This article will go over manual purging, maintenance, and when to consider the Full SQL license
All versions of SQL Express used by Keyscan Aurora have a 10gb limit on storage
There are always risks to purging data and a backup is strongly recommended before and after
VM snapshots are excellent at protecting the installation integrity, when available
Scheduled Backups
After installing Keyscan Aurora, a scheduled backup should be created
Scheduled Backups help to prevent the loss of data and can offer a restore point
Within Aurora, open Application Management > Database Maintenance > Scheduled Backup (tab)
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Select a time and day(s) of the week that the backup should run. Choose the least busy times, if possible. Try to avoid 4am, as the system does hardware synchronizations
Consider the Auto Purge options and select the smallest value, if applicable
Delete backup older than # of days will remove older backups and should be set according to needs
The 3 Auto purge options should be considered and set to the lowest possible value
Compress Database is recommended to be checked
Changing the backup location is an option in newer version of Aurora; though it is not recommended
Changing the backup location has risks with permissions and access. It is recommended to have the default backup location backed up to a cloud or server location
Properly maintaining a database will not only preserve hard drive space, it will also prevent performance degradation
When To Consider The Full SQL License
If the installation is going to be large, busy, or high security (requiring full data retention) then the full SQL license should be considered
Installations exceeding 50 access control units should be running on full SQL for performance reasons
Manually Purging The Database
If the warning on database size has been displayed, and/or the database is at or greater than 10gb, communications with the hardware is limited (no transactions), the system is showing signs of performance degradation, the database needs to be purged
The first step in purging is to backup the database
Within Aurora, open Application Management > Database Maintenance > Database Maintenance (tab)
Click on the Backup Now button and wait for the process to complete (this will take some time)
Important information displayed is the SQL version and database details
After the backup has completed, proceed with the purge
Click on the purge tab and click Calculate Dates (this might take some time)
Select the Site(s) to be purged
Select the transactions to be purged. Unless certain transactions are required to be preserved, leave this set to Include all transactions
Sometimes transactions are added with the default system date. In this case, the first purge of the system should be from the first transaction date until the approximate installation date
Example: Installation date in March 2023. First purge date range would be 1/1/1990 to 3/1/2023
It is recommended to never use the All dates option
After making selections, click the Purge button and wait for it to complete
Once the initial purge has completed, start with 1 month increments and purge forward until the database size has been reduced significantly, or the desired amount of data remains
From the Database Maintenance tab, click Backup Now and wait for it to complete
To restore full communications with the hardware reboot the server