keep site content archive for several years

[R0ckPanda]

The AEM' content version purging is currently configured with the default which is 30 days (maximum age) and 5 (maximum number of versions). This is not like Tridion which could have all the versions and be able to compare the differences between 2 versions forever.

For regulation requirements, we have to keep site content archive for several years (such as 7 years). Simply backup regularly and keep all these backups cost a fortune. Is there a good way to keep the site contents for 7 years?

[smacdonald2008]

Internal reply to this is --

They can update the OSGi config and set max age to -1 (effectively disabling the version purge).

The site content archive IMO is a separate question. Unfortunately there is no great AEM ootb solution. There have been several threads on this over the years, but never a full productized solution AFAIK.

[Kunwar]

Although there isn't an OOTB approach but what you can do it as follows or a variation of it :

- Setup a new Archive server running AEM( same but a stable release)

- Every month or before you run the version purge on actual Live server, Run crx2oak tool on this server to sync content(assets, pages) and its versions to the archive server

- Dump or do an incremental backup of this archival server to either Amazon glacier(low cost) or S3 or your servers.

[R0ckPanda]

Could the website archiving service be a solution for this regulation requirement?

[Kunwar]

Website archiving solutions might not  help you archive versions of pages and contents  as they reside under version storage in CRX repository but you can try explore if something works out for your requirement.

[R0ckPanda]

The requirement is from Compliance Department because of the SEC regulation. So to be honest, I am not sure about website archiving neither.

[Jörg_Hoh · Accepted solution]

Hi,

what are the requirements towards this archive? What do you expect from an archive?

Some thoughts from my side:

* When you archive a page, what's contained in that page? You should probably archive referenced assets as well.

* What about CSS and JS? That is likely to change over time, does old pages play well with new JS and CSS? I don't think so.

* What about the code generating the markup? HTL and Sling models. Do they always create the same markup?

* Can you prevent the archived pages from being modified? Do you need audit trails for accessing archived content?

To shorten the discussion: AEM is not an archival solution. And if you need to be SEC compliant, please talk to someone which is familiar with all the aspects of that compliance. And listen to their recommendations regarding archiving, archiving rules and tools.

AEM versions are cool if accidentally deleted pages; or if you need to revive some content from last year's christmas campaign. But it's not built for "real" archival.

[R0ckPanda]

Will use the vendor PageFreezer the Compliance department recommend.

[janeapp]

This might be helpful: How To Archive Adobe Experience Manager Website Content For Compliance and Litigation Readiness