Soft Deleting Sites for Expunge Job – SQL vs Groovy/API

[aumprarthana]

Hi team,

We are preparing to soft delete a large number of old sites (around
80,000+) in Sakai 25 and would like to ensure compatibility with the "Expunge
Softly Deleted Sites" scheduled job.

We have two possible approaches:

   1. SQL Approach
   Directly update SAKAI_SITE by setting IS_DELETED = 1 (and possibly
MODIFIEDON
   = CURRENT_TIMESTAMP).

   2.   Groovy/API Approach
   Use a Groovy script that runs SiteService.removeSite(site) for each
   target site, which is known to perform a soft delete via Sakai APIs.

Question:
Does the expunge job in Sakai 25 correctly detect and purge sites
soft-deleted "via SQL only", or is it necessary to use the API/Groovy
method for any additional metadata handling or indexing?

We want to avoid issues with partial deletion or missed sites during the
expunge process.

Thanks!