AEM 6.4 - How to purge workflow packages | Community
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K
kais46765928
Level 2
January 27, 2022

AEM 6.4 - How to purge workflow packages

  • January 27, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 3581 views

In our AEM 6.4.3.0 Author instance we are seeing a lot of generated workflow packages (~1800) in /etc/workflow/packages. Much more than there are running workflow instances. The Workflow Purge is configured to remove COMPLETED workflows older than 30 days but this doesn't seem to remove associated workflow packages.

Is there a way to get rid of the old workflow packages?

4 replies

Anish-Sinha
Adobe Employee
Anish-SinhaAdobe Employee
Adobe Employee
January 27, 2022

Hi @kais46765928 ,
Please go through this link: https://adobe-consulting-services.github.io/acs-aem-commons/features/workflow-remover/index.html

You can do it manually or else schedule it.

    K
    kais46765928Author
    Level 2
    January 28, 2022

    Hi @anish-sinha . I had a look at the Workflow Remover but I don't think it does what we need. If I understand correctly, the Workflow Payload Paths you can specify in the Workflow Remover configuration only act as an additional filter for determining if a workflow should be removed or not.

    What we would like to have is that the payload of the workflow is removed together with the workflow, but only if the payload is a generated workflow package.

     

      J
      JustAem
      October 24, 2024

      Any idea how do we change the location from etc/workflow/packages to var/workflow/packages?

      lukasz-m
      Community Advisor
      lukasz-mCommunity Advisor
      Community Advisor
      January 27, 2022

      Hi @kais46765928, as far as I know there are no OOTB AEM mechanism or ACS Commons functionality that will allow to remove workflow packages. All above functionalities concentrate on workflow instance only. Looking on the number of workflow packages, I would assume you are using workflow packages on daily basis. In that case I would suggest to create some custom java functionality, i.e. using Scheduler that will periodically - e.g. every night look for packages that are connected to finished workflow instances (Completed or Aborted).

      I would also consider to include mechanism that will take care of orphaned packages. You are using Workflow Purge mechanism so I am sure that for some of the packages workflow instance does not exist in the repository any more, but those packages should be removed as well.

        K
        kais46765928Author
        Level 2
        January 28, 2022

        Thank you for your input. I find it quite hard to understand why there is no OOTB solution in AEM for this. Isn't this a common problem when using workflows? I mean that workflow packages are automatically generated and pile up in the repository? Or are we doing something wrong in our AEM/workflow setup?

          lukasz-m
          Community Advisor
          lukasz-mCommunity Advisor
          Community Advisor
          January 28, 2022

          You are correct this is a common problem, I am not aware how exactly you have implemented your case, but I doubt you are doing something wrong. I have no idea why workflow package purging is not part of OOTB AEM functionality.

            antoniom5495929
            antoniom5495929
            Level 7
            January 28, 2022

            Hi @kais46765928 ,

            here a similar question: https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/adobe-experience-manager/how-to-purge-old-packages/m-p/222250

             

            Alternatively this one could be a valid solution: https://medium.com/nirman-tech-blog/aem-jmx-solution-to-delete-packages-programmatically-50bdc61155e5

             

            Thanks,

            Antonio

              K
              kais46765928Author
              Level 2
              January 28, 2022

              Thank you for your answer but I'm afraid it doesn't address my question. I was asking about generated workflow packages in /etc/workflow/packages and not about packages created by the package manager.

              This shouldn't be marked as the correct answer.

                antoniom5495929
                antoniom5495929
                Level 7
                January 28, 2022

                Hi @kais46765928 ,

                you can use exactly the same approach for all the /etc/ packages.

                Thanks,

                Antonio

                  Wilnaweb1
                  Wilnaweb1
                  Level 2
                  September 3, 2025

                  Hello friend,

                  I was able to delete the packages linked to the Workflows by using the following property in the XML configuration file:

                  "scheduledpurge.purgePackagePayload": true,

                   

                  Configuration example:

                  { "scheduledpurge.name": "Workflow Auto Purge", "scheduledpurge.workflowStatus": ["COMPLETED", "SUSPENDED"], "scheduledpurge.daysold:Integer": 7, "scheduledpurge.purgePackagePayload": true, "scheduledpurge.modelIds": [ "/var/workflow/models/scheduled_tree_activation", "/var/workflow/models/schedule-publish", "/var/workflow/models/scheduled_activation" ] }


                  I recently wrote a detailed article about this process, available at:
                  https://medium.com/@wilsoncavalcante/cleaning-routines-in-aem-part-1-workflows-465fc30875bd
                   

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