The operations database (by default, igops) maintains a history of activities that occur in Identity Governance. For example, as part of the data collection process, the database stores the previous state of that collection to ensure that Identity Governance can return to that state if an error occurs. Over time, however, the size of the database can increase, and the history list in the user interface can become unwieldy. Identity Governance includes the Data Purge utility, which allows you to manually remove historical data.
This utility searches the operations database for purgeable items that are older than the retention date and time or retention days. If you do not specify a retention date and time, the utility uses the current date and time. The utility always preserves the current state of the Identity Governance catalog, such as the most recent version of a review definition. Also, it will not purge data that is in an incomplete or unfulfilled state. For example, an identity has pending changes to its permissions list. Until those changes are resolved or cancelled, the utility does not remove older states of that identity as part of a data source purge. For more information about how the utility decides which items can be purged, see Identifying Purgeable Data.
To run the Data Purge utility, you must have an account with the Global Administrator or Data Administrator authorization in Identity Governance. You should always back up the operations database before purging data to retain historical data that might require records retention for a specific period of time, such as Access Requests, Separation of Duties approvals, and review decisions.