How To Maintain Your Database

In your computer system, both hardware and software are tools. Like any tools, they require regular tune-ups to run smoothly. Checkups prevent minor difficulties from escalating and possibly causing system down time.

Run SCANDISK and DEFRAG often. These should be run monthly, or anytime the machines act up.

We recommend you backup critical data files before running maintenance since, if the machine is failing, the maintenance, while manipulating data files, may cause undesirable consequences and, potentially, loss of data.

Please refer to Backup Database Topics for options for backing up your files.

Run database maintenance daily until you are sure your installation of Collect! is stable and error free. Once you have operated for a week, or so, without any errors reported during data maintenance, you can safely reduce the frequency with which you do your maintenance.

These recommendations should be considered according to the volume of data at stake. You want to be able to recover very quickly should anything unforeseen happen. Keeping a recent error-free backup of your Collect! database is your safest bet.

You can also schedule maintenance routines to run off hours using Collect!'s Scheduler. Please refer to Help topic, Database Maintenance in Scheduler for details.

• CV11 maintenance should be done directly at the server, not from a workstation.



• The CV11 server should be running, but no users should be signed into Collect!



• Sign into the database you wish to maintain. Make sure you are signed in using EXCLUSIVE mode.



• Select File from the top menu bar and then select Maintenance from the drop-down choices. This will display a side menu.



• Select Maintenance from the choices presented. This will display the Database Maintenance form.



• Select the START MAINTENANCE button on the Database Maintenance form to begin maintenance.



• Let the routine run to completion without interference, noting any error messages which come up. Common sources of difficulty in running maintenance are dealt with below, in the Troubleshooting section. If any others arise, contact Collect! Member Services for further assistance.

The rest of this document gives further details for the steps outlined so far.

To Run Maintenance

Make sure no users are attached to the Collect! files over the network. Make sure there are no db files open in WinNT Server Manager. If you find open files, close them to prevent corruption of the database. To be sure, reboot your server machine.

1. Start CV11.

2. Sign in as a user with User Level 99.

3. Select the SELECT DATABASE button and choose the database you wish to maintain.

4. In the Database Access section, make sure there is a dot in the radio button labeled Exclusive.

5. Select the START button to sign into the database and stop at the Main Menu.

6. Select File from the top menu bar and then select Maintenance from the drop-down choices. This will display a side menu.

7. Select Maintenance from the choices presented. This will display the Database Maintenance form.

There are many settings available for fine tuning your maintenance procedure. For details, please press F1 when the Database Maintenance form is displayed.

8. Select the START MAINTENANCE button to begin maintenance using the chosen settings.

By default, the maintenance procedure will rebuild database keys, sort the delete chain, run a check and dbfix, and a UID check on each of the databases that make up Collect!.

As each process runs, Collect! will update the message window.

Maintenance Running

Some processes may take quite a while depending on the size of your database. If the process does not seem to be "moving" you can look at the cv11 Server (rds.exe) window for details.

When the maintenance completes, you will see a status report.

Maintenance Results

When maintenance is finished, you can select Application Log from the System, Diagnostics menu to open the Collect! Log Viewer which displays the results of the maintenance process. Press F1 for details when the Log Viewer is open.

Now that maintenance has completed successfully, backup your error-free database and store it in a safe location.

Troubleshooting CV11 Database Maintenance

RDM Server writes Server process information to the RDS.log file in the CV11\catalog folder. Whenever you experience errors, it is a good idea to check the entries in this file. Whenever the server reports an error, the log shows the particular error number and names of any files affected. This helps greatly to pinpoint the area you need to address. You will then be able to carry out the solutions offered below.

See Also

- Database Maintenance Topics
- How To Reindex Individual Fields