What appeared to be a simple task of taking a product we had already developed and wrapping replication technology around it turned out to be more than we expected, but we feel the final result is worth it. The problem we had with the original file auditing routine was the time it took to process large files and the overhead associated with it. Now with the ADLER32 CRC routine and a few file management changes we have seen a marked improvement in both the speed of processing and the associated overhead.
The new file / member level data checking should be a first pass process where any problems found can be subjected to the record level process which has a built in repair function. This should in most cases be more than enough to resolve any data corruption problems. Not that you should get any unless you have errant programs running on the target system or have users that accidentally cause corruption. Eventually the process can be changed to allow automated repair of a corrupt data segment as the process works at the file level, but at this time the users will be in control of how the file data gets repaired.
We kept basic principles of the CrcBuilder in terms of what data would be checked and how the Crc would be created (file or member level) but we have added generic support for the file and members which are to be checked as well as library and library list support. This allows a user to request audits against files which begin with ‘file*’ and have members which begin with ‘member*’ etc. If we have requests to support this in the CrcBuilder product it should be a fairly simple task to add! We have also kept all of the Crc support we had in the CrcBuilder product but will use only the ADLER32 CRC function for the record level audits.
Here are a couple of screen shots of the RAP version of the product.
The new version of RAP will be available in the near future, we had hope to announce availability by the end of this month, but with the new features we have been asked to provide this date has slipped a bit! However if you are interested in getting hold of the latest version before we make the final cut available let us know and we will see if your environment would be suitable for out BETA program.
Now it’s time to get the testing underway and do some PHP development for the new What’s On website.
Chris…