1. LAB 206 System Maintenance Pieter Nauta

2. Agenda Audience Introduction System Best Practices Performance Tuning Tips for Managing Volumes Designing a Maintenance Plan

3. NOTE: This information is relevant for Laserfiche 7 and 8

4. Audience System Administrators Laserfiche Administrators Basic knowledge of Laserfiche concepts and SQL Server/Windows Server administration expected

5. Introduction Best Practices Performance Tuning Managing Volumes Designing a Maintenance Plan

6. Best Practices

7. Hardware SQL Server Capacity Planning –SQL Server –Laserfiche Server Network

8. Hardware Laserfiche and database compete for resources SQL Server is a memory hog Separate Laserfiche and DBMS servers If Laserfiche and DBMS are shared, consider static allocation of RAM –Brief hands-on

9. What to watch out for Server intensive processes: –High volume scanning –Indexing –Migrating documents –OCRing documents –Briefcase import –Volume attach –Briefcase export –Volume export –Publishing with Plus

10. SQL Server Self tuning for the most part Memory hog Regular performance tuning Database maintenance plan MSDE/Personal Edition users limited by workload governor beyond 8 concurrent users

11. Capacity Planning RAM and processor are dependent on many things like overall system architecture and number of users Storage recommendations are easily calculated Spec storage for expected life of hardware (usually ~3yrs)

12. SQL Server storage Two parts to every SQL Server database Transaction logs (5-10% total size of database) on RAID 1 Data files (10-20% total size of database) on RAID 1 or 5 Don’t forget to take into consideration online SQL database backups

13. Laserfiche Volumes Laserfiche volumes are physical storage directories for a Laserfiche repository Estimate 40-60k for an 8.5" x 11" page scanned in at 300dpi (but adjust your estimate accordingly!) Estimate storage volume based on expected life of hardware (rough estimate: 1 million pages = 50- 75GBs) Take into consideration electronic document archival RAID 5 for storage Make use of SANs for shared data storage across systems Always try to separate processes with different read/write patterns onto different arrays

14. Example: Capacity Planning Assume that you will expect to scan two million 8.5" x 11" pages at 300dpi in black and white over the next three years. How much storage space will you need for the Laserfiche system?

15. Network Two primary connections Laserfiche Server to SQL Server (if different computers) Laserfiche Client to Laserfiche Server

16. Laserfiche Server to SQL Server Must be fast connection At least 100Mbps switched Same rule applies for Workflow or Web products (Weblink, Web Access)

17. Laserfiche Server to Laserfiche Client 100Mbps switched recommended to support scanners at their rated speed Standard broadband (remote) connections are supported up to 20ppm Scanning across a VPN may be slower than expected because of encryption overhead

18. Example: Remote Scanning A remote employee has a 1.5Mbps download/384kbps upload DSL connection at home What is the theoretical maximum scanning speed they would be able to support?

19. FCC For Laserfiche 7 The Firewall Compatibility Component slightly slows client/server communication LF Server DCOM FCC Client dll FCC Server Service.net FCC

20. Performance Tuning

21. Establishing a baseline Identifying potential bottlenecks Addressing the bottlenecks

22. Performance Tuning Tools Windows –Performance Monitor SQL –Performance Monitor –Query Analyzer –SQL Profiler –Index Tuning Wizard

23. Performance Tuning Tools Laserfiche –Performance Monitor –Audit Trail –Volume Consistency Checker Network –Performance Monitor –Wireshark –tcpview

24. Performance Monitor Fundamental diagnostic tool Ships with all business versions of Windows client and server operating systems

25. Performance Monitor Counters for monitoring different aspects of a specific system Counters can be viewed in real time or tracked over a period of days or weeks Counters can be logged in different formats for reporting

26. Performance Monitor Counters should be tracked based on how often a system is used (once a month, once a quarter, etc.) From there, trends can be analyzed to determine where potential bottlenecks may occur Perf Mon data can then be used to justify hardware upgrades or server retirement

27. Counter Types Windows-Specific Counters SQL Server-Specific Counters Network-Specific Counters Laserfiche-Specific Counters

28. Laserfiche Counters Windows-Specific Counters

29. Exercise: Counter Log 1.View the basic real-time performance monitor and add a few counters to it. Please note that under normal circumstances, it is better to run the Performance Monitor on a remote machine from that which is being monitored.

