Snapshot DB Documentation

[wernerb]

Good day all,

We are looking for Documentation for the Snapshot DB,

Settings that can be changed for data retention, how the DB works etc.

[MurrayPeters]

Hi Werner,

Do you mean the database which is typically named something like FNMSSnapshot?  That database stores no useful persistent data and exists primarily to support the rendering of grids/data in the web ui.  For example, when UserA views the All Inventory page and chooses additional columns to display & then groups by specific columns - those choices are recorded in the Snapshot database so that when the user revisits that page (maybe even from another browser or even another computer entirely) the grid is shown with the same columns and groupings.   If you blew away that database entirely and created a new one you would lose no business data - just that all users 'views' would go back to the defaults.

Otherwise, I suspect you may be talking about the Data Warehouse database - which does store snapshots of License Consumption data as well as Software Install counts.     The default behaviour is that exports are run each Sunday (triggered by a scheduled task) and the retention logic is to keep:

a) weekly snapshots for each week dating back 12 weeks from today.

b) monthly snapshots dating back to a maximum age of 3 years

To adjust the retention period, you would need to change the following settings in the file: 

%ProgramData%\Flexera Software\Compliance\ImportProcedures\Inventory\Exporter\FNMPDataWarehouse\BusinessIntelligenceData.xml

If you plan on adjusting the retention period by editing this file you should note that the file in the location I mentioned above will be overwritten with subsequent FNMS upgrades.   Another option is to put in place a "CustomInventory" step for the exporter which avoids clobbering during upgrades - it's a little more involved but is generally considered better practice.   Your Flexera services team or partner could assist with that (feel free to reach out to me if you ever need assistance :).

- Murray

[wernerb]

Hi Murry,

Thank you for this, 

I was referring to the FNMSSnapShot DB.

How I got to my question was, we have a client that created massive BI reports(as in 10 reports) that had 1mil + lines, and the DB grew tremendous. once we cleaned up these Reports by deleting them it took a about a week to reflect on the DB size.

thanks

[ChrisG]

I don't know the exact duration that is used for removing old cached data held in the snapshot database, but from your observation it sounds like it is likely 7 days. As far as I know, this duration is not configurable.