Routine monitoring and maintenance for the Enterprise Vault environment
| Article:TECH74591 | | | Created: 2009-01-17 | | | Updated: 2012-09-21 | | | Article URL http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH74591 |
Problem
Routine monitoring and maintenance for the Enterprise Vault environment
Solution
OVERVIEW:
This document is to assist the Enterprise Vault (EV) Administrator to properly monitor and maintain the Enterprise Vault environment.
Step 1: Standard Maintenance
The number one action to perform in order to maintain a healthy environment is to perform weekly SQL maintenance on the database(s). The recommended actions are (specify in the following order):
This document is to assist the Enterprise Vault (EV) Administrator to properly monitor and maintain the Enterprise Vault environment.
Step 1: Standard Maintenance
The number one action to perform in order to maintain a healthy environment is to perform weekly SQL maintenance on the database(s). The recommended actions are (specify in the following order):
- Shrink Database
Important Note:
One of the best time to perform a Shrink operation is after an EV upgrade as this might involve migrating and dropping table(s). However, how regularly should a Shrink Database be performed should be carefully reviewed by the SQL DBA (Database Administrator) as SQL manage white space quite well.
After a Shrink operation, the database size has been reduce to the minimum possible size, and actions such as Index maintenance would have to grow the database size again.
A Shrink operation increases the Index Fragmentation, hence it has to be followed by the Index Maintenance (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190488.aspx)
- Rebuild / Reorganize Indexes
- Update Statistics
After an Index Rebuild, Indexed Statistics will also be rebuild. To update non-Indexed Statistics using sp_updatestats, which will update only statistics that require updating, thus avoiding unnecessary updates of statistics.
Within an Enterprise Vault 8.x environment, it is also recommended to perform the following daily SQL maintenance on the database(s):
- Update Statistics
- Update Statistics
To monitor the overall effectiveness of the weekly maintenance, run the following SQL command against each of the databases:
DBCC SHOWCONTIG WITH ALL_INDEXES
Examine the results for tables that have over 1,000 pages scanned.
- Extent Switches - Value should be 1 less then Extent Pages Scanned
The higher this value is above the Extent Pages Scanned, the more fragmented the page order
- Logical Scan Fragmentation - under 1%
Latency occurs once logical scan fragmentation exceeds 10%
Once fragmentation exceeds 50%, indexes are no longer used
- Extent Scan Fragmentation - under 50%
- Avg. Page density (full) - over 90%
If the results exceed those limits, it is recommended to perform the action more frequently.
*** Note: Active searches and productions lock tables from maintenance. If there are active searches or productions during the maintenance routine the maintenance will skip those locked tables and complete. The tables will remain fragmented and no performance gain will be realized. It is recommended to STOP the Enterprise Vault services prior to performing the maintenance run.
Step 2: Transaction log growth
Tempdb and Enterprise Vault database transaction logs grow rapidly in an active environment. Under nominal usage, running the weekly maintenance will avoid issues involving the transaction logs, but preemptive steps can be taken to accompany the weekly maintenance.
- Set the Autogrowth to Unrestricted File Growth and File Growth In Megabytes: 200
- Verify there is ample space for the transaction logs to grow.
- Verify the transaction logs for the Tempdb and Enterprise Vault databases are able to grow.
Step 3: SQL utilization
Several Accelerator procedures such as Searching, Reviewing, Productions and Legal Hold processes require a considerable amount of SQL resources. When a SQL server is over utilized deadlocks on the database tables can occur frequently and lead to SQL time outs. If SQL time outs or Deadlocks are an issue and the first two steps in this document are being followed, it is recommended to move the Accelerator databases to a dedicated SQL server.
To monitor the SQL server for deadlocking issues, start and monitor a SQL Profiler while performing daily activities.
1. Open SQL Server Profiler
2. Select File then New Trace
3. Use a Blank Template and expand Locks
4. Select Lock:Deadlocks and Lock:Deadlock Chains
5. Run
The Profiler should remain empty or very limited activity.
Step 4: Vault Service Account Temporary folder size
All transaction requests from an Accelerator environment to the Enterprise Vault (EV) server and the Accelerator server utilize the Vault Service Account (VSA) temporary folder for temporary storage. The archiving processing also uses this folder for temporary processing such as the ConverterSandbox that converts archived items into HTML rendering for certain indexing and display functions. This folder needs to be able to grow large enough to accommodate Batch processing on the Accelerator server and Index (Search) and Storage (Export) requests on the EV server. Locating the VSA temporary folders on a hard drive with at least 40 gig free space availability is recommended for all EV and Accelerator servers for normal operations. When exporting large numbers of archived items, or just physically large items, for an Accelerator export, a minimum of 80 GB in free space is recommended.
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332148
Article URL http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH74591
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