External database options

This tab is used to configure an external database which stores the archived message and message tracing data. On this tab, you specify the Database Connection, where you select a JDBC connection for the external database. The menu lists all available JDBC connections that are configured through the Database Configuration tab.

With message archiving, you can save message data and metadata to an external SQL database such as Oracle.

For any thread, both inbound and outbound messages can be archived. For a configured archive, data is first saved as a temporary message cache. The data is then written using JDBC to a table in the configured external database. The Alerts framework in Monitor Daemon determines when the processes to write messages to the external database are run. To aid in configuration of these alerts, there is a tool that generates these alerts configured using default options.

When configuring an external database, there are certain limitations that must be observed:

  • An empty (NULL) message fails to be inserted into an Oracle database table when the Message Data column is defined as "NOT NULL". If you define the column as NULL, then the empty message can be inserted into the Oracle database. The SQL database does not have this limitation.
  • Table names are case-sensitive.
  • Cloverleaf supports letters, digits, and underscores in table names and column names.

This table shows the available options on the External Database tab:

Option Description
Database Connection Lists all database connections for the master/current site.
Automatic Log Cycling Threshold Automatically cycles message logs when they attain the specified size. Cycling a save file causes the current file to close, renames it to old_name.old, and opens a new save file. The save files are located in %HCISITEDIR%\exec\hcimsgarchive.
Unlimited Select this or specify the maximum number of kilobytes the log file can attain before cycling in the field.
Enable Message Tracing This enables/disables the message tracing feature.

You can specify any number of days.

Table Name This is a site level configuration. The table name is used, because all tracing data in one site is stored into one table in the external database.

For better performance, the system engine records the tracing data to an embedded database before archiving them to the external database.

Message Count Threshold

Timeout in Seconds

These are used to specify when the archiving action is triggered. One of these options must be specified. Otherwise, an error message results.

Message Count Threshold specifies the maximum number of tracing records stored in the database before being written out to the external database. The default is 100.

Timeout in Seconds specifies how often the archiving action is performed. The default is 600 seconds.

Maximum Age of Tracing Records This specifies the expiration date of the tracing records. This keeps the external database from growing indefinitely.

When Unlimited is selected, the tracing records never expire.

When Days is selected, the tracing records are purged when the specified maximum number of days is obtained. By default, the maximum age of tracing records is 10 days.