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Maintenance Cleanup Task (Maintenance Plan)

  • Article

Applies to: SQL Server

Use the Maintenance Cleanup Task to remove old files related to maintenance plans, including text reports created by maintenance plans and database backup files.

Note

The Maintenance Cleanup task does not automatically delete files in the subfolders of the specified directory. This feature reduces the possibility of a malicious attack that uses the Maintenance Cleanup task to delete files. If you want to delete files in first-level subfolders, you must select Include first-level subfolders.

Options

  • Connection

    Displays the current connection.

  • New

    Create a new server connection to use when performing this task. The New Connection dialog box is described below.

  • Backup files

    Delete backup files.

  • Maintenance Plan text reports

    Delete text reports of previously run maintenance plans.

  • Delete specific file

    Delete the specific file provided in the File name box.

  • File name

    Path and name of the file to be deleted.

  • Search folder and delete files based on an extension

    Delete all files with the specified extension in the specified folder. Use this to delete multiple files at once, such as all backup files with the .bak extension, in the Tuesday folder.

  • Folder

    Path and name of the folder containing the files to be deleted.

  • File extension

    Provide the file extension of the file to be deleted. Don't include any other characters before or after the extension (for example, use BAK or TRN).

  • Include first-level subfolders

    Delete files with the extension specified for File extension from first-level subfolders under Folder.

  • Delete files based on the age of the file at task run time

    Specify the minimum age of the files that you want to delete by providing a number, and unit of time in the Delete files older than the following box.

  • Delete files older than the following

    Specify the minimum age of the files that you want to delete by providing a number, and unit of time (Day, Week, Month, or Year). Files older than the time frame specified are deleted.

  • View T-SQL

    View the Transact-SQL statements performed against the server for this task, based on the selected options.

    Note

    When the number of objects affected is large, this display can take a considerable amount of time.

New Connection dialog box

  • Connection name

    Enter a name for the new connection.

  • Select or enter a server name

    Select a server to connect to when performing this task.

  • ...

    Select to view the list of available servers.

  • Enter information to log on to the server

    Specify how to authenticate against the server.

  • Use Windows integrated security

    Connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine with Microsoft Windows Authentication.

  • Use a specific user name and password

    Connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine using SQL Server Authentication. This option isn't available.

  • User name

    Provide a SQL Server login to use when authenticating. This option isn't available.

  • Password

    Provide a password to use when authenticating. This option isn't available.

See also