delete resources which ConfigMgr hasn't heard of for xyz days.

Torsten Meringer | http://www.mssccmfaq.de

_{Monday, September 29, 2014 9:42 PM ✅Answered}

Yes the site maintenance tasks are named pretty well. "Inactive" means those marked as "Inactive", "Obsolete" are those marked as "Obsolete". "Aged" means anything not updated in your configured value.

Wally Mead

_{Monday, September 29, 2014 7:16 AM}

Hi,

From my understanding, "Delete Aged Discovery Data" task deletes data that has been inactive for xxx days. So if the obsolete client discovery data is inactive for xxx days, "Delete Aged Discovery Data" task will delete it.

Best Regards,

Joyce

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_{Monday, September 29, 2014 2:48 PM}

I thought Delete Inactive Client Discovery Data would purge data that is inactive for xxx days? Supposedly, when a client is flagged obsolete it also marked inactive. If this is true, sounds like the Delete Inactive Client Discovery Data task will also clean up obsolete clients. Is this correct? If so what is the purpose of the Delete Obsolete Client Discovery Data? Is it a separate option so someone can specifically target obsolete client at a different timing interval than the Delete Inactive Client Discovery Data task?

Confusing me a little more is the** Delete Aged Discovery Data** which deletes aged client discovery data from the Configuration Manager Site database. This data can include records resulting from heartbeat discovery, network discovery, and Active Directory Domain Services discovery methods (System, User, and System Group).

The way this reads, is that it is an all-encompassing clean up approach which will target, **Delete Inactive Client Discovery Data, **and **Obsolete Client Discovery Data. ** Is this correct? If could you explain how it is different and the relationships between these different Maintenance tasks?

--Tony

_{Monday, September 29, 2014 3:03 PM}

My understanding is that deleting "aged" data will remove anything discovered with it's last discovery timestamp older than  "x".  In contrast Obsolete targets duplicates, or objects which superseded in one way or another.  So I *believe* aged will in fact remove stale data, but because it looks at every discovery record, it may be more "strict" on what qualifies (if you never delete that computer object out of AD for example).

_{Monday, September 29, 2014 3:19 PM}

I ran across this thread here, which says:

As far as the difference between 'delete inactive client discovery data' & 'delete aged discovery data'  is concerned, both these tasks are almost similar. Refer below description to understand these two tasks

Delete Inactive Client Discovery Data - When this task operates, Config Mgr evaluates only the discovery data for resources that are SCCM clients.

Delete Aged Discovery Data - When this task operates, Config Mgr evaluates ALL discovered resources. 

(e.g., If Delete Inactive Client Discovery Data is disabled, but you still have Delete Aged Discovery Data set to say 90 days it will also delete Inactive Clients entries from the database after 90 days). 

Now just trying to find out if Delete Aged Discovery Data purges obsolete data.

--Tony

_{Monday, September 29, 2014 3:46 PM}

Torsten

Thanks for the cliff notes!

I would like to clarify one last item. If "delete inactive" is not configured,  "delete aged" will still pickup inactive  resources ConfigMgr has not heard of for xyz days?

--Tony

_{Monday, September 29, 2014 4:04 PM}

If "delete inactive" is not configured,  "delete aged" will still pickup inactive  resources ConfigMgr has not heard of for xyz days?

Yes.

Torsten Meringer | http://www.mssccmfaq.de

_{Monday, September 29, 2014 5:41 PM}

"Delete obsolete ..." will delete resources that are marked as "obsolete". Obsolete ones are not automatically marked as inactive.

Just a heads up, here is where I found a blog stating obsolete resources are marked inactive. Including it so other folks wont get confused.

_{Monday, September 29, 2014 6:03 PM}

That's the theory ... I checked my lab before replying and found obsoletes ones that were not flagged inactive.

Torsten Meringer | http://www.mssccmfaq.de

_{Tuesday, September 30, 2014 3:59 PM}

 "Aged" means anything not updated in your configured value.

Wally Mead

Will "Aged" pick up "obsolete" or is the only way to purge obsolete records is with the "obsolete" task? The way I read Justin's comment above is the only way to clear "obsolete" is with "obsolete".

_{Tuesday, September 30, 2014 4:10 PM}

Also, if anyone is interested, here is the query rule I used to pull in a collection of obsolete resources.

 select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System  WHERE      SMS_R_System.Obsolete = 1

_{Tuesday, September 30, 2014 4:16 PM}

Will "Aged" pick up "obsolete"

It's no rocket science: it will also delete them *if* they are aged (IOW if the resource was not updated with x days).

Torsten Meringer | http://www.mssccmfaq.de

_{Tuesday, September 30, 2014 6:19 PM}

Obsolete is just a specific flag on a resource. It doesn't matter what flags are there. If the resource is aged, the Delete Aged Discovery Data task will remove it.

Wally Mead

_{Monday, April 23, 2018 5:32 PM}

I know this is very old posting, but I am curious if there is a MS document somewhere that show best practices for setting these delete settings? 

or is the Default the best practice ?

_{Monday, April 23, 2018 5:37 PM}

I know this is very old posting, but I am curious if there is a MS document somewhere that show best practices for setting these delete settings? 

or is the Default the best practice ?

There is no best practice for this. It is what makes sense for you. 

Garth Jones

Blog: https://www.enhansoft.com/blog Old Blog: https://sccmug.ca/

Twitter: @GarthMJ Book: System Center Configuration Manager Reporting Unleashed