We are trying to use Orion to determine data provisioning. Currently, it holds a year's worth of data but we would like to go back at least 3 for future planning purposes. Is there a way to adjust this setting?
Default database retention settings - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support
(refer to the graphic at the bottom of the page)
Note the disclaimer: We strongly recommend you should never touch the below default Database Settings unless you are sure you do need to change.
Note that the Daily Statistics Retention in the above URL is set for 365. Note that it can be changed. Note the disclaimer.
To add some context to d09h's comment.
By default the system holds 7 days of detailed stats, then averages those details stats into hourly values that are held for 30 days, then averages the hourly stats into daily stats that it holds for 365 days.
Tripling these values would have a proportional effect on the total size of your database, and can generally make the application more sluggish as the page loads and reports will have to comb through larger data sets.
I find that in many cases the daily average stats arent of very much use for year over year planning anyway because I would respond to a server that stays at a solid 25% utilization very differently than if the server was running 100% for 6 hours and 0% the rest of the day. Both will show as 25% for a daily average though and I would need additional info to make those calls.
So to be useful I usually need at least the hourly data, but extending the hourly data for 3 years would be a major increase in the db size and pretty much guaranteed have application performance impacts. Your hardware may be able to cope, it may not. Depends mostly on how fast your storage is, and to a lesser degree on the power behind your main orion server. With all of that said, what most people do if they need to do reporting like this and they dont have the hardware to support the longer retention periods is to build scheduled reports of the stats they care about that run every month/quarter/year (however long their system can retain the more granular data while still having acceptable performance). You can have these saved in excel files if you want to be able to manipulate the raw data down the line.
Then when you need to do those year over year estimates you just compare the data in the spreadsheets and it has no negative impact on the performance of the live system.
If you prefer you can use a second database to periodically archive over the stats you need for your projections and use sql or whatever you like to work with that "cold" data set just to do those year over year reports there, once again without impacting the live performance of Solarwinds.
-Marc Netterfield
Loop1 Systems: SolarWinds Training and Professional Services
Marc,
Thank you and d09h. This was exactly the information I was looking for. Hope you both have a great week!
Will Morris
Systems Administrator
(850) 523-7480
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. This communication may contain material that is privileged, attorney work product, or protected from disclosure under applicable law. If you have received this message in error , or are not the NAMED recipient (s), please (1) be advised that any use , dissemination, forwarding, printing or copying of this email is STRICTLY PROHIBITED and (2) immediately delete the message from your computer and notify me at the above phone number/address. Thank you.
