`mc ilm add`

Changed in version RELEASE.2022-12-24T15-21-38Z: mc ilm add replaced by mc ilm rule add.

Syntax

The mc ilm add command adds an object lifecycle management rule to a bucket.

The command supports adding both Transition (Tiering) and Expiration lifecycle management rules.

EXAMPLE

The following command adds new lifecycle management rules to the mydata bucket on the myminio deployment:

mc ilm add --expire-days 90 --noncurrent-expire-days 30 myminio/mydata

mc ilm add --expire-delete-marker myminio/mydata

mc ilm add --transition-days 30 --transition-tier "COLDTIER" myminio/mydata

mc ilm add --noncurrent-transition-days 7 --noncurrent-transition-tier "COLDTIER"

The configured rules have the following effect:

Delete objects more than 90 days old
Delete objects 30 days after they become non-current
Delete DeleteMarker tombstones if that object has no other versions remaining.
Transition objects more than 30 days old to the COLDTIER remote tier.
Transition objects 7 days after they become non-current to the COLDTIER remote tier.

SYNTAX

The command has the following syntax:

mc [GLOBALFLAGS] ilm add                                    \
                 [--prefix string]                          \
                 [--tags string]                            \
                 --expire-days "integer"                    \
                 [--expire-delete-marker]                   \
                 [--transition-days "string"]               \
                 [--transition-tier "string"]               \
                 [--noncurrent-expire-days "integer"]       \
                 [--noncurrent-expire-newer "integer"]      \
                 [--noncurrent-transition-days "integer"]   \
                 [--noncurrent-transition-tier "string"]    \
                 ALIAS

Brackets [] indicate optional parameters.
Parameters sharing a line are mutually dependent.
Parameters separated using the pipe | operator are mutually exclusive.

Copy the example to a text editor and modify as-needed before running the command in the terminal/shell.

Parameters

ALIAS

Required

The alias and bucket on the MinIO deployment to which to add the object lifecycle management rule.

For example:

mc ilm add myminio/mydata

--prefix

Optional

Restrict the management rule to a specific object prefix.

For example:

mc ilm add --prefix "meetingnotes/" myminio/mydata/ --expire-days "90"

The command creates a rule that expires objects in the mydata bucket of the myminio ALIAS after 90 days for any object with the meetingnotes/ prefix.

--tags

Optional

One or more ampersand &-delimited key-value pairs describing the object tags to use for filtering objects to which the lifecycle configuration rule applies.

This option is mutually exclusive with the following option:

--expire-delete-marker

--expire-days

Required

The number of days to retain an object after being created. MinIO marks the object for deletion after the specified number of days pass. Specify the number of days as an integer, e.g. 30 for 30 days.

For versioned buckets, the expiry rule applies only to the current object version. Use the --noncurrent-expire-days option to apply expiration behavior to noncurrent object versions.

MinIO uses a scanner process to check objects against all configured lifecycle management rules. Slow scanning due to high IO workloads or limited system resources may delay application of lifecycle management rules. See Lifecycle Management Object Scanner for more information.

Mutually exclusive with the following options:

--expire-delete-marker

For more complete documentation on object expiration, see Object Expiration.

--expire-delete-marker

Optional

Specify this option to direct MinIO to remove delete markers for objects with no remaining object versions. Specifically, the delete marker is the only remaining “version” of the given object.

This option is mutually exclusive with the following option:

--tags
--expire-days

For more complete documentation on object expiration, see Object Expiration.

--transition-days

Optional

The number of calendar days from object creation after which MinIO marks an object as eligible for transition. MinIO transitions the object to the configured remote tier specified to the --transition-tier. Specify the number of days as an integer, e.g. 30 for 30 days.

For versioned buckets, the transition rule applies only to the current object version. Use the --noncurrent-transition-days option to apply transition behavior to noncurrent object versions.

Requires specifying --transition-tier.

For more complete documentation on object transition, see Object Transition (“Tiering”).

--transition-tier

Optional

The remote tier to which MinIO transition objects. Specify an existing remote tier created by mc admin tier.

Required if specifying --transition-days.

