Online Purge (in the Administration group) allows administrators to purge deleted views and data from a server while it is running. A purge process deletes unwanted data from the database and removes deleted archives from the vault. This operation can be performed only if the server configuration is running.
Online Purge contains a simple Start/Stop button and a log content pane in the lower half which displays the progress of the purge as it deletes the data, and which can be refreshed at any time. The Online Purge process can be started and stopped using the Online Purge button in the Server Administration tool. You can start and stop Online Purge on a remote StarTeam Server as well as a local StarTeam Server.
Using Online Purge while StarTeam Server is running prevents the costly downtime of an Offline Purge, which could be anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Online Purge not only eliminates this costly downtime, but is much faster than an Offline Purge.
In Online Purge, newly deleted data will be available to purge only after a Server restart. Online Purge is an interactive process which can be stopped and restarted anytime when StarTeam Server is running. Online Purge records its current execution state and provides the ability to restart from the exact point where it stopped. After StarTeam Server starts, Online Purge has to be restarted manually.