DVS files vs CAB files

[MikeM-2468]

It's my understanding that closed vault stores should contain mostly CAB files and that DVS files get created when a user accesses email that has been archived.  I've got an awful lot of DVS files.  Should these be getting put back into CAB files after a period of time?  Using EV 8.0 SP2.

[MichelZ]

Hi

So you have got collections enabled on that closed partition?

How old are the DVS files?

What is the setting for the age of DVS files until a CAB is created?

Cheers

[MikeM-2468]

It appears that collections are enabled.  The check box is greyed out, but there are times set.  Start at 10AM, end at 10AM.

I've got DVS files over 5 years old. 

It's set to collect files over 10 days old.

[JesusWept3]

There is a minimum amount of DVS files that need to be in a CAB file to make it worth it
So for instance you wouldn't see a CAB file be created that would store only one DVS file in it, as that would defeat the purpose

However as you pointed out, start time is 10am, and end time is 10am, so it literally has 0 seconds to run, therefor no cab files will be created and adversely no ArchDVS files will be deleted

[MichelZ]

Yes, I suspect the same as JesusWept2, give it more time to collect the DVS files, and it will do it ;)

[MikeM-2468]

Is there any downside to allowing the collections to occur?

[JesusWept3 · Accepted solution]

well it might be worth trying to find out why it was set to run the same time, most people do it because they have run in to trouble in the past, such as a database failure, and to get the items back in to the database (prior to EV8) you would have to uncollect all the CAB files

Plus if a cab file corrupts (which happens on occasion) you lose access to all the items the CAB file contains which can be 100+ items in some circumstances.

The benefits of making sure collections run is 
 
- Cleans up ArchDVS files properly
Any time you access a DVS file contained in a CAB file, it extracts it out to an ArchDVS on the disk, Arch denoting that it has been Archived/Collected, its then up to the Collections process to delete those archdvs files, if Collections is not allowed to run though, they just consume more disk space

- Allows Sparse Collections and Expiry to take place etc
If you have storage expiry set to run but you have collections also, those items aren't fully deleted until a certain point in a CAB files life time, however with collections not allowed to run fully, you may end up having a lot of data stored when it does not need to be and should have been deleted.

- Potentially increases your backup speeds
If you have 10MB worth of DVS files (hundreds in some cases), its quicker to backup one large 10MB cab file than hundreds of small files that amount to 10MB, this is the whole purpose and reason for people using collections

In some other circumstances, you may have or want to use NetBackup Migration (i personally wouldn't recommend it but there are plenty of companies that use it) and migration will not push across single DVS files, it will only migrate CAB files

I wrote more about the Collections and sparse collections process here:
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/how-collections-and-sparse-collections-work