--noncurrent-expire-days

Optional

The number of days to retain an object version after becoming non-current (i.e. a different version of that object is now the HEAD). MinIO marks noncurrent object versions for deletion after the specified number of days pass.

This option has the same behavior as the S3 NoncurrentVersionExpiration action.

--noncurrent-transition-days

Optional

The number of days an object has been non-current (i.e. replaced by a newer version of that same object) after which MinIO marks the object version as eligible for transition. MinIO transitions the object to the configured remote tier specified to the --transition-tier once the system host datetime passes that calendar date.

This option has no effect on non-versioned buckets. Requires specifying --noncurrent-transition-tier.

This option has the same behavior as the S3 NoncurrentVersionTransition action.

--noncurrent-transition-tier: Optional
The remote tier to which MinIO transitions noncurrent objects versions. Specify a remote tier created by mc admin tier.

--noncurrent-expire-newer

Optional

The maximum number of non-current object versions to retain, ordered from newest to oldest.

Use this flag to retain a certain number of past versions of a file in a first in, first out fashion. After retaining the maximum number of non-current versions, MinIO marks any remaining older non-current object versions as eligible for expiration.

The following table lists a number of object versions and their expiration eligibility based on --noncurrent-expire-newer 3:

v5 (current version)	Current version not affected by ILM rules.
v4	retained
v3	retained
v2	retained
v1	marked for expiry

MinIO retains the current version, v5. MinIO also retains the next 3 non-current versions, starting with the newest. This means MinIO marks v4, v3, and v2 for the three non-current version to retain.

v1 would be a fourth non-current version, which falls outside the limit of non-current versions to retain, so MinIO marks v1 for expiration.

Updating the number for this flag only impacts the unmarked versions of objects. Any versions already marked for expiration do not change if you increase the number to retain.

Global Flags

This command supports any of the global flags.

Examples

Expire All Bucket Contents After Number of Days

Use mc ilm add with --expire-days to mark bucket contents for expiration after a number of days pass from the object’s creation:

mc ilm add ALIAS/PATH --expire-days "DAYS"

Replace ALIAS with the alias of the S3-compatible host.
Replace PATH with the path to the bucket on the S3-compatible host.
Replace DATE with the number of days after which to expire the object. For example, specify 30 to expire the object 30 days after creation.

Transition Non-Current Object Versions at a Prefix to a Different Tier

Use the mc ilm add with --prefix and --transition-tier to transition older non-current versions of an object to a different storage tier.

mc ilm add --prefix "doc/" --transition-days "90" --trasition-tier "MINIOTIER-1"                  \
       --noncurrent-transition-days "45" --noncurrent-transition-tier "MINIOTIER-2"  \
       myminio/mybucket/

This command looks at the contents with the doc/ prefix in the mybucket bucket on the myminio deployment.

Current objects in the prefix older than 90 days move to the MINIOTIER-1 storage tier.
Non-current objects in the prefix older than 45 days move to the MINIOTIER-2 storage tier.
Both MINIOTIER-1 and MINIOTIER-2 have already been created with mc admin tier add.

Expire All Objects at a Prefix, Retain Current Object Versions Longer Than Non-Current Object Versions

Use the mc ilm add command with --prefix, --expire-days, and --noncurrent-expire-days to expire current and non-current versions of an object at different times.

mc ilm add --prefix "doc/" --expire-days "300" --noncurrent-expire-days "100" myminio/mybucket/

This command looks at the contents with the doc/ prefix in the mybucket bucket on the myminio deployment.

Current objects expire after 300 days.
Non-current objects expire after 100 days.

Behavior

Lifecycle Management Object Scanner

Expiry vs Transition

MinIO supports specifying both expiry and transition rules in the same bucket or bucket prefix. MinIO can execute an expiration rule on an object regardless of its transition status. Use mc ilm ls to review the currently configured object lifecycle management rules for any potential interactions between expiry and transition rules.

S3 Compatibility

The mc commandline tool is built for compatibility with the AWS S3 API and is tested with MinIO and AWS S3 for expected functionality and behavior.

MinIO provides no guarantees for other S3-compatible services, as their S3 API implementation is unknown and therefore unsupported. While mc commands may work as documented, any such usage is at your own risk.