OroTimesheet 4.x (English)
OroTimesheet 4.x (French)

When using OroTimesheet in day-to-day operation, the database is sometimes subjected to events that pose minor problems to the database structures. These events include:

- Abnormal termination of OroTimesheet or InterBase application.

- Write errors in the operating system or hardware.

- Hardware failures.


OroTimesheet 4 database (InterBase 6) has a parameter called "Forced Writes". By default, this parameter is set to "No" (See note at the end of this document). When this parameter is set to "No" for a specific database, when writes are performed to the database (by example when users add timesheets), the data may not be physically written to the disk, since operating systems buffer disk writes.

Setting the "Forced Writes" parameter to "No" accelerates database writes access. However, if the computer where the database is located have a system failure (as indicated above) before the data is written to disk by the operating system, the information can be lost.

When the computer where the database is located have protection (such as UPS), risks to corrupt database are reduced.

On the other hand, when the "Forced Writes" parameter is set to "Yes" for a specific database, this ensures a better data integrity (since operating systems don't buffer disk writes) but can slow performance. In particular, operations which involve data modification are slower. (Note that operating systems can use other methods to accelerate disk access non controllable by InterBase).

If OroTimesheet database is located on a computer and this computer have protection (such as UPS, Raid, etc.) the risks the computer crash are reduced. So, configuring the "Forced Writes" parameter to "No" will give you better performances.

On the other hand, if the database is located on a computer and this computer does'nt have any protection or the risks this computer crash are higher (by example, when this computer is used as workstation instead of server, the risks this computer crash are higher because Windows or any application can freeze and a cold reset can be necessary), its recommended to set the "Forced Writes" parameter to "Yes".

How to change the "Forced Writes" parameter for a database:

If INTERBASE is installed on a LINUX server, you need to have the "Super Server" version of INTERBASE installed on your LINUX server to be able to use the "Database utility" mentionned in the procedure bellow. If you have the "Classic Server" version of INTERBASE installed on your LINUX server, refer to the "Operations Guide" manual in the INTERBASE documentation to use the "gfix" command line utility instead of the "Database utility"

Before beginning, be sure that nobody access the OroTimesheet 4 database.

1- Run the "Database utility" included with OroTimesheet 4.

2- Select the "Configuration" tab.

3- Type the password of the InterBase user "SYSDBA" into the "Password" field. (If you did not changed the password of the InterBase user "SYSDBA", the default password is "masterkey")

4- Click on the top right button (button on the right side of the "On a remote server" radio button) to display the list of connections.

5- Select the connection to the database you want to configure and click the "OK" buton.

6- Click on the "Display database configuration" button to get the database configuration.

7- After the configuration has been displayed, change the "Forced Writes" parameter to "Yes" or "No" from the drop down list.

8- Click the "Save configuration changes" button to save your changes.

9- Quit the utility.

Note: After step 8, you can click the "Display database configuration" button again to verify that your change has been saved.

Information

Note that this FAQ applies only to the version 4.04 or higher of OroTimesheet. If you don't have the version 4.04 or higher of OroTimesheet, you can download it immediately from the downloads section of our web site.

Note that since version 4.05, the parameter "Forced Writes" of the database included with OroTimesheet has now the value of "Yes". However, if you began to use OroTimesheet with a version prior to 4.05, probably that the "Forced Writes" parameter of your database has still the value of "No" even if you upgraded the software to version 4.05 or higher.