Technical information

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Server Maintenance
Server Maintenance
After the installation of a fax server and during its normal use, system resources will be allocated for the various
storage and log operations. Over time, the allocation of resources can cause problems such as poor performance,
running out of disk space, and data corruption. In conjunction with normal system maintenance, we recommend
periodic maintenance on the fax server to ensure smooth and efficient operation. The following describes
recommended processes for use by experienced system administrators.
Note
Most maintenance tasks require a user to be logged in as vsifax, root, or another administrative user.
Purging historical data and maintaining the database files
Regular purging of incoming and outgoing faxes will increase the responsiveness of the clients, which will load and
run slowly if the database files become too large. Regular purging will also speed up processes that create the
outbound and inbound log reports (vfxolog and vfxilog, respectively) while preventing file corruption.
Maintaining log files
The process of maintaining the Outbound and Inbound log files begins with the purging of data from the olog and
ilog reports. This is accomplished using the vfxpurge command. The vfxpurge command will allow you to
select the amount of data you want to purge and how much data to retain. Running a purge process nightly using a
cron or MS-Schedule job or by using the vadmind cron mechanism is recommended.
Maintaining databases
Keeping databases purged can eliminate delays in locating information about sent faxes. If the log files are
excessively large, the information can be difficult to find and errors may occur when running the vfxolog command.
The process of purging the files should also include periodic file unloading and rebuilding. This will help ensure that
the databases contain accurate information, since excessively large database files tend to be more susceptible to
corruption.
Rebuilding database files can be performed using a series of VSI-FAX commands either individually, written into a
script, or through other automated task managers, such as crontab or MS-Schedule. Sample daily and periodic
scripts appear later in this section. The following describes the recommended weekly or monthly process:
1. Stop the VSI-FAX scheduler.
2. Purge old data from the databases.
3. Rebuild the databases.
4. Restart the scheduler.
Note
During the rebuilding process, errors may be displayed that indicate database corruption. This is particularly likely
if rebuilding has not been performed recently. Ignore these error messages because the problems they refer to
will be repaired during the rebuilding process.