Attachment snapshot

This Attachments snapshot function has been provided under System>Utilities>Information>Attachment snapshot to analyse the attachments in a RefTracker instance as to which can be content indexed and how much disk space will be required as a result of licencing and implementing the Attachment Content Searching module (see more information about this at parameter 80.40).  It generates two tables, the first of which lists all attachments that are Content indexable, and the second lists all other attachments. 

The file size information is updated by the housekeeping if not already determined. Attachments are stored in the RefTracker/attachments directories and the total of tables 1 and 2 will be the total space being taken up by those directories (which is often a high proportion of the disk space being used by RefTracker).

The table1 file size information is important planning information for an IT department planning to implement the Attachment Content Searching module, as the total indicated in the first table is the amount of additional disk space that will be required on the SQL server for the attachments that will be indexed as a result of implementing that module.  For this reason it is also used to calculate the cost of the Attachment Content Searching module for hosted customers.  The space indicated in table 1, plus a small amount of additional space for headers and the like, will be required in an area designated for FileStream storage (which can be on a separate disk on the SQL server).
Further, a full text index is generated from these files and the full text index for the content of these attachments will also be large – as a rough sizing guideline presume that the size will be 15% of total size of the files show in in table 1.  To obtain the actual size of the full test indexes (once they have been generated), use:
SELECT
   [table] = OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(table_id) + ‘.’ + OBJECT_NAME(table_id),
   size_in_KB = CONVERT(DECIMAL(12,2), SUM(data_size/1024.0)),size_in_MB = CONVERT(DECIMAL(12,2), SUM(data_size/(1024.0 * 1024.0)))
FROM sys.fulltext_index_fragments
— WHERE table_id = OBJECT_ID(‘dbo.specific_table_name’)
 GROUP BY table_id;

Attachments are viewed from the copy of the attachment in the RefTracker directory structure, so viewing attachments does not impact on SQL server performance.

For those with the Attachment Content Searching module, a housekeeping function runs every four hours to ensure that the latest attachment contents are being included in the FILESTREAM index. Limitations on that housekeeping routine will ensure any files due for reindexing that are not included in a housekeeping run due to the load being large enough to impact performance, will be included in the next housekeeping run.  This means that it may take several housekeeping runs before all Attachment contents that need to be uploaded to the SQL server and indexed, have been uploaded and indexed.