How Often Should I Purge My Data?

There are a number of factors that you should consider in making purge decisions.

Is the amount of data that I currently have causing me any problems or extra expense now?

As the amount of data that you have increases, more disk space is used and so does the resources required to do various tasks.  This situation puts more resource pressure on your server and increases the amount of time that it takes to complete tasks. As an example, running history reports could take a considerable amount of time, reducing overall staff productivity.  People are constantly waiting for some thing to complete.

How much of the data that I have now do I need/want to keep?

Most Retailers only keep about (2) two years of detailed history.  I have found many instances, over the years, where some companies have decades of detailed history on file.  So primarily, this is a user preference issue.

What kind of time constraints do I have on the purging operations?

Normally, it is best to schedule purging operations for times when there is no one using the application software.  Generally, there are at least (3) three good reasons for this as follows:

1.  Purging operations usually require a lot of CPU and memory usage.  So if this is done during peak hours, it can bog down your server.

2.  Some historical purging operations will hang and wait if it encounters a record that is in use. This artificially extends the amount of time required to complete the purging operation.

3.  If you are purging database files of tables that are updated as part of a posting operation, this could result in one or more of those operations hanging, failing to complete, and/or possibly corrupting some of the data.

What other utilities are required in order to recover disc space?

Most purging operations simply mark the data involved as deleted but does not physically remove the data from the database files or tables.  This means that a separate function may be required to accomplish complete removal of the data.  Most of these type of utilities require that all users be out of software entirely.

If you have questions about purging and file utility usage, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department.