[bromcom] Database Limit

[ReadTheNetwork]

Morning all,

 

Our data manager has informed me that the data allowance is 10GB and we're over it by twice that much. Could someone confirm that schools are only entitled to 10GB? As this sounds like a very small amount of data.

 

Thanks,

[Banjo]

Are you talking about database size or amount of data transferred in and out of your DB over a set period of time? Guessing the former?

[ReadTheNetwork]

The database size.

[matt40k]

SQL Express is limited to 1GB RAM and 10GB db - time to throw money at Microsoft for a SQL Standard license. Wait, I thought Bromcom was cloud based?

[Banjo]

You would need to dig out your contract with them and look at the small print. I would have thought that 'bigger' schools pay more than 'smaller' schools for this very reason.

[ReadTheNetwork]

It's cloud hosted

[djrscally]

If it's cloud hosted I'd be looking to contact Bromcom's support and get them to sort it; make sure your contract doesn't say something daft like they'll host you on Express or something though.

[Bromcom_John]

I recommend you contact the customer service team.

The only 10gb limit I am aware of relates to the document management System storage, not the MIS database size.

and the DMS limit can be increased.

[ReadTheNetwork]

Thanks @JohnCondon

 

I'll update my data manager with this.

[themightymrp]

Hmm little worried. We hit 96% of our 10Gb storage this morning so I called support. They guided me through deleting 'copies' of reports that are listed under the My Reports section. After doing that I'm still on 89.6% used, and we have a load of learning cycle reports to generate at the end of this week :-/

 

I've spoken to customer support who are getting back to, but it appears that we are going to have to purchase more storage We seem to have eaten through this at an alarming rate, seeing as we only went live with Bromcom in September. Am I wrong in saying that 10Gb seems like a very low amount?

[djrscally]

Hmm little worried. We hit 96% of our 10Gb storage this morning so I called support. They guided me through deleting 'copies' of reports that are listed under the My Reports section. After doing that I'm still on 89.6% used, and we have a load of learning cycle reports to generate at the end of this week :-/

 

I've spoken to customer support who are getting back to, but it appears that we are going to have to purchase more storage We seem to have eaten through this at an alarming rate, seeing as we only went live with Bromcom in September. Am I wrong in saying that 10Gb seems like a very low amount?

It's a ridiculous amount, check your contract for any mention of it. Seems so obviously a "nope" to me that I'd be surprised if it's in there.

[themightymrp]

So, it turns out that yes, it is stated that secondary schools get 10Gb of DMS storage and primaries get 3Gb. I have just been speaking to support who have shown me other areas where files can be deleted which theoretically will free up a lot of space. I'm now waiting for an email with this guidance on, hopefully in a clear to understand way. It appears that every time we run a report, a copy is being saved to DMS even though we don't need it to. Some of our more complicated reports are showing as being over 100Mb in size after being run (probably a web merge involving the whole school or year group).

 

Does anybody else have experience of doing some tidying on this area who could perhaps help highlight which files are definitely safe to delete and which ones I should stay clear of? It isn't immediately obvious when looking at the screen

[djrscally]

So, it turns out that yes, it is stated that secondary schools get 10Gb of DMS storage and primaries get 3Gb. I have just been speaking to support who have shown me other areas where files can be deleted which theoretically will free up a lot of space. I'm now waiting for an email with this guidance on, hopefully in a clear to understand way. It appears that every time we run a report, a copy is being saved to DMS even though we don't need it to. Some of our more complicated reports are showing as being over 100Mb in size after being run (probably a web merge involving the whole school or year group).

 

Does anybody else have experience of doing some tidying on this area who could perhaps help highlight which files are definitely safe to delete and which ones I should stay clear of? It isn't immediately obvious when looking at the screen

 

Well, wasn't expecting that. A school's database is unlikely to be a large thing of course, but 10gb still seems like a really low limit.

[localzuk]

It isn't the database that's the issue - its the DMS - document management system. So, that's all the files attached into the MIS. Our middle school DOCSTORAGE (as we use SIMS), is 3.6GB after using SIMS .Net since it was released.

 

So, realistically, 10GB should be quite a lot, unless you're storing a *lot* of files in there.

[djrscally]

It isn't the database that's the issue - its the DMS - document management system. So, that's all the files attached into the MIS. Our middle school DOCSTORAGE (as we use SIMS), is 3.6GB after using SIMS .Net since it was released.

 

So, realistically, 10GB should be quite a lot, unless you're storing a *lot* of files in there.