30. Exercise: Counter Log 2.Add these performance counters to a Counter Log. –Processor: %Processor Time_Total instance –System: Processor Queue Length –Memory: Available Bytes –Memory: Pages/Sec –Physical Disk: Avg. Disk Queue Length –Physical Disk: %Disk Time –Physical Disk: %Disk Read Time –Physical Disk: %Disk Write Time

31. Exercise: Counter Log 3.Select and discuss basic options such as where to save the logs, what format to log in, how often to log and how often to sample data. In this exercise, we’ll save the log in the default location, binary format, with a one second sample interval. 4.Run sample queries against the database to simulate load. The first query is a SELECT against one of the TD tables that will be run 1,000 times. Then we’ll create a temporary table based on the LFT table. The second query is an INSERT of the contents of the LFT table into this temp table. We’ll then INSERT the content of that table back into itself 6 times. We can also view the results of those queries in real time.

32. Exercise: Log Analysis 1.Load the log from the previous exercise in Performance Monitor. 2.Load the various counters and create a basic graph from the data logged. Analyze RAM, processor usage, and disk usage. 3.Load the provided log from ZURICH into Microsoft Excel. 4.Run specific graphs for RAM, processor usage, and disk usage and analyze the results.

33. Index Tuning Wizard Analyze queries or Profiler traces Indexes are applied to certain tables to speed up searches Suggests indexes to improve performance by analyzing workload

34. Exercise: Index Tuning Wizard 1.Run the Index Tuning Wizard on the trace run on the previous exercise with SQL Profiler. Note: Please back up any databases before applying recommendations made by the Index Tuning Wizard!!!

35. Audit Trail Security tool Great for use in conjunction with other tools for correlating performance problems with system usage

36. Break

37. Designing A Maintenance Plan

38. Audit Trail Security tool Great for use in conjunction with other tools for correlating performance problems with system usage

39. Laserfiche Components

40. Managing Volumes Storage location for Laserfiche documents –Windows file directory Can be relocated if necessary Should be kept in small, manageable chunks, rather than one large volume –“Chunk” size depends on archive media If you find yourself with one large volume, you can migrate to a “rollover” volume

41. Exercise: Rollover Volumes Create a volume that will roll over at 1MB Migrate documents to that volume Look at the result in the Admin Console and the Windows folder structure

42. Database Maintenance Plan Required for proper running of any SQL Server database Allows for restoration of the database Vitally important for disaster recovery

43. Basic Principles of Data Backup Back up often Back up all required files Test your backups

44. Recommended Backup Schedule Weekly full repository backup Weeknight differential backup of Laserfiche volumes and search files Weeknight Laserfiche SQL DB backup Monthly test of restore process

45. What to back up What company information to back up? Which Laserfiche files to back up? –Backing up the database –Backing up the volumes –Back up the search files

46. SQL Database Backup MSSQL maintenance plan and Query Analyzer Third party tools (i.e. Backup Exec) Stopping the Laserfiche service, then detaching and copying the database files NOT recommended: stopping the Laserfiche service, stopping SQL Server, and copying the files manually

47. MSDE with Laserfiche 7 Microsoft’s freely distributable version of SQL Server Does NOT ship with SQL utilities like Enterprise Manager and Query Analyzer Databasename.mdf/ldf files Databasename_data_X.mdf/ldf files

48. Other Considerations Shrinking SQL transaction logs regularly Re-indexing the database Updating Statistics

49. Exercise: SQL Maintenance Plan 1.Using the SQL Server Management Studio, create a SQL Server database maintenance plan using the standard wizard.

50. Exercise: Restore the database 2.Restore a database to the same SQL Server but with a different name.

51. Key Points Make sure there is some backup procedure in place! Test your backup! Coherent point-in-time backup Offsite backup

52. Compliance and Destruction Ensuring proper destruction of data Designing back up around destruction Back up schedules should match destruction schedules

53. Portable volumes for destruction Migrate documents to a destruction volume Schedule destruction as a weekly, monthly, or quarterly event Rotate archival tapes (or demagnetize before reuse)

54. Records Management considerations How records management affects back up Some questions to consider when designing a backup plan: –How important is it to destroy your docs as soon as they become eligible? –Are you required to destroy or allowed to destroy? –How sensitive is the data in question? –Why are we destroying these docs? –It is likely existing business process will have to be modified or changed in order to accommodate a formal records management. How flexible is your organization?

55. Conclusion

56. Records Management considerations How records management affects back up Some questions to consider when designing a backup plan: –How important is it to destroy your docs as soon as they become eligible? –Are you required to destroy or allowed to destroy? –How sensitive is the data in question? –Why are we destroying these docs? –It is likely existing business process will have to be modified or changed in order to accommodate a formal records management. How flexible is your organization?

57. Best Practices Hardware SQL Server Capacity Planning –SQL Server –Laserfiche Server Network

58. Performance Tuning Establishing a baseline Identifying potential bottlenecks Addressing the bottlenecks

59. Design a Maintenance Plan Required for proper running of any SQL Server database Allows for restores of the database Vitally important for disaster recovery