Managing ILM Partitions

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As a system administrator, you manage the ILM (Information Lifecycle Management) partitions in your system to store data in different logical areas in the database according to the start time of the object, to define the intervals in which the partitions should change, and so on.

Note: The ILM page is available only in Client 0.

For more information, see ILM - Information Lifecycle Management.

This page includes the following:

ILM Overview

During the daily operation of an Automation Engine system, large amounts of reporting, statistical and historical data accumulate. Partitioning the database with ILM is an efficient, fast and easy method to deal with this data flow and maintain the object version as well as the deleted object data. ILM partitions allow you to store data in different logical areas in the database according to the start time of the object, to define the intervals in which the partitions should change, and so on.

Partitioning the Automation Engine database using ILM affects only the following type of data:

Note: ILM does not handle object versions or deleted objects. These must be reorganized with Utilities, even if you use partitioning with ILM.

The lists of ILM Partitions and their History are only available if you have installed and activated ILM. You also must have privileges to ILM Actions assigned in your user definition.

With ILM it is possible to partition five areas of the Automation Engine database and to define specific partitioning settings per area:

  • Statistic (A*) tables
  • Report (R*) tables
  • MELD
  • XAO
  • XRO

The number of online partitions depends on the settings specified in the UC_ILM_SETTINGS variable and is displayed on the toolbar accordingly. Only one partition, the last one, is active at any given time. For more information, see UC_ILM_SETTINGS - Settings for Partitioning with ILM.

Working with ILM Partitions in AWI

The ILM page in the Administration perspective displays the Partitions list. This list provides all the information necessary to manage the partitions. The following columns are displayed by default:

  • Status

    Whether the partition is active or inactive

    The active partition in always the newest, that is, the one with the highest Partition No. It has no Max. RunID since new activations still occur.

  • Partition No.

    Running number of the partition and is provided by the Automation Engine. The highest number is the active one

    Staging tables (MS SQL Server) always have the partition number 0.

  • Parent

    It is possible to partition five table areas in the database. The Parent is the schema name (MS SQL Server) or the corresponding main table of the Automation Engine database (Oracle).

  • Filegroup / Tablespace

    Name of the Filegroup (MS SQL Server) or the tablespace (Oracle) where the data is stored.

  • Starttime

    Time at which the partition has started to store data

  • Min. RunID

    Smallest RunID available in the partition, that is, the RunID of the first task that has been stored on it

  • Max. RunID

    Highest RunID available in the partition, that is, the RunID of the last task that has been stored on it

  • Rowcount

    Number of data records available in the partition

  • Checked

    The partition has been checked and no active tasks have been found

    Partitions can be checked manually (right-click a partition and select Check Partition) or they occur automatically before a partition change.

For more information, see Main Page Tables.

In the toolbar, the buttons Export and Refresh are available by default. These buttons allow you to refresh the content of the table and export it as a CSV file, see Exporting Tables to CSV.

Searching for Partitions

Large installations may have many partitions. The Search Partitions box is available on the toolbar and helps you find specific records. Start typing your text string in the search box. The application displays possible matches as you type.

Note: The search is not context sensitive.

Starting and Stopping ILM

The UC_ILM_SETTINGS variable determines when the system should change to the next partition. You select Start ILM on the toolbar to activate ILM. This means that the server changes to a new partition at the time specified in the variable. Conversely, you select Stop ILM to deactivate ILM partitioning altogether. This means that, from that moment onwards, no partition changes take place.

For more information, see UC_ILM_SETTINGS - Settings for Partitioning with ILM.

Checking a Partition

You must check if a partition has active tasks before switching it out/dropping it because the data contained in a partition is not available afterwards.

You can check partitions from the Partitions list in the Administration perspective. To do so, right-click the relevant partition and select Check Partition. The resulting list provides details about the tasks in the partition. Right-click a task to access the following options:

  • Executions/Child/Activator Task Executions

    For more information, see Execution Data.

  • Open Report

    For more information, see Understanding the Reports.

  • Initiate Log Rotation

    This causes a new log file to be written. A dialog prompts you to confirm your action.

    The Automation Engine logs large amounts of information. To be able to handle your log files easily, you can define systemwide settings that break the information to be logged in smaller chunks, thus producing smaller log files.

    Example

    You can determine the maximum size of the log file. You can also specify the number of days that may elapse before a new file starts. You do so using the CHANGE_LOGGING_DAYS and CHANGE_LOGGING_MB keys in the UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS variable . For more information, see CHANGE_LOGGING Parameters.

Dropping (Oracle) / Switching Out (MS SQL) Partitions

Dropping/switching out a partition removes the data records available in the partition from your system. Different databases handle this in different ways:

  • Oracle: When you drop a partition, all data records available in the partition are removed from your system. Thus, the partition is deleted permanently.

  • MS SQL: When you switch out a partition, the data is archived in the database, not deleted. However, you have to restore the partition to have access to the data after the partition has been switched out.

Only the last partition can be dropped/switched out. They also have to be checked to ensure that they do not contain any active tasks.

You can drop/switch out a partition from the Partitions list in the Administration perspective. To do so, right-click the last partition and select Drop Partition / Switch Out Partition respectively. You can also select the last partition and click the Drop / Switch out button at the top menu. You are prompted to confirm your action.

Important! It is recommended to backup your data before dropping/switching out a partition, thus allowing you to restore a partition at a later point in time, if required.

For more information about the partition turnaround, see ILM - Partition Key Turnaround.

See also: