Chris21 Housekeeping using the Background Administrator

This topic is one for the Chris21 administrators. You may not be aware of the Chris21 housekeeping functionality and how it can assist you to maintain your database. Have a look at the Background Administrator (FLM) form to see the housekeeping functionality that is available to you.

 Strictly speaking, Chris21 housekeeping includes archiving. However, this blog is just concerned with the features of the Background Administrator form. For more information about archiving, see my blog Chris21 Archiving – the Pros and Cons.

The Background Administrator form is used to maintain the size of the file repository in Chirs21. It does this by removing the expired records that you specify. This is very important as the file repository can grow quickly if left unattended.

What is the File Repository?

The file repository is used by Chris21 to store the report output that is created whenever a user runs a report from the Report Designer. If you look at your report output you will see a list of reports you have previously run. By default the system will store report output for 31 days. You can imagine how much the file repository will grow if you have a large number of users running reports!

The other purpose of the file repository is to store the attachments that users add to records in Chris21.

You can find the file repository in your system’s DAT directory. Look for the file called CHFRD. When you find this file you may be surprised at how large it is. It is commonly the largest file in the DAT directory.

The most efficient way to manage the file repository is to set your parameters on the Background Administrator and then schedule the process to run on a regular basis. See my blog about Scheduling Reports if you’re not sure how to do this.

Once you have set up your schedule the process will run automatically at the time and date you have specified. Review the results of your settings by looking at the size of the CHFRD file after the Background Administrator process has run. Bear in mind that you can always go back and tweak your settings if the file repository is still too large.