Prune Job doesn't appear to run

[bettyb]

I have arcserve 9.01 with the database pruning set to 7 days. I run differentials M-F and a full backup on Saturday. I have noticed that my prune job is showing as active, but a review of my logs, show me it's not really purging. After the database gets too large, I end up having to initialize astspdat. I have run the utilities to check for integrity issues, but no luck. This has happened to me twice in the last 2 months.

For instance after 1/6/04 - it just stopped pruning:
Log file from 1/6/04's prune:

[01/06/2004-19:00:12 ,1,364,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Run Prune Database Job Scheduled for 1/06/04 at 7:00 PM.
[01/06/2004-19:00:12 ,1,364,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Begin pruning database.
[01/06/2004-19:00:12 ,1,364,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Pruning sessions older than 7 days.
[01/06/2004-19:00:13 ,1,364,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] End pruning database. (PRUNED=0)
[01/06/2004-19:00:13 ,1,364,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] ** Summary for Job **



Log files from last night's prune.
[01/12/2004-19:00:04 ,1,379,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Run Prune Database Job Scheduled for 1/12/04 at 7:00 PM.
[01/12/2004-19:00:04 ,1,379,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] ** Summary for Job **
[01/12/2004-19:00:04 ,1,379,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Prune Database Operation Successful.
[01/12/2004-19:00:24 ,1,379,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Begin pruning logs.
[01/12/2004-19:00:24 ,1,379,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] End pruning logs
[01/12/2004-19:00:24 ,1,379,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Reschedule Prune Database Job for 1/13/04 at 7:00 PM.
[01/12/2004-21:00

Not that it does not even report pruned=0. After my database stops pruning, I start having all types of backup issues, until I initialize astspdat.

Any insight is appreciated. thank you

 

[davidmichel]

The activity log entries look the same as my 9.01 installation, in that it does not report the number of records deleted.

Using dbcheck before and after a prune should verify if the prune is getting rid of records.

Over all it might work better for the backup job to be modified to record job and session information only into the database. That way astpsdat will not grow at all.

 

[bettyb]

Sometimes it does report what's been pruned:

[01/02/2004-19:00:05 ,1,344,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Run Prune Database Job Scheduled for 1/02/04 at 7:00 PM.
[01/02/2004-19:00:05 ,1,344,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Begin pruning database.
[01/02/2004-19:00:05 ,1,344,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Pruning sessions older than 7 days.
[01/02/2004-19:00:07 ,1,344,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Session is pruned. (MEDIA=INFSTORE-122603, ID=373C, SES=3, RECS=4300)
[01/02/2004-19:00:07 ,1,344,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Session is pruned. (MEDIA=BB-AFN-RE-122603, ID=3CB9, SES=2, RECS=9)
[01/02/2004-19:00:07 ,1,344,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Session is pruned. (MEDIA=BB-AFN-RE-122603, ID=3CB9, SES=1, RECS=14)
[01/02/2004-19:00:08 ,1,344,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Session is pruned. (MEDIA=INFSTORE-122603, ID=373C, SES=2, RECS=7)
[01/02/2004-19:00:08 ,1,344,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Session is pruned. (MEDIA=INFSTORE-122603, ID=373C, SES=1, RECS=6)
[01/02/2004-19:00:08 ,1,344,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] End pruning database. (PRUNED=4336)
[01/02/2004-19:00:12 ,1,344,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] ** Summary for Job **
[01/02/2004-19:00:12 ,1,344,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Prune Database Operation Successful.
[01/02/2004-19:00:32 ,1,344,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] Begin pruning logs.
[01/02/2004-19:00:32 ,1,344,0,0,-1,2,18,0,0] End pruning logs

I will try dbcheck after prunes to see. BUT I have been monitoring my database size and it was growing. When it gets large (over 1 gb) I either have problems with the database service (stopping, starting hanging) or I see the wonderful E3719 error that's been discussed elsewhere in the forum.

thanks for the response.

 

[davidmichel]

Perhaps there is a problem within the job itself.

Try recreating.
Delete the Pruning job from the queue.
Go to the Server Admin.
Configuration, Database.
Click the Enable Prune job so that it is not selected.
Click OK
Go back to Configuration, Database.
Click the Enable Prune job so that is is selected.
Click OK

 

[Cyklops]

Also keep in mind that the pruning job has no effect on the size of the database. It will mark records as 'deleted' but they are not actually being removed.
In a normal environment, with the 30 days pruning settings, the database will grow for 30 days and the pruning job will search for records that are older than 30 days (which cannot be found) and report PRUNED=0.
After 30 days it will find data to prune but it will do no purging (this has to be done manually by using the 'dbdefrag' command line utility). So theoretically your database will grow fast for 30 days and after that it will still grow but not so fast anymore due to the pruning job.

hope this helps

regards

 

[bettyb]

Cyklops - note in my first post I said the database kept growing and growing and there was no indication that the pruning job was even running - not even a pruned=0 message. I understand about the delete happend but not freeing space.

DavidMichel - I did as you suggested with the job. I will also monitor using the dbcheck. I will need about a week to see if my problem is resolved.

thank you all for responding with suggestions.