What is Data Archiving?

Data Archiving is the process to move the older data that is not needed for day-to-day operations to another storage device for long term retention.

Why is Data Archiving so crucial for an organization?

Archiving the right data is extremely important for the organizations. Many of the organizations do not have a data archival strategy, mostly because they are not sure about what data and how much of the data should be archived.

The organizations should invest in building an effective Data Archival policy to ensure that they are not working on huge unstructured data, which is impacting the performance of the applications. Without having an archiving strategy, the organizations may end up losing inactive but valuable data, which is at times very expensive or impossible if needs to be re-created.

For example, for an organization handling medical data of the patients, they must have an effective Data Archival policy to ensure that the old, but valuable data from patient's medical history is not lost.

With an effective archive strategy, organizations can easily search for and access old data that continues to add value to the business over time. At the same time, they do not compromise on the performance of the applications they use to view the data.

Protects older older, important data - Data Archiving protect the older data, which is important and should be retained for future references or regulatory compliance reasons.
Reduces primary storage cost - Data Archiving reduces the cost of primary storage. The data archival storage uses a low-performance, high-capacity storage medium.
Improves application performance - Data Archiving improves the performance of the Application significantly as it displays the more recent and active data.

Archiving Data in SummitAI Application

You can archive data for the Incident Management, Service Request Management, Asset Management, and IT Operations Management modules. By archiving, the Analysts can move the old data to the database and maintain the existing data in the Application. You can create an archiving schedule to run on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis at the specified time. You can also delete the old data from the application.

To Archive Data by Module:

Select Admin > Basic > Infrastructure > Archival.
On the ARCHIVAL page, click ADD NEW on the ACTIONS panel.
Select the Module from the list and type in the required details to archive data. For more information about the fields on the ARCHIVAL page, see Field Description.
Click SUBMIT. The data archiving is configured for the selected module.

Note:

If the Incident, Service Request, and Asset Management options are not displayed in the Module drop-down list, execute the following SQL script in the Summit Database:

Field Description

This section describes the fields on the ARCHIVAL page.

SOURCE DATABASE Tab

Under the SOURCE DATABASE tab, provide TRANSACTION, SUMMARIZATION, and INDEXING data.

Figure: SOURCE DATABASE tab

The following table describes the fields under the SOURCE DATABASE tab of the ARCHIVAL page:

Field	Description
TRANSACTION
Archive Method	Select a method for data archival. Archive: This is the process of periodically moving data to different database that is no longer actively used for long-term retention. Purge: This is the process of freeing up space in the database or of deleting obsolete data that is not required by the system.
Archive Data Older Than	Type in the number of days old data to be archived.
SUMMARIZATION
Archive Data Older Than	Specify the number of days old data to archive.
INDEXING
Apply Re-indexing	Select the check box to apply re-indexing.
Enable Alert For	Select the check boxes to send alert for Failure and/or Success for data archival.
Alert E-mail ID	Specify the e-mail id of the recipients who receive e-mail notifications.
Active	Indicates the status set for the data archival. If selected, the data archival configuration becomes active. If not selected, the data archival configuration becomes inactive.

DESTINATION DATABASE Tab

Under the DESTINATION DATABASE tab, you can specify details, such as Linked Server Name, Database Name, and so on.

Figure: DESTINATION DATABASE tab

The following table describes the fields under the DESTINATION DATABASE tab of the ARCHIVAL page:

Fields	Description
DESTINATION DATABASE
Linked Server Name	Specify the Linked server name. If the destination database is in a different server (multi-server configuration), the source database connects to the destination server using the Linked server. The steps to create a Linked Server is explained later in this article.
Database Name	Specify the destination database name to save the archived data.
TRANSACTION
Delete older than	Type in the number of days old transaction data to be deleted.
SUMMARIZATION
Delete older than	Type in the number of days old Summarization data to be deleted.
INDEXING
Apply Re-indexing	Select the option to apply re-indexing.

ACTIONS

This section explains all the icons displayed on the ACTIONS panel of the ARCHIVAL page.

Filters

Click the Filters icon to select the Module for which you want to view the data archival configuration.

FILTERS pop-up page
Figure: FILTERS pop-up page

SHOW LIST

Click SHOW LIST to display the LIST table showing the data archival configuration for the selected module.

ARCHIVAL page
Figure: ARCHIVAL page

To edit the data archival configuration, click the Module. Make appropriate changes and click SUBMIT.
To display the inactive archival configuration, click the Include Inactive check box.

Note:

When the archival configuration is displayed under the LIST table, the ADD NEW action is displayed on the ACTIONS panel. Click ADD NEW to configure data archival for a module.

Creating Linked Server

To create Linked server:

Click on Server Objects > Linked Server > New Linked Server...

2. General

Provide the destination full server name (<ip address>/<instancename>) in the product name and data source.

3. Security

Provide Remote login user id/password of a user who has the required access.

4. Server Options

Change the RPC and RPC Out option to True.

Asset Management Archival Process - Additional Steps

This section explains the additional steps required for data archival of the Asst Management module.

One Time Script

Execute the Script to delete duplicate and inactive records from AM_SoftwareInventory table. Execute the script if there are more than 0.5 million inactive and duplicate records. Please contact the SummitAI Support team for the Script.

Schedule Job

Enable the Asset Archival job. For information about scheduling jobs using the SummitAI Custom Scheduler, see Configuring Custom Scheduler.

FAQs

How to implement data archiving for the Service Management and Asset Management modules?

Service Management

Please follow the steps mentioned above for archiving data.

Asset Management

Please follow the steps mentioned above for archiving data.

Which records or tables are archived in the Service Management and Asset Management modules?

Service Management

All the transaction tables related to Incident Management and Service Request Management modules are archived.

Asset Management

Only the software discovered data is archived.

Are Patch Management records or tables included while archiving data?

No, data Archiving for Patch Management records is not available. It is planned in the Product roadmap.

What types of records/tables are excluded from the archive?

Service Management

The data tables related to configurations and DN reporting tables are excluded while archiving data.

Asset Management

The active software information is excluded while archiving data.

How to access the archived data?

The archived data can be accessed from the DN tables by creating Custom reports.

How to search the archived data using the SummitAI application?

The archived data can be accessed using Custom Reports.

How to access the archived attachments?

Attachment archival is not available.

Is there any impact on the overall Application performance when the Data Archival process is running?

Yes, there is a very minor impact on the Application performance when the Data Archival process is running. We recommend to schedule the Data Archival processes during the off-peak hours.

If the Customer is using DB clustering, is DB archival required for both the servers?

No. Currently, database replication is enabled on the SummitAI database only.

What happens if the data archiving process is interrupted or an error occurs?

If the Data Archival process is interrupted, the data archival takes place in the next schedule. In case of an error, you should verify and correct the configurations.

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