Environment
Reload 4 and earlier
Situation
Customer ran the "FINAL (FULL) MIGRATION" job several times in preparation for a real final migration over the weekend. This caused the new post office server to run out of disk space. He noticed that he had several directories that didn't seem like normal post office directories as well as some files he didn't recognize:
- DIRECTORIES:
- usr_d_1, *_2, *_3, *_4 *_5 (ofuser)
- vws_d_1, etc (ofviews)
- dms_d_1, etc (gwdms)
- msg_d_1, etc (ofmsg)
- usr_d_1, *_2, *_3, *_4 *_5 (ofuser)
- FILES:
- <migration date>gwbk.001, *.002, *.003*.004, *.005, *.006 (dbcopy log files)
- <migration date>chk.log (gwcheck log)
- grddb_1, *2, *3, *4, *5 (ngwguard.db)
- grddc_1, etc (ngwguard.dc)
- hstdb_1, etc (wphost.db)
- <migration date>gwbk.001, *.002, *.003*.004, *.005, *.006 (dbcopy log files)
The Reload help screen under the migration menu states, "It is perfectly fine to perform Step #4 before the actual time that you intend to cut over to the new production server. You might want to do this in order to test how the Final (Full) Migration will work. It is recommended that you actually do this so that you can get more familiar with how the migration software will behave..."
Resolution
Every time the Reload full migration was run, the previously created directories and files (as mentioned earlier in this article) were renamed so that the latest copy of these directories and their files could be migrated.
The offiles directory, however, will not be duplicated. The only change that occurs in this directory is the addition of files that were added since the last migration job was run.
While it is recommended to go through a practice of the full migration prior to the actual day of migration, this should only be done if there is sufficient disk space; and, it should be taken into consideration that the ofuser, ofmsg, ofviews, and gwdms directories along with other files will be duplicated each time it is run. If those duplicate directories can be safely deleted unless the administrator wants to keep them for some reason.
If the goal is to reduce the amount of time that it takes to run the final (and real) migration, then running step #1 would be recommended. The pre-migration job (#1) copies the contents of the offiles directory, which is 80 - 90% of the post office content. It is often referred to as the BLOBS (binary large objects) or the "attachments directory". The initial copy of the offiles directory can take days for some post offices that are very large; thus, running it a week before the actual migration and then again on the day before can significantly reduce the final (full) migration job run time.
The Groupwise 6.5 Administration Guide states: "The attachments directory (offiles) contains subdirectories that store file attachments, message text, and distribution lists that exceed 2 KB. Items of this size are stored more efficiently as files than as database records. The message database contains a pointer to where each item is found."
The offiles directory, however, will not be duplicated. The only change that occurs in this directory is the addition of files that were added since the last migration job was run.
While it is recommended to go through a practice of the full migration prior to the actual day of migration, this should only be done if there is sufficient disk space; and, it should be taken into consideration that the ofuser, ofmsg, ofviews, and gwdms directories along with other files will be duplicated each time it is run. If those duplicate directories can be safely deleted unless the administrator wants to keep them for some reason.
If the goal is to reduce the amount of time that it takes to run the final (and real) migration, then running step #1 would be recommended. The pre-migration job (#1) copies the contents of the offiles directory, which is 80 - 90% of the post office content. It is often referred to as the BLOBS (binary large objects) or the "attachments directory". The initial copy of the offiles directory can take days for some post offices that are very large; thus, running it a week before the actual migration and then again on the day before can significantly reduce the final (full) migration job run time.
The Groupwise 6.5 Administration Guide states: "The attachments directory (offiles) contains subdirectories that store file attachments, message text, and distribution lists that exceed 2 KB. Items of this size are stored more efficiently as files than as database records. The message database contains a pointer to where each item is found."
Additional Information
This article was originally published in the GWAVA knowledgebase as article ID 2127.