We have been asked by a number of Trusts why it takes so long to carry out a Routine Maintenance Check and what do we actually do. As Trusts are using more and more modules within the Eclipse-fm® system, it becomes more critical that your system is checked to ensure that there are no problems within the database. Unfortunately, some of the corrections that may need to be made require us to have exclusive access to your database and this is why we ask for a period of time whereby the system is ’off-line’.
We normally arrange for your system to be offline for two hours to allow us to carry out the following process which normally highlights any potential problems with your database. Depending on various factors, we sometimes have to increase this time period to allow us to carry out this maintenance effectively.
The standard stages we go through are as follows:
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Make a backup of the database - this is done prior to any major change to your database.
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Locate any rogue files in either the data area or the programs area of the installation - such as any temporary files that are no longer needed. These are then removed having first checked with you if the files appear to be documents you have created deliberately.
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If you are running a non SQL database, we then re-index your database and check the file sizes of the tables and extend them as necessary. This can represent a significant amount of time on a big database, and the need for doing this will disappear as everyone moves up to MS SQL usage with the next Eclipse-fm® revision.
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For Eclipse-fm® databases we will then check the tickets in the system to see if there are any obvious issues with tickets being at the wrong status or with invalid dates for example.
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We then check for any orphan records in the database - sometimes users have removed codes which have resulted in related records no longer having a parent which can cause problems later on in the life cycle of the system.
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We then check to ensure that there is going to be sufficient disk space on the server to allow you to continue running the system.
During the maintenance session, once the above standard procedure is complete, if we have arranged with you prior to the event, we will then upgrade your system to the latest version of the software if necessary.
The benefit of doing this is to ensure that your database continues to run at its optimum performance and as we have found in the past, it identify potential problems before they have time to affect your way of working.
