After you finish a job, archive the job files and then purge them to save disk space. If you need the files later, you can retrieve them.
Alternatively, you can copy a job to retrieve an archived job.
The archive, purge, and retrieve process templates control archiving, purging, and retrieving job files.
Generally, you archive and purge job files after the job is printed, although you can archive and purge job files at any time.
The window that you use to archive, purge, and retrieve depends on the scope you want. To affect an entire job or multiple jobs, use Job Finder. (You can archive, purge, and retrieve up to 30 jobs at one time.) To affect selected files in a single job, use Job Manager.
About archiving
Archiving job files saves the files to separate tapes or disks. The files are saved in context and information about the job is retained in the database.
You can archive at two levels:
- Archiving the whole job archives all of the files in the job folder and any files that you added to the job that reside on another input volume. When you later purge the job, the whole job folder is removed from its original volume, but any input files that reside on another input volume are not purged; they remain in their current location.
- Archiving selected files within a job archives only those files. Files that you added to the job from another input volume and files that you copied to the job folder are only archived if you specifically select those files in Job Manager.
When you archive a signature or separation, all of the files linked to that signature or separation are also archived.
To archive, you must specify in the archive process template the media pools or disks to which you want to archive. You should always archive to more than one media pool or disk, so that you always have a spare copy.
Note: You cannot perform incremental archiving. Complete archiving removes the need for Prinergy to check each file for changes before archiving. When archiving to tape, complete archiving removes the need to switch tapes before archiving—for example—if changed job files are on a different tape than the original job.
About purging
Purging job files removes archived files from the volume on which you created the job. This frees up active disk space but retains a record of the purged files so that they can be retrieved later. You can purge job files only if they are already archived.
When you purge a whole job, the whole job folder is removed from its original volume, but any input files that reside on another input volume are not purged; they remain in their current location.
When you use a purge process template, be sure to specify the same media pools or disk volumes to which you archived the files. Prior to purging the files, Archiver verifies that the files were successfully archived to the specified pools or disks. If you do not specify all of the same pools or disks to which you archived the files, Archiver will check only that each file has been archived to one pool or disk and you may accidentally purge job files before duplicate copies of the archive are made.
Purging versus destroying
Destroying a job completely removes it from the system, and removes all information about the job from the database.
Destroying is different from purging a job; job data is retained in the database. Destroying a job removes the job folder and all of its contents from the volume on which the job was created. (Any files that you added to the job that reside on another input volume are not destroyed.)
After a job is destroyed, you cannot retrieve it. Therefore, you should destroy a job only if you will never need it again. If you think you may need to print the job again, archive and purge it instead.
About retrieving
You can retrieve files if you need to access job files after you archive and purge them. For example, you may want to remake a plate for the job.
Retrieving job files restores them back to the volume on which the job was originally created. You can retrieve job files only if they were previously archived.
When you retrieve a separation, all of the files linked to that separation are also retrieved. When you retrieve a signature, all of the files linked to that signature are also retrieved.
When you attempt to retrieve a file that is already on the volume, Prinergy checks to see if the file to be retrieved matches the file that is online. If the modification dates and times of the two files match, the stored file is not retrieved unless Overwrite Existing Files is selected in the retrieve process template.