Re: Archive Strategies

Douglas Whitacre wrote in message <7c443k$rk1_at_world1.bellatlantic.net>...
>Does anyone have any high level implementation strategies on Archiving?
Are
>there any tools out there that handle Archiving? The only strategy that
>I've seen implemented with Archiving is:
>
>1. Have a duplicate set of tables in another account (or with the prefix
>ARC - Like ARC_EMPLOYEES)
>2. Copy records to be archived to the duplicate or ARC tables
>3. Export the duplicate or ARC tables
>4. Verify the Export was successful
>5. Delete the rows in the regular table based on the keys from the ARC
>tables
>6. Delete the rows in the ARC tables and wait for the next archive.

I have found NO tools for proper archiving of data. The task is to varied according to your application. There is, however, a MOSES whitepapers requirements
specification that covers archiving. Search at http://www.xopen.org/

I have written a technical specification for my former employer as well. What I have written
was based upon a generic archive service and not dependent upon a particular database.
Things to consider with archiving:
Q: Is the need to store the data going to out live the table structure or software release versions?
A: If so, then the archived datastore must be able to contain multiple variatons of the data structure.
Don't store the Archived data in ways specific to the database structure.

Q: Are all of the data elements you are archiving going to be needed for searching and indexing?
A: Probably not. An archived data will contain fewer indexes than found on a live database table.
You could also combine columns together or even combine tables together for a simpler
archive database structure.

There are many more questions which must be properly addressed that once you discover them,
you will find that archiving is not trivial if done properly.

Bruce Received on Tue Mar 09 1999 - 17:16:03 CST