About Data Archiving

Records (e.g. transactions, devices, users) in the Pharos Database can accumulate over time, and as the database grows bigger, data performance becomes less efficient. Pharos Administrator lets you archive older records and/or remove them permanently from the Pharos Database. Archiving records helps you conserve disk space and makes the remaining records easier to search.

Archive Actions

Several archive actions are available for archiving records:

Action	Description
Copy to a CSV file	Copies records to a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file (or a series of CSV files) for importing into a database or spreadsheet. This is appropriate if data is to be used in a spreadsheet for analysis or some other purpose. If you want to also delete the records from the database permanently, select this option together with the “Remove records from the database” action.
Copy to a text file	Copies records to a text file, which can be printed and easily read by other users. If you want to also delete the records from the database permanently, select this option together with the “Remove records from the database” action.
Remove records from the database	Deletes records permanently from the database along with all interdependent records after archiving is complete. Records can be permanently deleted from the database along with all interdependent records, leaving the database clean. Often a record cannot simply be deleted, as it is referenced by other records, e.g. a User record may have associated Transactions. Archiving the record also removes any associated data, ensuring that no loose ends exist. When the Archive action is used for removing Transactions from the Database, Paypal transactions are not removed even if they are within the specified time range.

Action

Description

Copy to a CSV file

Copies records to a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file (or a series of CSV files) for importing into a database or spreadsheet. This is appropriate if data is to be used in a spreadsheet for analysis or some other purpose.

If you want to also delete the records from the database permanently, select this option together with the “Remove records from the database” action.

Copy to a text file

Copies records to a text file, which can be printed and easily read by other users.

If you want to also delete the records from the database permanently, select this option together with the “Remove records from the database” action.

Remove records from the database

Deletes records permanently from the database along with all interdependent records after archiving is complete. Records can be permanently deleted from the database along with all interdependent records, leaving the database clean.

Often a record cannot simply be deleted, as it is referenced by other records, e.g. a User record may have associated Transactions. Archiving the record also removes any associated data, ensuring that no loose ends exist.

When the Archive action is used for removing Transactions from the Database, Paypal transactions are not removed even if they are within the specified time range.

We recommend backing up your database before removing records from the database.

Archiving is available in the following contexts:

Alerts - Archives all alerts or those in a time range.
Computers - Archives Computers that meet the specified criteria and have no outstanding reservations, together with their associated Transactions.
Devices - Archives all printers and MFDs, together with associated transactions.
Transactions- Archives all transactions or transactions that meet a specific time range.
Users - Archives users that meet the specified criteria together with their associated transactions, future reservations, and resource usage statistics.

It is possible for an Offline Transaction to be archived before the billing service comes back online and the Transaction is processed. In this case the Transaction will not be automatically charged back to the user or card concerned. A Database Alert is raised for every Transaction archived in this way, so that the Transaction can be processed manually.

When User records are exported to a CSV file, the file can be modified and re-imported into the Pharos Database using the Batch Load Users wizard. For information on how to modify the file to be suitable for Batch Loading, see the Batch Load Technical Information in the Help.

Archive Errors

The following errors may occur during the archiving process:

Unable to obtain task size.

This error message means Pharos is unable to find out how many records would be affected by the task. This may be because the number of records is too big for the server to handle in one operation.

Use a filter option to archive the data in portions.

There is nothing to archive.

Pharos can find no information to archive. This may be because the time range chosen contains no records, or filters have been set which are too constraining.