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Briefly stated, the InterSync technology is comprised of services that monitor and synchronize contents of the folders residing on file servers with the contents of the DSM database.
For each DSM attached database, the InterSync tab of the Database Monitoring and Maintenance snap-in allows you to:
Review up-to-date information about each InterSync service instance that has registered itself in the database, including the name and location of the service (e.g. “File_Server*.*File System Service”), the date and time of the last service configuration change, the date and time of the last service activity, the service status, and the number of digital resources being processed by the service.
View a detailed listing of the digital resources being processed by each service instance. For each in-process digital resource, the InterSync tab displays the DSM digital resource ID, file location, file name, file size, MetaData Service status, and the event type (added, deleted, or updated) of the most recent file system event detected for the file/folder.
View details of the digital resource processing by the InterSync components, including number of file system events that have a particular event status (e.g., “Ready”, “Done”, “Failed”).
View a detailed list of events that have a particular event status for a particular InterSync component, including, for each event, the event ID, event type (addition, deletion, or modification), date and time the event was added to the event queue, the digital resource ID, file location, file name, type of the most recent event detected for the file, and event’s status for the MetaData Service.
Set event statuses. This important and highly useful feature allows you to, for example, force the MetaData Service to reprocess events for which a previous processing attempt has failed by resetting the event status from “Failed” to “Ready”.
At the top of the InterSync tab of the Database Monitoring and Maintenance snap-in is the Registered Services listing.
This listing details each InterSync service instance which has registered itself in the DSM database, including the following information for each service:
Service Name—The service name is in the format <Server_Name>.<Service_Class>, where <Server_Name> is the location on the network from which the InterSync service is attaching to the database and <Service_Class> is the class of the InterSync services to which the particular service instance belongs (for example, File_Server.File System Service, File_Server.MetaData Service).
Last Configuration Change—This is the date and time of the last change made to the service’s configuration. An example of a service configuration change is a folder being added to the File System Service’s list of synchronized folders for the database.
Last Activity—This is the date and time of the last handler activity, for example, the File System Service detecting a file server event, or the MetaData Service thumbnailing a file.
Service Index—This is an ID number unique to the service.
Current Status—This is the current status of the service instance (“Running” or “Stopped”). If the status is “Running”, the SPID number assigned to the service instance will be displayed. SPIDs are the SQL Server process ID numbers assigned by SQL Server to each connection, and are used to ensure that multiple service instances of the same service class do not attempt to process the same digital resource at the same time.
DRs In Processing—This is the number of digital resources currently being processed by the service instance. Clicking on this column for a service instance displays detailed event information. For more information on this feature, please refer to the “Viewing the Digital Resources Being Processed by a Service” subsection below.
note: The File System Service detects file system events, and does not actually process them. For this reason, the number in the DRs In Processing column for all File System Service instances will be zero.
Viewing the Digital Resources Being Processed by a Service
Clicking on the non-zero entry (displayed in green) in the DRs In Processing column of the Registered Services listing allows you to view detailed information about the digital resources being processed by a particular service instance. The bottom of the InterSync tab will display a detailed list of the digital resources currently being processed by the specified instance.
The information displayed for each digital resource includes the following:
DR ID—This is the ID of the digital resource record in the DSM system. If the ID number is displayed in red, the digital resource record has been deleted since the addition of the request for its processing.
File Location, File Name, and Server Name—These show the location and name of the digital resource. For example, for the file My_Server/My_Volume/My_Subfolder/Sample.jpg, the File Location is “My_Volume/My_Subfolder”, the File Name is “Sample.jpg”, and the Server Name is “My_Server”.
File Type—This is the DSM system file type of the file/folder: for example, Folder, BMP, Text, Unknown*.* For more information on the file types supported by the DSM system, please refer to the “Setting Up File Types” section of this guide.
File Size—This is the size of the digital resource, in kilobytes. If the digital resource is a folder, its size will be listed as “-1”.
MDS Status—This provides information about the status of the event for the MetaData Service.
Last Event Type—This is the type of the most recent file system event detected by the File System Service for the digital resource.