 

Our old CMIS db is over 10gb even without the docstore!

[themightymrp]

As @localzuk says, its the document storage which has the 10Gb limit. The actual database isn't the issue. Once I get the guidance mentioned above, and get my head around it, I should be able to clear off a lot of info.

[matt40k]

I know I've found the "letterhead" to be the problem historically. Someone's done a watermark image on all the word documents - they basically got a high res image from the design firm, at say 50mb, and just wondered why it takes forever to open and has problem printing even a simple 1 page letter. Other one is logos.

[Ditto]

Couple of points on this thread.

i) even if purely for Document storage, that's really tiny in today's world

ii) it would have been useful if the system flagged up the issue at 50%, 80% 90% etc.

 

It's never a good experience to find your system grinds to a halt to find the answer 'it's because of the contract - pay some more and you'll be OK'.

 

Hopefully now that you've discovered the letter head issue, you can take some action to get some, but it sounds as though it's just delaying the issue for a later date.

 

I've heard a lot of positive feedback about Bromcom, so let's hope they find a positive solution - like add one or two zeroes on that storage size?

[Banjo]

It sounds like a bug - the software is creating a temp copy on your DMS that needs tidying. The more times you click the button and run the reports the more unwanted files get created. I'd be tempted to kick back about this - Why doesn't their support/network team run overnight scripts to delete these unwanted files ?

[localzuk]

i) even if purely for Document storage, that's really tiny in today's world

 

It really isn't though. The sorts of things you put in DMS in an MIS are small - basically letters. You're talking a hundred kb at most each. Scanned documents maybe a bit more, but shouldn't really - sort the scanning settings out to deal with that. 10GB of data is 100,000 files. More than enough for any secondary IMO.

[matt40k]

It sounds like a bug - the software is creating a temp copy on your DMS that needs tidying. The more times you click the button and run the reports the more unwanted files get created. I'd be tempted to kick back about this - Why doesn't their support/network team run overnight scripts to delete these unwanted files ?

That's what I was thinking! Also being a cloud MIS, surely it'll be using AWS S3 storage or something that auto tiers - so SSD > HDD > really slow cheap HDD > deletion

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

It really isn't though. The sorts of things you put in DMS in an MIS are small - basically letters. You're talking a hundred kb at most each. Scanned documents maybe a bit more, but shouldn't really - sort the scanning settings out to deal with that. 10GB of data is 100,000 files. More than enough for any secondary IMO.

Some of our schools use the linked documents to store evidence fo work as pictures and videos. One high school even went so far as to attach CCTV footage to behavior incidents, so not all assumptions are true in all settings

[themightymrp]

So, I received the guidance document I was provided for reducing the size of my DMS. All it tells me is how to delete the files, which is exactly what we went through on the phone. The key bit of guidance I wanted to know was WHAT FILES are safe to delete?! If, as this document seems to imply, I can delete all of them, then why save them in the first place?

 

It also doesn't show on here another section mentioned on the phone for doing something similar under the 'My Documents' area too which is also full of duplicate files. But some of which 'may' be on MCAS... But how do I know which?

 

Annoying!

 

P.S. I would upload it here but for some reason I can't upload an attachment today? Is that just me?

[themightymrp]

OK an update. Just had a very pleasant chat with Bromcom support who have given me some more guidance. I've managed to get my storage usage down to 25.6% which is much more manageable!

 

The guidance is as follow:

 

1) Go to the 'My Documents' section.

2) Use the Originator dropdown to select the Everyone option

3) Set the Status dropdown to all

4) Sort the list by the Focus column so that all of the blank entries in the Focus column come first

5) Delete these!

6) If there is anything in that Focus column, more research on the file and who created it would be needed

7) Switch to the 'My Reports' section

8) Repeat the above procedure, deleting anything with a blank Focus

 

Dropped me down from 89% used to the current 25.6% this morning. Apparently, as long as this Focus field is blank, the document is not linked to any particular students record or their MCAS record and is therefore safe to delete.

 

There is a reason that these files get created every single time a report is run, but the developers have apparently taken the view that storing all of these is not a requirement and so it has been added to the To-Do list for an upcoming build. Hopefully it won't be long then before I can stop thinking about this.

 

For now I will just check back in every fortnight and have a tidy up.

[Bromcom_John]

@themightymrp We're actually looking to have some extra tools/amendments to make this a lot easier within the next 2 releases (2018.2 build/2018.3 build)

I won't go into detail here I can let you know off thread if you are interested.

Edited May 2, 2018 by Bromcom_John