Tip of the Day 4: FTP and Server Overflow


As most of you know the eDART™ can be configured to periodically copy its process data up to a file server. This is useful for backup and to make the analyzer work much faster. However, if the customer saves all of his data all of the time the eDARTs can copy quite a lot of data to the server. We estimate 50 – 60 megabytes per day per eDART is typical.


When a server fills up it tends to fail to function at all. If it is doing other work for the customer or if the eDART data is very important then such a failure becomes a major catastrophe. This has happened at several customers.


The servers that RJG has sold to customers (now the "eDART Data Manager") have a program running all the time (a “service” in Microsoftspeak) that prevents the overflow of the server. It is called “File Cleanup”. If customers are sending eDART data to a server that we did not sell or configure then they have been expected to develop their own method of regularly cleaning the data off the server. If they have not done so then they are at risk for a server crash.


If you know of such a customer or hear of the problem we can help them install our “File Cleanup” service on their server. We do not have it available as a public product at this time.