X-no-Archive:yes

Not knowing your environment (production/development/etc), I cannot be
certain as to what is eating up your disk; however, I can take a swag
(Scientific Wild-A** Guess):

1. Do you have all system logging events turned on?  Certain events such as
logging file opens/closes can generate tens of thousands of logging records
in a few minutes in a heavily-used production environment.

2. How about TurboIMAGE logging?  Do you periodically store your data bases
and reset the log files?

3. Speaking of TurboIMAGE data bases, have you checked the capacities of
your data sets?  Remember that TurboIMAGE allocates *all* of the disk space
when you run DBUTIL,CREATE based upon the data sets' capacities.  If you
have a data set defined with a capacity of, say, 1,000,000 entries and you
have only a few hundred entries there, you're wasting a lot of space!!

4. If you're in a development environment, do you periodically review
development accounts for old and obsolete files/programs/etc?  Programmers
(and I'm just as guilty!!) are famous for creating large test files and
then leaving them on the system for YEARS!

These are just but a few things off the top of my head that you can look at
when reviewing disk usage.  It's a pain in the keyster, but reviewing disk
utilization is something that a system administrator has to do periodically
(probably because no one else wants to!!).  Buying a new system may make
things run much faster; however, it also means that you will fill up your
disk drives that much more quickly!!!

There are a few utilities that you can buy (or download for free) that will
compress files and save you millions of sectors.  We use Compression
Storage Manager from SolutionSoft, Inc. and it works quite well in
squeezing down files.  One of its neat features is that it will decompress
files "on the fly" if they are opened.  I don't have the phone number or
fancy URL handy, but if you email me privately at
"[log in to unmask]", I can get you the information on Monday.  A
freebie that you can download is the LZW compression utility.  I can also
get you the site you can go to to download this program.

What really scares me is your statement that it takes "at least a week" to
get a file or files from archival storage.  That will certainly ruin your
day if you suffer a disk failure and HP tells you that your only option is
to "reinstall the system".  I would not like to be in the position to tell
my users or (gulp!) management that the system will be down for more than a
week because it will take that long to get the archival tape(s) and
reinstall all files.  Also, if you are filling up disks as rapidly as you
state, a reinstall of the system will take a LONG time.

I strongly recommend that you analyze how your disks are filling up and
develop a procedure to mitigate the problem.  Take it to your management
and insist or at least urge them to publish a disk utilization and file
archival policy and then enforce that policy.  And, for your own peace of
mind, get the archival tapes in a protected environment CLOSER TO YOU
because on the day you least expect to use them, you'll need them!!

Best of luck!!!

Tom Madigan
SE Pennsylvania

"My opinions are strictly my own.  Who else would want 'em?"

Spammers beware!!  The return address is fake ... so don't waste your time!!

At 08:32 PM 4/7/99 GMT, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>Fellow MPE'ers:
>
>I need some assistance. Our MPE box is low on disk space (again). Every month
>it seems we have to go out and buy more space. I think we need a larger box
>but management won't fork over the cash. They seem content on just purchasing
>more disk space to solve the problem. I don't see our disk needs going in the
>other direction anytime soon and it is eating up my hardware budget.
>Moreover, the way things work now is that we archive things off site. If
>someone needs to retrieve something contained on an archived tape, it takes
>at least a week to locate it and get it to the appropriate parties. Sometimes
>they can't even find it! It just seems like there should be an easier way to
>handle disk space concerns and archiving. Any suggestions would be
>appreciated and long over due. Thank you...
>
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