Consequences of deleteing /usr/local/nagios/var/archives/

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optionstechnology
Posts: 234
Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:26 am

Consequences of deleteing /usr/local/nagios/var/archives/

Post by optionstechnology »

My archives folder is vast - what are the exact consiquences of deleteing or zipping the old logs?

Is this where the state/notification history comes from?

Or is it literally just an event log for troubleshooting?
kg2857
Posts: 490
Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2023 5:48 pm

Re: Consequences of deleteing /usr/local/nagios/var/archives/

Post by kg2857 »

I'd keep a year of files in there.
Nancyfett
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2025 9:35 pm

Re: Consequences of deleteing /usr/local/nagios/var/archives/

Post by Nancyfett »

optionstechnology wrote: Tue Nov 18, 2025 6:19 am My archives folder is vast - what are the exact consiquences of deleteing or zipping the old logs?

Is thisSprunki Retake where the state/notification history comes from?

Or is it literally just an event log for troubleshooting?
From my experience, the archives folder usually stores historical event logs rather than live state or notification data. Deleting or zipping them typically won’t break current functionality, but you might lose historical context for troubleshooting or audits. Have you checked if any monitoring tools rely on those logs?
cdietsch
Posts: 55
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2025 9:12 am

Re: Consequences of deleteing /usr/local/nagios/var/archives/

Post by cdietsch »

Hi @Nancyfett,

Here is a direct quote from the the document How To Locate And Understand Logs Within Nagios XI https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... ptions.pdf
The Nagios Core log, includes checks, notifications, external commands, and events. This file is
rotated daily into the /usr/local/nagios/var/archives folder (default setting in nagios.cfg) by
rsyslog.

Logs located in the /usr/local/nagios/var/archives folder are used as the data source for the
Availability and SLA reports. Deleting them would cause these reports to show inaccurate data.
I found a forum post that asks a similar question viewtopic.php?t=63687 that you might find helpful.
Cheers,
- Cole
helen9c
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Aug 04, 2025 4:39 am

Re: Consequences of deleteing /usr/local/nagios/var/archives/

Post by helen9c »

Thank you so much!
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