The configured Data Lifecycle settings in Automate as below:

1. Label a node as missing when no infra client run data has been received in 10 days
2. Remove nodes labelled as missing after 1 days.

There are lots of nodes that has not reported in many months. I would expect the data lifecycle settings would delete them. It seem like the setting is not doing what it is meant to do. We will need to clean up nodes as we have lots of stale ones and I would assume this setting was meant to do the job. I also don't see nodes that are marked as missing. Please see some screenshots. Look forward to understanding this config settings from your perspective.

 

* Data lifecycle settings in Automate

 

#  The missing nodes on the Automate UI under Infrastructure >Chef infra server > Orgs>Nodes tab .

 

 

See the client.rb documentation for more information about configuring your client nodes.

The following are the configuration parameters available:

Chef Automate considers the instances of ephemeral nodes, which are nodes that are frequently created and destroyed, as new nodes by default, even if the node indefinitely uses the same name.

Set Chef Automate to consider ephemeral nodes as manifestations of the same node by configuring the UUID on the client-side. Configuring the UUID on the client-side keeps the node associated with the same id, making Chef Automate consider it the same node every time it recreates. In the node’s client.rb, set chef_guid to the desired UUID. If the node already exists, check that it uses the correct UUID. Otherwise, it will appear as a new node the next time it recreates.

The following are the configuration parameters available:

Parameter	Type	Explanation	Format	Default
threshold	string	The duration after which unreported nodes are marked as missing.	1h30m, 1m, 2h30m, 1d, etc.	1d
every	string	How often to scan the nodes to check if they are missing.	1h30m, 1m, 2h30m, 1d, etc.	15m
running	boolean	Is the job running? Set to false to turn off missing node functionality.	n/a	true

Below is an example curl command:

curl -sSX POST "https://automate-url/api/v0/retention/nodes/missing-nodes/config"" -d
'{
  "threshold": "1d",
  "every": "15m",
  "running": true
}'
-H "api-token: $TOKEN"

https://docs.chef.io/automate/client_runs/#managing-ephemeral-nodes

Below is an example curl command with the recommended data cleanup settings : 

curl -sSX POST "https://automate-url/api/v0/retention/nodes/delete-nodes/config"" -d
'{
  "threshold": "1d",
  "every": "15m",
  "running": true
}'
-H "api-token: $TOKEN"

You will need an API token to send API requests.

https://docs.chef.io/automate/client_runs/#configuring-data-cleanup