Theory question on collecting stats

Environment : Oracle 8.1.7 on Windows 2000 professional.

Scenario : Need to collect "statistics" for a complex web-based product. For example, upon login, an entry gets put into a "STAT_USR_VST" table.

Question: What is the best way to collect and store statistical data? In the example above, the table looks like: Username (PK)
Visit_Date (PK)

Over time, this table will fill up tremendously. Now I know you have to ask yourself thw question - "Well, what data do you want to REPORT on? Is it for one day, two weeks, or an entire year?" I realize that and that the answer pretty much dictates the table structure and the data in it. But how have other people collected their "statistical" data over time? Do you dump it to an outside "stats database" for archiving? Do you output it to log files and store those?

I am just curious how other people have approached the problem of collecting data but to avoid bringing your database down with HUGE amounts of information over time.

Thanks,
Sean Received on Tue Feb 20 2001 - 16:39:36 CST