Service SPID—This is the SPID of the handler. SPIDs are the SQL Server process ID numbers assigned by SQL Server to each connection, and are used to ensure that multiple service instances of the same service class do not attempt to process the same digital resource at the same time.
Reviewing Digital Resource Processing Activity
The Digital Resource Processing Activity listing displayed in the middle of the InterSync tab details the state of the digital resource processing for the database. The listing summarizes information for all InterSync services that have registered themselves in the database.
The rows of the listing represent the components of the InterSync technology that are responsible for processing requests for adding, updating and deleting digital resource records in the database:
MetaData Service/Digital Resources Classificator—This is the component of the MetaData Service that is activated after the addition/modification of a file/folder has taken place and is responsible for assigning roles to digital resources and recording them in the database. For more information on digital resource classification, refer to the “Defining Digital Resource Classification for a DSM Database” section of this guide.
MetaData Service/Thumbnailer—This is the component of the MetaData Service that is activated after the addition/modification of a file/folder has taken place and is responsible for obtaining file information (including an up-to-date thumbnail, extended preview, and basic file information, such as file size, type, date created, etc.) and recording it in the database.
Digital Resource Deleter—This is the component of the File System Service that recognizes the deletion of files/folders from the file server(s) and removes the corresponding digital resource records from the database.
The columns of the listing represent the following event statuses:
Ready—This status is assigned to those file system events are currently awaiting their turn to be processed by a particular InterSync component.
Processing Started—This status is assigned to those file system events that are currently being processed by a particular InterSync component.
Done and Failed—These statuses are assigned to those file system events that have been processed either successfully or with failure by a particular InterSync component.
Each entry of the Digital Resource Processing Activity listing displays the number of file system events that have the status specified by the column for the InterSync component specified by the row.
If the entry is displayed as “n/a”, the event status is not registered for the component.
Viewing Events and Setting Event Statuses
Clicking on non-zero entries (displayed in blue) in the Digital Resources Processing Activity listing allows you to view detailed information about file system events processed by the InterSync components.
The bottom of the InterSync tab will display a detailed listing of the file system events that have the specified status for the specified InterSync component. For example, the heading of the listing might be “Digital Resource Processing Activity for MetaData Service/Thumbnailer, Event Status:Done”.
The information displayed for each file system event includes the following:
Event ID—This is the event’s unique ID assigned by the DSM system and recorded in the database.
Event Type—There are three possible file system events: added (a file/folder was added to the file system), updated (a file/folder has been updated in the file system), and deleted (a file/folder has been removed from the file system).
Date and Time—These are the date and time, respectively, when the event was registered in the database’s event queue.
DR ID—This is the ID of the digital resource record that was processed by the specified InterSync component. If the ID number is displayed in red, the digital resource record has been deleted since the addition of the file system event in the event queue.
File Location, File Name, and Server Name—These show the location and name of the physical file/folder in which the event has been detected. For example, for the file My_Server/My_Volume/My_Subfolder/Sample.jpg, the File Location is “My_Volume/My_Subfolder”, the File Name is “Sample.jpg”, and the Server Name is “My_Server”.
File Type—This is the DSM system file type of the file/folder: for example, Folder, BMP, Text, Unknown. For more information on file types supported by DSM, refer to the “Setting Up File Types” section of this guide.
Last Event_—_This is the most recent file system event detected for the file/folder. For example, if a large batch of files were added at one time and one of the files were updated before its “added” event could be processed, the “added” event would have “updated” in the Last Event column.
MDS Status—This provides information about the status of the event for the MetaData Service.
The event listing also allows you to change event statuses. This is useful when, for example, you wish to force the MetaData Service/Thumbnailer component to attempt to reprocess a file/folder for which a previous processing attempt has failed.
To change the event status of a subset of the displayed events, select the appropriate events, then click the appropriate Set to <Status> button.
To select an event, check the checkbox in the Set column for the event.
To select all displayed events, check the Apply to All check box. After the event statuses are changed, the numbers in the Event Activity listing will be updated.
note: The ability to change event statuses is not available for all handler types, and events of a particular status cannot necessarily be changed to those of another status. One of the handler types for which statuses may be set is the MetaData Service handler type. The four MetaData Service statuses may be changed to other statuses as shown in the figure below.
