Retention of Events in the vCenter Server Database

You can configure vCenter Server to retain events in the database for a limited period. Discarding events periodically ensures optimal performance of the database.

In new installations of vCenter Server 6.5, the event clean up option is enabled by default and the default number of days to retain event messages in the database is 30. You can change this value to the number of days that you want to retain the event messages in the database.

If you are upgrading or migrating from vCenter Server 7.0 or earlier, and you had the event cleanup option enabled, your setting to retain events is preserved after the upgrade or migration to vCenter Server 6.5.

After the retention period ends, the events are deleted from the database. However, there might be latency in the deletion of the events that are older than the configured retention setting.

Configure Database Settings

You can configure the maximum number of database connections that can occur simultaneously. To limit the growth of the vCenter Server database and save storage space, you can configure the database to discard information about tasks or events periodically.

Note: Do not use the database retention options, if you want to keep a complete history of tasks and events for your vCenter Server.

Procedure

1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.
2. Select the Configure tab.
3. Under Settings, select General.
4. Click Edit.
5. In Edit vCenter general settings window, click Database.
6. In Maximum connections field, enter the required number of connections.
   Note: Do not change this value unless one of these issues exists in your system.

   • If your vCenter Server system performs many operations frequently and performance is critical, increase the number of connections.
   • If the database is shared and connections to the database are costly, decrease the number of connections.
7. Enable Task cleanup option for vCenter Server to delete the retained tasks periodically.
8. (Optional) In Task retention (days) field, enter a value (in days).
   Information about tasks that are performed on this vCenter Server system is discarded after the specified number of days.
9. Enable Event cleanup option for vCenter Server to clean up the retained events periodically.
10. (Optional) In Event retention (days) field, enter a value (in days).
    Information about events for this vCenter Server system is discarded after the specified number of days.
    Note: Monitor vCenter Server database consumption and disk partition in the vCenter Server Management Interface.

    Warning: Increasing the events retention to more than 30 days results in significant increase of vCenter database size and can shutdown the vCenter Server. Ensure that you increase the vCenter database accordingly.
11. Click SAVE.