How to shrink the PlateSpin Protect, Migrate, and Forge databases

PlateSpin Migrate and Protect are provided with SQL 2005 Express as a database back-end. This version of SQL has a limitation of 4GB per database file (.mdf).

This article outlines how to manually clean up and shrink the database file(s) if they grow too large.

These instructions can also be used to shrink the databases on remote SQL installations and on PlateSpin Forge 3.x.

PlateSpin.DBCleanup.exe, the database cleanup tool, is located in \PlateSpin [Protect\Migrate] Server\bin. This tool cleans up the unnecessary entries within the database files, it can shrink the actual .mdf and .ldf files on the file system. The instructions below include steps to shrink the files after cleaning them up.

PlateSpin.DBCleanup.exe

/help                     - Show extended help

/info                     - See database usage information

/clean     - Purge Jobs

To clean up the database files:

1. Open a command prompt and navigate to \PlateSpin [Protect\Migrate] Server\bin.

2. Run PlateSpin.DBCleanup.exe /clean /days={Number of days to retain}

To shrink the database files:

1. Connect to SQL using SQL Studio Management Express

2. Expand databases.

3. Right-click ofx and select Tasks --> Shrink --> Database.

4. A confirmation window will appear, click OK.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the portabilitysuite database.

6. Check the database files (default location \PlateSpin [Protect\Migrate] Server\Database) to confirm the shrink was successful.