# Alarm pruning and storage

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarm-pruning-and-storage/101228>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [January 22, 2025, 1:42pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarm-pruning-and-storage/101228 "2025-01-22T13:42:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![marco\_alvarez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@marco\_alvarez](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/marco_alvarez)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 1:42pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarm-pruning-and-storage/101228/1 "2025-01-22T13:42:48Z")

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Quick question, the alarms and the historian have different data pruning right?  
How much space the alarms use, I get an average of 10 by day.

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**Author:** ![jlandwerlen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@jlandwerlen](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jlandwerlen)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 2:20pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarm-pruning-and-storage/101228/2 "2025-01-22T14:20:49Z")

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Yes, the alarm journal has a separate pruning property.

> **[Alarm Journal | Ignition User Manual](https://www.docs.inductiveautomation.com/docs/8.1/platform/alarming/alarm-journal#journal-properties)**
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> By default, current alarm data is only stored in memory, and a finite number of events are retained for each alarm. Fortunately, Ignition can easily be configured to store alarm data into a SQL database with an Alarm Journal Profile. The journal can...

I don't know about the physical space an alarm would consume. I'd ask a different question, what does your project require for retention?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![marco\_alvarez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@marco\_alvarez](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/marco_alvarez)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 2:38pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarm-pruning-and-storage/101228/3 "2025-01-22T14:38:28Z")

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thanks, we need to hold for 4 years

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**Author:** ![jlandwerlen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@jlandwerlen](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jlandwerlen)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarm-pruning-and-storage/101228/4 "2025-01-22T14:46:06Z")

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It's a good question that I've never looked into, but I would think the answer depends on several factors, a few:

- Additional associated data for each alarm
- How many times an alarm is acknowledged

If we assume each alarm is 600 bytes, that is a shade under 10MB (if I did the math correctly).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![marco\_alvarez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@marco\_alvarez](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/marco_alvarez)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 3:26pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarm-pruning-and-storage/101228/5 "2025-01-22T15:26:42Z")

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thanks