Question

SQL Maintenance best practices

Laserfiche Forms

Updated May 24, 2018

asked on February 22, 2017

Is there a white paper on Best Practices for setting up SQL maintenance plans for LF server and Forms?

Smaller clients can't afford a DB admin, and have questions about maintenance. Also, the links from this post

http://answers.laserfiche.com/questions/74339/Best-Practices-for-SQL-Maintenance#115653

are all 404 errors now.

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Answer

SELECTED ANSWER

replied on February 24, 2017

The reason the transaction log filled up is most likely because the recovery model for the database was not set to Simple, and database backups were not being performed at a regular interval. A description of SQL Server database recovery models is at <https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189275.aspx>. I strongly recommend setting the recovery model to Simple for Laserfiche repository databases for installations without a DBA.

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replied on February 27, 2017

Thank you Michael, you were 100% correct.

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replied on May 24, 2018

Setting the recovery model to Simple will make life easier, but if there's ever a disaster that requires recoveries from backups you may regret changing the recovery model to Simple.

The Recovery Models and Transaction Logging allow you to do a 'point in time' recovery of the database when restoring from a backup, and backup software should have a module that connects with SQL server and trims back and manages the transaction logs.

If you turn off transaction logging you'll get into situations where the restore point of the volume files is earlier or later than the restore point for the database. If the backup of the database is more recent you'll have entries in the repository with no documents or images found. If the backup of the Volumes are more recent you'll have images and documents in the volume folders that can't be found, because there are no records of them in the repository database.

If the customer server is a VM, and it's modest enough to be easily imaged over night as a backup strategy it's no problem.

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Replies

replied on February 23, 2017

There is no white paper currently and I have no problem to access http://answers.laserfiche.com/questions/74339/Best-Practices-for-SQL-Maintenance#115653

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View 2 previous replies

replied on February 23, 2017

Xiuhong,

I think he talked about the link Inside that URL link

Yes I can reach the http://answers.laserfiche.com/questions/74339/Best-Practices-for-SQL-Maintenance#115653

but cannot reach any link Inside of it, at the bottom of that link there is other link to reach other answer forum answer and those cannot be reach and give 404 errors

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replied on February 23, 2017

@████████

I have the same problem as Rene when trying to reach the links inside of the post you mentioned.

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replied on February 24, 2017

For backup and recovery of Laserfiche Server, you can refer to the help page here: https://www.laserfiche.com/support/webhelp/Laserfiche/10/en-us/administration/Default.htm#../Subsystems/LFAdmin/Content/overview_Database_Backup.htm

For Laserfiche Forms, as there database is the only place that stored the data, you can just follow https://www.laserfiche.com/support/webhelp/Laserfiche/10/en-us/administration/Subsystems/LFAdmin/Content/Backing_Up_Your_DBMS_Database.htm

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replied on February 24, 2017

Hi Xiuhong,

I'm not talking about backing up specifically. I'm more talking about general database maintenance. For example, we had a transaction log fill up recently and stop services. Are there any general maintenance recommendations for LF databases?

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replied on February 24, 2017

If there were any general maintenance recommendations for SQL Server, it would be basically the same as the recommendations coming from Microsoft. For example, there is the following introduction on transaction logs:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms345382(v=sql.105).aspx

Though that information is easily searchable online, we understand that the total amount of knowledge needed by a database administrator would be huge. For this reason, Microsoft provides plenty of certificate programs to fortify the current and future generations of database professionals.

The burden of database administration faced by smaller clients is a well-known concern. Indeed, plenty of VARs thrive on the revenue from providing this extra mile of service, which many smaller clients appreciate and reward accordingly. This means the clients may need to give VARs some access (possibly remote access) in order to perform these maintenance tasks. There are also some VARs who choose to host SQL and Laserfiche instances on behalf of their customers on their own premises.

Part of database maintenance is constant monitoring. In other words, even if a maintenance plan had originally called for a certain maintenance step at a fixed interval, the monitoring may tell you that things are accumulating at a faster rate than originally planned. The maintenance plan will then need to be adjusted according to that finding.

Regarding the issue of broken links, this is due to the redesign of the support site. I will bring up this issue with the team responsible for the support site. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

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