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Are there any Best Practices to prevent/reduce the occurance of UV file Blinks

  • 1.  Are there any Best Practices to prevent/reduce the occurance of UV file Blinks

    PARTNER
    Posted 10 days ago

    Blinks. Our product uses the Universe database with Pick Flavored account running on various Windows OS platforms. What, if anything, can be done to reduce the number of file  blinks that we are seeing? Three causes that we've identified so far are: Power failure, No more disk space, Anti-virus. 

    Are any UV versions (or Windows versions) more susceptible than others to Blinks?

    Thanks in advance for your inputs.



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    Gil Steidle
    DEV
    DDI System Inc
    brick NJ US
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  • 2.  RE: Are there any Best Practices to prevent/reduce the occurance of UV file Blinks

    Posted 9 days ago
    Hi Gil!

    Without asking for a bit more detail, here are some really quick off-the-cuff suggestions - none of which are specific to the multi-value world:
    Power Failures - Any system running a database should be running on a UPS of one sort or another (generator would be even better). Some UPS models can even be configured to send a signal to the server to initiate a clean shutdown if the power is out for an extended period and their batteries start running low.
    Running out of disk space - if this is a gradual growth, the systems should be initially spec'd with more disk (not "just enough" for the install) and scheduled tasks should be set up to monitor disk usage. If this is a sudden, unexpected growth (like a runaway process of some sort), do what you can to eliminate those (based on what may have happened in the past) and again, put some monitors in place.
    Anti-virus - any anti-virus/anti-malware that scans a database server should be configured to ignore the files/folders known to be database files.

    Hope that helps some.

    Brian


    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Are there any Best Practices to prevent/reduce the occurance of UV file Blinks

    PARTNER
    Posted 9 days ago

    What are the other common causes of blinks and how can we minimize the risks? Will poorly sized files increase the chances of getting a blink on the file?



    ------------------------------
    Gil Steidle
    DEV
    DDI System Inc
    brick NJ US
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Are there any Best Practices to prevent/reduce the occurance of UV file Blinks

    ROCKETEER
    Posted 9 days ago

    With some of the items already mentioned, a poorly sized file can be a contributing factor. For example, if the file is heavily into overflow groups, a record update can involve writing multiple groups in the overflow chain. The number of overflow buffers that need to be updated can increase the chance that an interrupted write operation will result in an issue with the overflow buffer pointers. 



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    Neil Morris
    Universe Advanced Technical Support
    Rocket Software
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Are there any Best Practices to prevent/reduce the occurance of UV file Blinks

    Posted 7 days ago
    Edited by John Jenkins 7 days ago

    Gil,

    Adding to Brian's execellent post on using a UPS, please opt for an 'online' UPS.

    • An 'online' UPS is always supplying power to the system and incoming electrical power goes to the UPS, not directly to the protected system. The advantage is that if and when main power glitches or fails there is no switchover to battery which can itself cause a dip as the switchover takes place..They should also protect against overvoltages, brownouts and spikes.

    • A final word on the UPS - get a good well-known brand name and track record - do not skimp. They are very specifically intended for mission-critical systems.

    Regards

    JJ



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    John Jenkins
    Thame, Oxfordshire
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Are there any Best Practices to prevent/reduce the occurance of UV file Blinks

    Posted 6 days ago

    This is correct.  We here have a task in our Universe scheduler, that every week tells us how much disk space has been used and left.  And emails that to the sysadmin.



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    Will Johnson
    Systems Analyst
    Rocket Forum Shared Account
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Are there any Best Practices to prevent/reduce the occurance of UV file Blinks

    PARTNER
    Posted 3 days ago

    What is a reliable method to identify files with blinks proactively? Will a simple SELECT or COUNT be effective? I'm thinking to make a scheduled job to check our files for corruption.



    ------------------------------
    Gil Steidle
    DEV
    DDI System Inc
    brick NJ US
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Are there any Best Practices to prevent/reduce the occurance of UV file Blinks

    ROCKETEER
    Posted 3 days ago

    If you want to check for file corruption on a proactive basis, using the 'fixtool' command might be best approach. 



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    Neil Morris
    Universe Advanced Technical Support
    Rocket Software
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Are there any Best Practices to prevent/reduce the occurance of UV file Blinks

    Posted 2 days ago

    If you wish to use the SELECT or COUNT approach, include a WITH clause that will not select any records. Example: WITH PositiveNumericField < 0.

    This ensures the record is read, including any oversize record blocks. Otherwise, this just reads the primary group chain record blocks and ID. 

    The most robust approach would use fixtool.



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    Mark A Baldridge
    Principal Consultant
    Thought Mirror
    Nacogdoches, Texas United States
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Are there any Best Practices to prevent/reduce the occurance of UV file Blinks

    PARTNER
    Posted 3 days ago

    Hi Gil, 

    I suggest to performs daily backup with uvbackup tool and check log. 

    Then, perform, on regulary basis, a HASH. HELP and anticipate overflow with resizing. 

    I hope this help



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    Manu Fernandes
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    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Are there any Best Practices to prevent/reduce the occurance of UV file Blinks

    Posted 12 hours ago

    Hi Gil, re the no more disk space.

    Does your windows installation have separate file systems (partitions?) for things like your main UV database(s), logs, software? Do processes that run your application write logs to the UV database file system or to a separate file system? If you're running/storing everything in a single file system then that increases the likelihood of filling up your disk and borking(tm) your data with blinks. Especially if your files are grossly overflowed.

    If your system(s) isn't already setup with depurate database/log/software partitions then perhaps a reorganisation might be needed to minimise impacts of runaway processes filling up logs etc. I quick and dirty way of achieving this (in unix at least) is to use symbolic links to relocate local logs in your DB out to a separate disk or partition. I'm sure windows has a similar feature but I'm not familiar with it.

    Hope the above is of assistance.

    Cheers,
    Peter



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    Peter Cheney
    Developer and Systems Superstar
    Firstmac
    Brisbane Qld Australia
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    Original Message