Knowledge Base

The problem arises through inconsistencies among the files in the historical data archives. The folder for an archive unit contains index files (*.IND) and data files (*.DAT) plus a summary file that contains a list of the index and data files as at the time when the most recent purge operation took place.

However a problem exists whereby in the summary file’s list it shows the data files as having size 0 and a date in 1980. The files to which they refer appear to be valid but inconsistencies of date occur at 08/09/06 and earlier.

Solutions

A software tool called SUMMARY.EX2 exists for overcoming this problem, however its use is not guaranteed.

The tool is only to be used as a last resort. Please contact ARC Informatique’s Technical Support to discuss the procedure. You should back up your historical data before the tool is used.

To use this tools for reordering the files (to fix gaps in the index file) it is necessary to have all of the index files and data files in the index, even those that have been backed-up otherwise the summary file will be inconsistent with the data files.

In the most frequent usage (for deletion of buffers at the end of the summary file), the problem does not arise.

• You can select some buffers in the Summary file’s list and recover or delete the selected entries (using two buttons for those functions).

As one deletes buffers from the Summary file it is necessary to renumber the data and the index files so that they are consistent with the summary list(1st buffer of the summary = file H000000.DAT, 2nd buffer = file H000001.DAT, etc).

• A tick-box option enables you to request renumbering of the files.
• You must specify different paths for the summary file’s source and its destination.
• You must also copy the data files from the data archive storage to the source folder.

Example

Suppose that the file paths are as follows:

• Summary file to recover: F:\Pcvue\USR\TH\UD1\UD1.
• The folder F:\Pcvue\USR\TH\UD1 index\ contains the associated file summary UD1 plus the data index files and data files
• Destination file: F:\Pcvue\USR\TH\UD1Recup\UD1.

The file F:\Pcvue\USR\TH\UD1Recup index\ (which must exist) will contain the new Summary file and the renumbered data files.

For further information

For details of how the data files are recorded, see the Help book on Configuring Native Data Recording.

For a description of the files and formats used, see the Knowledge Base article on How Proprietary Archiving Works.