---
title: "Modifying the Storage Pool Snapshot Retention Policy"
slug: "modifying-the-storage-pool-snapshot-retention-policy-5-1"
tags: ["Portal", "8.3"]
updated: 2025-06-18T14:30:35Z
published: 2025-06-18T14:30:35Z
canonical: "kb.ctera.com/modifying-the-storage-pool-snapshot-retention-policy-5-1"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://kb.ctera.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Modifying the Storage Pool Snapshot Retention Policy

By default, the snapshot retention policy specifies that 32 snapshots will be retained for the storage pool. You can change this default using the following procedure.

**To modify the maximum number of snapshots stored on a machine:**

1. Log in to the AWS Management Console and in the **EC2** service, click **Instances > Instances** in the navigation pane.
2. Select the CTERA Portal instance and click **Connect**.
3. Select the **Session Manager** tab and click **Connect**.
4. Change to the root user by running the following command: `sudo -i`
5. Run the following command to stop the portal services: `portal-manage.sh stop`
6. Edit the file `/etc/ctera/portal.cfg`.
7. Change the value of `CTERA_STORAGE_MAX_SNAPSHOTS` to the number of snapshots you would like the machine to maintain.  

The default value is 32.
8. Save your changes.
9. Restart the portal server, by entering the following command: `portal-manage.sh restart`