---
title: "Configuring VAST Catalog"
slug: "configuring-vast-catalog-tg"
updated: 2026-10-28T01:54:33Z
published: 2026-10-28T01:54:33Z
canonical: "docs.vastdata.com/configuring-vast-catalog-tg"
---

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

# Configuring VAST Catalog

By default, VAST Catalog is disabled. Enabling VAST Catalog triggers a background indexing task. When VAST Catalog is enabled, snapshots of the Element Store are taken periodically, from which the VAST Catalog is indexed asynchronously.

You can modify the periodic snapshot schedule. By default, a snapshot is taken every 30 minutes and a copy of that snapshot is retained for 30 minutes. The VAST Catalog table is also retained for 30 minutes.

You can also add user-defined attributes to be indexed.

## Configuring VAST Catalog in VAST Web UI

1. From the left navigation menu, select Settings and then VAST Catalog.
2. Under Status, toggle Enable on to enable VAST Catalog (or off to disable VAST Catalog).
3. Under Frames, modify the default periodic snapshot schedule, if desired:

> [!NOTE]
> Note
> 
> Changes to retention periods apply to snapshots created after the change.

| Save new catalog copies every | Sets how frequently to snapshot the file system and create a new catalog snapshot. Enter the number of time units in the Value field and select a time unit from the Period dropdown. > [!NOTE] > Note > > The minimum interval is 15 minutes. |
| --- | --- |
| Keep catalog copies for | Sets how long to save each copy of the VAST Catalog table. Enter the number of time units in the Value field and select a time unit from the Period dropdown. |
| Starting from | The date and time from which you want to start. |
| Store filesystem snapshots | Keep this setting enabled if you want to retain the snapshots from which VAST Catalog is indexed. |
| Keep filesystem snapshots for | Sets how long to retain filesystem snapshots. Enter the number of time units in the Value field and select a time unit from the Period dropdown. |
4. Under User defined attributes, you can explicitly index S3 tags and metadata attributes that you use to categorize buckets and objects. When you can define a tag as a user-defined attribute, a dedicated column is created named `tag_<key>`. The values of tags with the specified key name are stored in the dedicated column.

> [!NOTE]
> Note
> 
> All S3 tags are stored as key-pair values in the `user_tags` column, regardless of whether user-defined attributes are specified.

To define an attribute:

  1. From the Type dropdown, select a type of user-defined attribute:

    - Tag. Select this value to define S3 tag keys as attributes to be indexed. After the next snapshot, a column named `tag_<key>` will store the values of all S3 tags with the specified key.
    - Metadata. Select this value to define user-defined metadata keys as attributes to be indexed. After the next snapshot, a column named `metadata_<key>` will store the values of all S3 metadata attributes with the specified key. S3 metadata key-value pairs can be assigned to objects when they are uploaded using a PutObject request. The metadata names must begin with `x-amz-meta-` to distinguish them from other HTTP headers.
  2. In the Column Name field, enter the tag key that you want to create a column for. The value of each tag that has this key will be indexed in the created column.
  3. Click Add. The attribute is added. This attribute will be indexed.
5. Click Save to save your changes.

A background indexing task now starts and a restore point named *VAST catalog stream (point #)* on the protected path *VAST catalog stream* is created. When the progress of the restore point reaches 100%, VAST Catalog is indexed and ready for querying. You can watch the restore point progress from the Restore Points tab of the Data Protection page.