1. How to use the DBStats report to help manage database size.
Barry Barton – Protocol Staff Software Engineer
28 October 2013
How to use the DBStats report to help manage database size.
This session will be recorded and a replay will be available on IBM.COM sites and possibly social media sites such as YouTube. When speaking, do not state any confidential information, your name, company name or any information that you do not want shared publicly in the replay. By speaking during this presentation, you assume liability for your comments.

2. Agenda
We can review the Top Execution Business Processes section to identify old, high persisting, and ten year lifespan workflows.
We can review the Top Archive Status Report section to identify concerns with the cleanup processes.
We can review the Top GIS Table Statistics section to identify large database tables.
A brief discussion on the Unassociated Document Report section.

3. Presenter
Barry Barton
IBM Sterling B2B Integrator Staff Software Engineer
I have worked for IBM/Sterling Commerce supporting the Sterling B2B Integrator product line since 2008.

4. Top Execution Business Processes
Only Business Processes with at least one execution will show up in the DBStats report.
We can start with locating Business Processes with old Minimum State Dates.

5. Top Execution Business Processes
We can search for the old workflow in the Advanced BP Search and click the “Expires” link to see why we have the old workflow still in the system.

6. Top Execution Business Processes
When we reviewing the steps of this workflow we can see the known service that will result in the workflow having a ten year lifespan.

7. Top Execution Business Processes
Reasons for a ten year lifespan
If the workflow contains a MailboxAdd service and it's associated mailbox message still exists in a mailbox.
The workflow has a EDIEncoder/EDIEnvelope service with a “MODE” parameter set to deferred.
The Business Process may have actually been configured for a 10 year lifespan.
An unknown reason that doesn’t match the above. Contact Support

8. Top Execution Business Processes
Workflows with a 30 day lifespan are most likely awaiting an EDI acknowledgment document to be received.
The document.lifespan parameter in enveloping.properties file determines the lifespan of a workflow associated to a waiting acknowledgment to be received (lowering the properties value affects new workflows).
We can be manually acknowledge it for the workflow to be re-indexed with it's configured lifespan. (OverdueAckCheck BP must be running on a schedule).

9. Top Execution Business Processes

10. Top Execution Business Processes
We can also review the number of executions for the business process to see if we need to keep so many executions in the system. We can lower the lifespan to keep less executions in the database.

11. Top Execution Business Processes
A record is persisted to the WORKFLOW_CONTEXT table for each executed step of the business process.
The Total Persisted value is a count of all executed steps for the BP name currently in the system.
Total Executions divided by the Total Persisted equals an average number steps per workflow of that BP.
High Persisting processes should have persistence lowered and/or lifespan lowered to keep the WORKFLOW_CONTEXT table size smaller.

12. Top Execution Business Processes

13. Top Execution Business Processes
Lowering the persistence for this example workflow to Start/Stop would only persist 2 records to the WORKFLOW_CONTEXT table instead of the 15,602 at full persistence.

14. Top Execution Business Processes
A large persisting business process can be configured for a shorter lifespan instead of using the "System Default" which takes the Archive Manager's configuration.

15. Archive Status Report
A quick view to see any ten year life span’s exist by observing the Maximum date for each of the statuses .
A quick view to see if there are any old workflows in each of the states by an old Minimum date.

16. Archive Status Report
A high number in the visibility could indicate a higher than normal protocol actions to server adapters.
A high number in the Un-Indexed/To Be Archived/To Be Purged in any of the statuses could indicate scheduled clean up processes are behind or not running. This causes the database to retain unneeded database space.

17. GIS Table Statistics
This is not included for DB2 database configurations.
The TRANS_DATA, WORKFLOW_CONTEXT, CORRELATION_SET tables are usually the largest tables

18. GIS Table Statistics
If the index size is larger than the data size for a table, it could be an indicator that database maintenance is needed for the table.
A good benchmark should be determined for normal workflow data. Reviewing largest table's on a regular basis can be an early warning for abnormal activity.

19. Unassociated Document Report
A DATA_TABLE entry usually will match the total count of the table in most systems. Not matching could mean old workflow data needs to be addressed.

20. Unassociated Document Report
A DOCUMENT entry shows the number of documents in the system uploaded through protocol server adapters (non-workflow processes).
There are no easy indicators. Abnormalities seen by IBM support are addressed on per case basis.

21. Summary
We want to find old workflows.
We want to find high persisting workflows.
Look for any ten year lifespans to confirm if they are legitimate.
Benchmark table sizes and continue to monitor as an indicator of unexpected or abnormal growth.

22. Related Links
EDIEncoder & EDIEnvelope Service Mode mismatch produces 10 year lifespan:
EDIEncoder service documentation:
EDIEnvelope service documentation:

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24. Questions and Answers
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