Configure Soft-Delete Retention Period of Unity Catalog Managed Table

[guiferviz]

According to the docs,

When a managed table is dropped from Unity Catalog, its underlying data is deleted from your cloud tenant within 30 days.

Can I configure the retention period? Is executing DELETE FROM my_table followed by VACUUM my_table RETAIN 0 HOURS the only method to remove managed tables without retaining the data for 30 days?

[KaranamS · Accepted solution]

Hi @guiferviz ,

Yes, that is correct! The only way is to use DELETE and VACCUM commands. For managed tables, the default retention period is set to 30‑days. Unity Catalog enforces this to provide an additional safety net against accidental data loss, and that period isn’t configurable. 

[guiferviz]

Thank you for confirming @KaranamS! I hope it becomes configurable in the future.